When the furnaces at St. Gertrude Roman Catholic Parish in Pelican Narrows exploded, members of Moose Jaw’s St. Joseph Parish jumped into action to support their northern neighbour.
The church’s social justice committee (SJC) decided to hold a bottle drive fundraiser, which netted them $900. However, the money continued to roll in from the Catholic community as individuals and groups contributed more after learning about their partner parish’s plight.
Those additional donations amounted to nearly $8,000, and with almost $2,000 sitting in an account dedicated to helping St. Gertrude, the social justice committee sent $10,000 to the primarily Indigenous parish.
Raising that amount of money is tremendous, especially since the Knights of Columbus provided nearly half the funding and parishioners rallied around the cause, said SJC chairman Kyle Lichtenwald.
“The people are so generous at St. Joseph’s. They’re generous and they’re caring and they just really stepped up,” he remarked. “So I’m really proud to say I’m a member of that church and I’m proud to say I’m a member of that community.”
St. Gertrude was forced to hold its services in its small hall until the new furnaces could be installed. However, the parish was forced to take out a $30,000 loan to pay for the repairs because of how remote Pelican Narrows is and the fact a specialized company — only one business bid on the quote request — from the south had to be hired.
Lichtenwald noted that St. Joseph’s contribution will cover one-third of the loan while it will continue to send other donations it receives for this initiative.
“We just want to help pay off that loan as fast as possible. We know that they aren’t a rich parish,” he said. “There isn’t a whole lot of money for an emergency need like this.”
Both parishes have had a relationship for more than a decade, with members from the northern church having visited Moose Jaw three times and St. Joseph members bringing up needed supplies such as winter clothing and Easter bags filled with items like toiletries, said Lichtenwald.
“They let us know what would be helpful to them, so it’s not like we’re imposing these things on them or saying we’ll do this for them,” he continued. “We say, ‘How can we help?’”
When St. Gertrude parishioners come, they teach their Moose Jaw friends what life is like in northern Saskatchewan and on the nearby Peter Ballantyne Cree Reserve and how important the church is to that community.
“As part of the social justice committee, we just see this relationship as really a reconciliation process (and) for us to be working with these people with different backgrounds than us and learning their story,” the SJC chairman said.
The SJC is still fundraising to help pay off the loan and plans to hold an event sometime in January. The committee is still working out the details, but the event could be held in St. Joseph’s parish hall and feature a meal catered by a church family.
Meanwhile, the committee plans to make Christmas donations to help several places this season, such as the food bank, the Salvation Army, Riverside Mission and Phoenix Academy, and continue its support for the church’s development and peace program through the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Lichtenwald added that the committee also participates in The Chalice Program, which is the Catholic version of World Vision, where parishes can adopt a person or family for Christmas.
Anyone interested in supporting the committee’s furnace project or other initiatives can contact St. Joseph Parish at 306-694-1944 or Kyle Lichtenwald at 306-631-3137.
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