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Marriage And Family Life Ministry: Upholding The Foundations Of Our Church Community
Strong families are a source of life and love — and for us as Catholics, marriage and family are the foundations upon which our Church community is built. Our parish’s Marriage and Family Life Ministry — working in tandem with the national Worldwide Marriage Encounter (WWME) organization — provides ongoing growth and development for couples and families through enrichment, fellowship, support, and spiritual formation.
“Our tag line is ‘Strong Marriages, Strong Families, Strong Communities,’” says ministry coordinator Linda Lewandowski. “That’s what it’s all about.”
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The ministry originated in 2018 as an initiative within the West Hawaii Vicariate to provide marriage enrichment programs for married couples on the Big Island, as opposed to having couples travel to Oahu or Maui. Annunciation was one of the first parishes to partner with WWME to host a one-day Marriage Enrichment session that same year — the following year, the parish hosted a full Marriage Encounter weekend.
“Participation in enrichment events helps couples with good marriages develop even stronger relationships between themselves, their family members, and their faith,” Linda says. “The format of the enrichments allows couples to hear other couples describe their experiences as well as learn about new tools they can use to improve their communication.”
After couples have attended a Marriage Encounter, they are given the opportunity to continue growing with other Encountered couples in sharing groups. These groups meet on a monthly basis and provide ongoing support for their marriage relationship, family life, and relationships with others around them.
“Monthly gatherings of couples over time build a solid community that can learn from each other, support each other, as well as become a strong force within our parish community — we become like a family,” says Linda, whose sharing group is called the Red Hot Lavas. “Prayer is always a huge component. We ask our couples to pray for other couples going through the same experience, and we’ve gotten great participation through that.”
As interest in these programs grew, Annunciation moved forward to define and formalize the launch of the parish’s Marriage and Family Life Ministry, or M&FL, in the fall of 2019. The ministry’s goal is to expand beyond Marriage Encounters and Enrichments to provide a continual focus on strengthening marriage and family life. The ministry officially kicked off at the beginning of 2020, outlining three main areas — marriage preparation and enrichment, family life challenges (known as Real Life Ohana within the ministry), and family enrichment. While two Encounter weekends were planned for 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, forced these events to go virtual. Nonetheless, as the pandemic continued, the ministry did not skip a beat.
“The WWME community in Hawaii was able to rapidly shift gears to provide the events in a professional and engaging manner for our parish couples,” Linda says. “We launched a sixevent mini-series of online enrichments, which included everyday family life issues like finances, children and handling disagreements. Six couples participated and it turned out to be a good and fun experience. Fr. Tony kicked off each session with a prayer and stayed with us throughout the series, even though he was new to the parish.”
In early 2021, the ministry held a series of virtual Enrichments and Encounter Experiences. These events were also structured to include couples seeking to have their civil marriages convalidated in the Catholic Church, which required much advanced planning and coordination with WWME, the vicariate, and the diocese. Bishop Larry Silva will preside at a convalidation ceremony at St. Michael’s in Kona on June 5. This past April, the ministry also hosted two Zoom sessions in partnership with the Hawaii Catholic Conference, covering a Catholic approach to prolonged medical care, treatment, pain relief, Advanced Health Care Directive, and moral teachings associated with end-of-life issues. The ministry hopes to be able to schedule in-person family enrichment activities and events once COVID restrictions are lifted and it is safe to do so.
The M&FL Ministry can always use an extra hand to help coordinate its activities, and all are invited to get involved as much or as little as they are able.
“Strong marriages, families, and communities are the foundation of every parish and the whole Church worldwide. If we don’t have that, then we don’t have a Church,” Linda says. “When someone volunteers to help out, they of course make an impact at the family level and the parish level. This then leads to stronger families and communities, and that allows them to make a direct impact on the larger world.”
