Highlights from May 6th Meeting

Thanks to our gracious host, Jesse Gardner, we were able to meet at Unsung Heroes Gallery in Philadelphia for a very important meeting this past Friday night. It's hard to find words to adequately express how incredibly positive it all was. It was a transformative evening for many of us there. The meeting started with round-robin introductions. What happened was more than a sharing of names as each person shared their heartfelt stories of how they were connected to St. Laurentius and other similarly afflicted parishes, like St. Joachim. The common message that linked each of those unique stories was one of love and devotion to their parishes, some spanning generations. Those introductions took a considerable amount of time, but time passed quickly as we all hung one another's words. Each story struck a common chord within all of us. And when we were finished, we no longer felt like strangers, after sharing stories of baptisms and funerals, heartache and joy, we felt intimately connected. After introductions were complete, we unveiled our business plan which we developed as a way to save the interior while we wait to hear from Rome regarding the Vatican appeal. Should that appeal fail, this business plan gives us a very strong Plan B and would allow the church to complete its own renovations within a short amount of time and maintain itself long term. And since the ultimate goal of this petition and the fight to save the church was to reopen St. Laurentius' doors for prayer, as part of the business plan the church would host open houses so that former parishioners could come inside to reflect and pray. We acknowledge that this is not a full victory, but we do believe that having the space available for prayer needs to be part of its mission moving forward regardless. At the end of the night, we rediscovered something profound that we all already knew, the beauty of this church goes deeper than its stone and plaster; the community this church forged is the true treasure and this building is their keystone. "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Matthew 19:6 You can help us save our sacred space by sharing our petition online and helping us spread the word. Please spread the word! Graphic/ Image credit: Tim Colfer