All of those ministries have likewise participated in the “wearing out” and the “out-growing” of our parish facilities and property and they have now reached the limit of our ability to expand this great work on behalf of Christ in the church. Our new Parish life Center will expand our capacity to prepare meals in the new kitchen, to host planning meetings in our multiple meeting rooms, to welcome community members in for worship, food and fellowship, to do fundraising to support the poor. And so much more.
In 2009 we were serving approximately 60 hot meals a month at two different sites in inner city Cleveland and distributing monthly food baskets to 45 families in our family aid society. Today our “feeding the hungry“ ministry serves 1350 hot meals every month, 15,000 a year at seven different sites. We have expanded our food distribution to include a monthly fresh vegetable distribution in North Royalton. Our parish fish fries have become the funding source for our feeding the hungry ministry.
In 2011, our yearly Peru medical missions shifted to the Diocesan El Salvador mission. In 2016 we added a water treatment mission team to the El Salvador ministry. Those two mission efforts engage at least 20 people annually and spend upwards of $10,000.
Our vision 2020, “+ONE: Holy, Kind, Giving!” calls us to expand our sense of solidarity with not only the people in El Salvador but to local communities that were unfamiliar to us. We began a deepening friendship with the largely Hispanic community of Saint Michael the Archangel on Scranton Avenue in Cleveland. Dozens of our parishioners are engaged in various activities, exchanges, youth activities, and grant writing projects for the benefit of Saint Michael. Last year alone our team successfully helped Saint Michael gain an $81,000 grant for the development of their faith formation and their care for the hungry and the poor.
The remaining justice and compassion ministries have concerned themselves with those who are in need because of age, isolation, loneliness, etc. Elderly parishioners, newborn infants, inner-city children in after school programs, share a meal efforts, bereavement luncheons after funerals, home helpers for the elderly, and so many more.
Bishop Pilla is often quoted to have said “the Christian character of any community is revealed in its care of the least in our midst“. On that standard, St. Albert the Great is revealed daily as a deeply generous community of the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Our “Building Faith: A New Generation” project is our response to the call to be the light of Christ in the world, to expand our sense of welcome here and our capacity to do good in the world. Let’s build faith!