The Parish Unification Committee: Building Community and Coming Together in Christ

In a year of social distancing, building parish community became more difficult — and yet, more important — than ever. Thankfully, Christ taught us that faith and love know no bounds. With this spirit of unity in mind, our Parish Unification Committee continues to explore ways Corpus Christi can make our parish family a welcome place for everyone following the full consolidation into one parish community after the closure of Holy Family Site.

Jim Knott currently serves as the chair of this committee, which is an offshoot of the Parish Council. Jim married his wife, Stella, in our parish in 1970 and joined the parish shortly after. About five years ago, he experienced a spiritual awakening at a Christ Renews His Parish retreat. He was inspired to get more involved in his faith life and, since then, has been active in several ministries. With a great love for the people in our faith community, Jim is happy to serve on the Parish Unification Committee.

While the pandemic has curtailed some plans — the committee is still moving forward to make the consolidation a success implementing all priorities of excellent liturgy, education, evangelization and engagement of the whole parish community.

“We haven’t been able to have that closure, so we are working to come up with ways we can reach out and ask our brethren to come together with us,” Jim says. “We reached out to older individuals calling them personally to be sure they are doing okay and to let them know we sincerely care about them as members of our church community.”

The committee hopes the transition will be further eased by incorporating some of the Holy Family artifacts into the Corpus Christi site, allowing parishioners coming from Holy Family to find familiarity and comfort in seeing a part of their past here in their new faith home.

As Jim reminds us, the more that parishioners become involved in life at Corpus Christi, the more they will feel connected to the community and joyfully unified as the body of Christ.

“The church is us — the whole community, it’s not just the hierarchy, it’s we the parishioners who are led by the priests,” he says. “The building is a site where we meet together, but it’s not the most important thing. The most important is worshiping God together as unified souls.”

By turning to the Lord for inspiration, we are sure to find not only unity, but true fraternity and family spirit right here at Corpus Christi.

“It’s putting ourselves into Christ’s mindset and thinking of others more important as we move forward, instead of our own personal wants and needs,” Jim says. “If we open up our hearts, we will come forward to what God wants for us. My goal is to see us unified, coming together for our overall purpose.”

Stella and Jim Knott