SAINT BARTHOLOMEW CATHOLIC CHURCH
6902 River Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20817
Tel 301-229-7933♦Fax 301-229-7998
Advent and Christmas Season, 2014
Dear Friends:
Greetings!
The beautiful hymn from the Christmas season Adestefidelesreminds us to rejoice in the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The hymn rolls from our lips and our memories -- O come, all ye faithful…Come and behold him…O come, let us adore him…. Sing, choirs of angels…Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above. Give glory to God…Word of the Father, [is] now in flesh appearing.
The hymns and carols of Christmas enlighten us and reveal to us the wonderful truths of our faith – that God so loved the world that he gave to us his only Son. The music lifts our hearts and minds to the heavens even as we witness here on earth the glory of God through the incarnation of Jesus – born this happy morning.
How special we are in the eyes of God!
May you delightin this most precious moment of the year with your family and friends around you and may the special joy of this season be yours each and every day.
On behalf of Father Tim Daniel, Monsignor John Enzler and all our staff here at Saint Bartholomew, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and may you have a happy New Year.
Sincerely in Christ,
Reverend Mark D. Knestout
Pastor
-Things you may have noticed or had a question about –
As we celebrate this wonderful season of Christmas and look forward to the New Year, I thought it might be helpful, again, to provide a brief summary of the state of our parish community and property.
Parish Council
The parish’s advisory council has recently drafted a communications update card. These you will find in the pews over the Christmas season. Please fill one out and give it to any priest, deacon, staff member, parish council member, or drop it in the collection basket or the poor box, so that we can stay in touch better. Please note well – all your information will be kept on a secure system that is completely separate from the archdiocese systems in the parish. It is known as Constant Contact and is the same system used by our school and CCD program to communicate with parents via the weekly principal’s update and emergency information such as snow closures. It will provide us the opportunity to make sure we have your most up-to-date contact information and allow us to send out various notices about upcoming events, Mass times for holy days, and perhaps daily, weekly, or monthly spiritual exhortations. So please fill out the card for us. Again –your email or cell phone will not be published anywhere – it will just allow us to stay in touch better. The council is also working on a parish survey that we hope will help us serve you better in the future. Stay tuned for more information on this in the coming months.
Capital Campaign – Parish Physical Plant Improvements
We continue to make steady progress on the various physical plant improvements that you all have donated to over the last couple of years. As you may recall, the leaking basement and church roof have been repaired. These costs weremore than what was originally budgeted for before I arrived but it was worth it. There have been no more leaks.
In addition, as you may have already observed when visiting the parish hall for coffee and donuts or for some other community event, the new windows and doors were installed at the end of the summer. They look great and the light from the outside is so much better. The old doors continued to be replaced through the months of September, October, and November and now only the boiler room is left to be done. When completed, every door,with the exception of the main front Church doors and the Reddy Gymdoors,will have been replaced. It has been a great improvement of security and energy efficiency. Eventually, I would like to automate the new door near the rampinto the church building for easier access by those with special needs and to replace the locks and hingeson the main church/foyer doors as they are starting to show the years of wear and tear.
Efforts now are being directed to some necessary power upgrades for our building. Our fuse boxes and power supply are at capacity and very old. So,in coordination with Pepco,we have been looking into this as well. This is necessitated by our desire to replace the heating and air conditioning systems that are nearly at their life spans. Once the power grid is increase, we will then be able to replace the HVAC equipment. Once that is done, attention will turn back again to the remaining windows for the church and school building. We can’t replace those until we have the new HVAC system in place as we currently use window units for the school/old convent building.
If funds remain after all this – it is still our hope to re-surfacethe parking lot. Any new parishioners over the last couple of years who were not able to participate in the development fund, but would like to, please see me. If you are happy with the improvements, I could sure use your help too!
LED Lighting
Unrelated to the development fund of the parish and not costing the parish anyprecious resources, is an update to our lighting system. During the Christmas break, all the light bulbs on the property (eg. school building, street lamps)will be replaced with LED lights. This will provide improved efficiency and give us a significant savings on the electric bill. The rectory was completed over the summer as the test case. It will not cost us anything as Pepco has awarded the parish $65,000 for all the work.
The Sanctuary – New Crucifix and Other Enhancements
Over the past year, I have been working with a liturgical design consultant to find a larger crucifix for our sanctuary. All of the funds to purchase a new crucifix were donated by the Hispanic Community over the years as well as from several other donors. I have found one that I believe will be very nice and would fit well with our church’s design. I hope to show artist renderings of it soon to the parish. But, I do not want to put a new crucifix up on a wall that really should be painted first. I think it would be a missed opportunity if we did and then thought about painting after the fact. So I am currently soliciting estimates for the cost of painting the sanctuary. We could add a little color to enhance the beauty of our sanctuary as some have suggested to me. In addition, there is a donor who has offered to paint the nave of the church (the walls where the pews are) so all this could be done at once. Obviously, this is an area that is important to get right and so we will move slowly.Stay tuned for more information on this in the coming months.
New Sound System
As you may have noticed, the sound has improved in the church. An anonymous donor made a generous gift to us to improve the system. It was installed a couple of months ago and after a little tweaking and accommodation for a few priest particularities, it is working nicely. It provides us with a number of options for use in the church that we did not have before. I would like to do the same for the parish hall as the system in the hall is old, and frankly, just terrible.
Christmas Collection
Need a tax deduction? We can always benefit from your stock donation to the parish at Christmas. The parish counts on the annual Christmas (and Easter) collectionfor its financial stability and continual viability. This collection is not taxed by the archdiocese so the money stays right here for our needs whether it is to pay a bill, assist a family in crisis, take care of our property or make periodic improvements to things, like painting, replacing lights, or updating aging equipment. Please consider helping us out this year through a stock donation or making a major contribution to the Christmas collection. Information on how to easily do this will placed in the parish bulletin and posted on the parish website. This information is also available by contacting the rectory office or me directly.
Volunteers – thank you!
Just a big thank you to all those who help make St. Bart’s such a great place to be. Reminder: the volunteer dinner is set for Saturday, January 10, 2015, following the evening vigil Mass.
May God bless you – Fr. Mark Knestout, Pastor