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Social Ministry Collaboration Builds Bridges

May 1, 2023

From the Office for Social Ministry

Many parish communities in our diocese are already actively building bridges to life through social ministry. During a recent Leeward Oahu Vicariate meeting at St Jude’s parish, participants opened their talk story session with a reflection from Pope Francis’s Fratelli Tutti Prayer to the Creator about “common projects and shared dreams.” The gathering shared how they collaboratively face and overcome challenges in their efforts to continue nourishing families and communities on Oahu. Pastors spoke of how their volunteers and staff kept their food ministries alive (especially during the darkest days of the pandemic) by sharing their surplus food, including fresh produce, with all the vicariate parish food pantries. The vicariate collaborative social ministry includes the parishes of St. Joseph in Waipahu, Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Immaculate Conception in Ewa Beach, St. Jude in Kapolei, St. Rita in Nanakuli, and Sacred Heart in Waianae. Together, they publish a comprehensive list of all the vicariate’s food pantries dates and times of services on a parish website www.immaculateconceptionewa.org/leeward-area-food-pantries.

Most of the vicariate’s food pantries partner with the Oahu Food Bank to assist in distribution of special programs, including Senior Food Boxes. Some parishes involve young people in helping aging kupuna carry their food boxes home. Several parishes got creative in raising money to deliver bentos to the homebound and some parish hot meal programs are now being revived. The vicariate also participates in other collaborative social ministries with very vulnerable populations, including persons in prison. The vicariate meeting closed by sharing a delicious “ono” home-cooked meal prepared by parish kupuna, who are also vital volunteers in St. Jude parish food pantry.

This beautiful collaboration is just one example of how vicariates in the diocese are building bridges to life and sharing the Easter message with others. As Christians we are called to follow Christ’s hope-full path this paschal season! For more examples of collaborative social ministry, please visit the OSM website www.officeforsocialministry.org for sharing how to put faith into action as expressed in the Prayer to the Creator in Fratelli Tutti: “Lord, Father of our human family, you created all human beings equal in dignity: pour forth into our hearts a fraternal spirit and inspire in us a dream of renewed encounter, dialogue, justice and peace. Move us to create healthier societies and a more dignified world, a world without hunger, poverty, violence and war. May our hearts be open to all the peoples and nations of the earth. May we recognize the goodness and beauty that you have sown in each of us, and thus forge bonds of unity, common projects, and shared dreams. Amen. Mahalo!