2 minute read
Women’s Club Back Together Once Again, Supporting Our Cathedral Parish and Community
Many of us spent more than a year separated from extended family and friends. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we may have taken these things for granted. However, we now realize that time with others, in person, is truly a gift. The Holy Family Cathedral Women’s Club feels blessed to be able to get together and share in this gift once again.
“It was exciting and really great to see the ladies that I haven’t seen in a full year,” says Ann Owen, who leads the Women’s Club. “It was nice to see faces again. It was kind of like coming home.”
Advertisement
Folks gathering at the Mardi Gras event
The mission of the Women’s Club is to “promote spiritual and social fellowship as well as Catholic education to the women attending Holy Family Cathedral, Tulsa, Oklahoma; to lend support to the rector, parish, diocese, and the community; and to assist whenever needed at the Cathedral.”
The group started meeting again this past March and read the minutes from the most recent meeting, over a year ago in March 2020. They meet on the first Thursday of every school year month, excluding January, following the 12:05 p.m. Mass in the newly remodeled auditorium.
Like so many other groups, the Women’s Club’s events and fundraisers were canceled in 2020. The women hope to have some of their fundraisers in 2021. Besides supporting our priests, the parish, and school needs, their fundraising efforts support many important organizations in Tulsa and beyond, including the Catholic Education Endowment Fund, Catholic Charities, Madonna House, Meals on Wheels, the Tulsa Diocesan Council of Catholic Women, the National Council of Catholic Women, DaySpring Villa in Sand Springs, the St. Philip Neri Newman Student Center at the University of Tulsa, Day Center for the Homeless, and the Council of Catholic Women Priest Retirement Fund.
(From left) Anne Sellars and Cathy Caldwell serving as cashiers at the garage sale
The club members raise money by assisting at the Lenten dinners, the annual Mardi Gras event, funeral dinners, memorial Masses, and any other needs that arise at the Cathedral.
To offer their support for local university students, the women make a meal for the University of Tulsa Newman Center students about twice per year. This year’s meal was a salad meal, which women dropped off to be shared by students on Good Friday.
The Women’s Club Baby Shower Luncheon in support of Madonna House
Ann has been involved in the Women’s Club for more than 30 years. Her mother, Jean Caldwell, was an active member, and Ann has carried the tradition forward.
“I just love the community, getting together with the other ladies and sharing prayers,” Ann says. “I love being involved, and I hope we can do some of those usual activities again.”
As Ann notes, it’s important to have a community of people who are there for you. Members of the Women’s Club can lean on each other in times of need. The group even has a prayer line of members, so when they are looking for a job, or if someone is ill, they can offer support for one another in prayer.
“The Cathedral is a big place,” Ann says. “To get to know others is so nice. It’s wonderful to know the person sitting across the aisle from you.”
(From left) Paulette Barnes, Jane Sloan and Jean Caldwell at the Mardi Gras event
Baby shower gifts collected for Madonna House.
