Perhaps you’ve heard of the term "Family of Parishes". But what does that mean anyways? 

The parishes in the Diocese of London, began a journey some years ago to better welcome and form disciples of Jesus.  This was certainly spurred on by the smaller number of priests available to serve, but also was a great rallying cry for all parishioners, all the Baptised, to recognise our call to be Missionary Disciples. Being a missionary church means to "get out of our comfort zones" and to find new ways to share the Good News of Jesus with our family, friends, co-workers, and the communities of Windsor, Tecumseh and Lakeshore. We are called to go out and share Jesus in how we live and act, rather than to keep our Faith as something private or only for our own sense of peace.

To do this, we work together as four parishes, all with their own unique identity, to share ideas, strategies, tools and resources. Instead of working independently, we will work together as a family, better focused on building disciples and welcoming new people. We believe we can work better together.

On Monday, January 4^th, Bishop Fabbro announced our inaguration as a Family of Parishes would be on July 5^th, 2021. St-Jérôme, Ste. Anne, Good Shepherd and St. Simon & St. Jude, Belle came together to form the Windsor-Lake St. Clair Catholic Family of Parishes. Fr. Patrick Bénéteau was named the Pastor of the family. The Associate Pastors, Deacons, Lay Ecclesial Ministers and staff from all the parishes collaborate together for the good of the whole family. 

Beginning in January, a transition team comprised of two representatives from each Parish Councils, along with members of the various parish staffs and pastoral teams began assisting Fr. Patrick in the creation of our Family of Parishes. There is much work that lies ahead of us before July, and so please keep all of us in prayer as the Holy Spirit guides us in proclaiming the Gospel in this new missionary model of parish life. We will continue to keep you updated, throughout the upcoming months, as to the work of the transition team and how all of us can become involved in this journey of our parish communities. 

We firmly believe we work #BetterTogether to bring Jesus to the world!