Brothers and Sisters in Faith:

One of the most important missions of any Catholic parish is the religious education of its young people. In the last few years, we have seen our Parish Religious Education @'RE) program grow. In 2007-2008, for example, we served more than 200 children from Grades 1 through 12. Given the small number of classrooms - and their relatively small size - we can no longer have classes for all ages at the same time. For the past three years, we have been struggling to operate a program on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings - struggling because both evenings require teachers and other adequate adult supervision, as well as the commitment of parents who are often pressed to get their children to class on time. While evening classes work well with the older students, we have found that many of the younger children - already tired from a full day at school - find it difficult to concentrate from 6:30-8:OOpm. In addition, as gas prices have risen, many parents have made the difficult choice to travel here only one time a week - bringing their children to PRE but not always to Sunday Mass. Almost one-half of our PRE students do not attend Sunday Mass on a regular basis. , As you might imagine, it is difficult to teach a faith so deeply rooted in the celebration of the Eucharist if the children have such little experience with the Eucharist.
 

In response to this need, we have decided to follow the example of the vast majority of Catholic parishes in our diocese and return many of our PRE classes to Sunday morning. Beginning in September of this year, children from Grades 1 through 6 will attend class on Sunday mornings from 11:l5am - 12: 15pm. To accommodate this change, I have requested and received from the Most Reverend Bishop permission to move our Noon Sunday Mass to 12:30pm. Students and their families may attend the 10:OOam Mass in English and stay for PRE, or they may arrive at 1 I : 1 5am for PRE and stay for the 12:30pm Mass in Spanish. It is our fervent hope that families strapped by rising fuel costs will now be able to both educate their children and worship with the parish community around the table of the Lord.

As we are still limited by the size of our building, it will continue to be necessary for our older students - Grades 7 through 12 - to meet in the evening. These grades will now meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:30pm-8:OOprn.W e hope that by focusing this evening exclusively on junior and senior high students, we might be able to offer them more age-appropriate faith experiences.

I understand and appreciate that this new schedule will be more convenient for some parents but will require sacrifices on the part of others. I thank you in advance for your commitment to your child's faith development both in PRE and at Sunday Mass. If you should have any questions, or if this change means that you wish to withdraw your child/children from our PRE program, please visit the Church Office after Mass or call 901-372-1364.

[signed]

Rev. Robert W. Marshall, Jr.

Pastor