The Santa Rosa Parish in Arima is seeking to rekindle and deepen the spirit of community for which the historic eastern borough has been known. The unique fellowship has been under recent threat from the urban drift which has established and built up new communities in the area particularly over the last two decades.

Presentation to Carib Queen

Feast day celebrations in Santa Rosa

In response, the Church has had to spread its wings and its mission. As a result, it has decentralised to a number of the outlying Arima areas, and has been able to encourage ministries to provide a range of services to parishioners who need them.

These include legal, financial, family and national insurance, adult education, Mass hosts’ team, a grief support team, as well as a soup kitchen, a Family Life Unit and a bookshop.

Now parish priest, Msgr Christian Pereira, is seeking to consolidate these services into what he regards as the Santa Rosa family.

Together with a group of parishioners, he is organising for as many of the parishioners as possible to come together for a day when these newer ministries we will be introduced. This event will take place on Sunday, July 1, on the Woodford Street compound of the church in Arima.

Parishioners are being invited to come for 9.00 a.m. for presentations and discussions, not only on the services, but to review others areas of parish life, including preparations for an assembly in January, a sports day in 2008 and the Archdiocesan Synod in late 2008.

After some time of meeting, listening and discussing, Mass will be celebrated at around 1.00 p.m.

The theme for the event is: Nurturing the family Santa Rosa.

Msgr Pereira observes that the papal encyclical, often referred to as a magna carta of Christian family life, The Christian Family in the Modern World (Familiaris Consortio), describes, among other things, the four primary tasks of the Christian family and the various ways in which they participate in the life and mission of the Church.

“A very ancient and honourable title given to the Christian family is the domestic Church,” Msgr Pereira quoting the document says. “The Christian family is a primary community of [i] witness, [ii]teaching, [iii] prayer and [iv] communion.”

He adds, “Our commitment rooted in this fundamental ground has challenged us to select as the theme for our Mini Assembly Nurturing the Family Santa Rosa.

“For us we have used as a definition of family ‘A group of persons who are important to each other and who offer each other love and support, especially in times of crises,” Msgr Pereira continues.

He says that this is taken from Fathers Network International [FNI] which has defined nurturing from the following standpoints:

• To Nurture is to promote the growth and development of all one’s positive traits, qualities and characteristics.
• To Nurture is to respect and care for yourself, for others and for the environment
• To Nurture is to believe with all one’s heart in the inherent goodness of life.

Around the format of listening to and viewing of the various reports from the newer ministries in the community the parish event will seek to demonstrate and discuss how service to humanity can be one of the greatest contributors to peace and harmony in the society.

Msgr Pereira says, “As we become aware of these various forms of service to the community by the parishioners of Santa Rosa at both individual and group levels, we hope to encourage greater involvement and service-oriented members among the Santa Rosa Family.”

He adds, “The design of the Mini Assembly will hopefully build on our previous Covenant day and Sports day as well as build a stronger foundation for the establishment of the parish as an evangelising community bringing life or greater life to all our members and to the wider community of persons with whom we interact and relate.”

Msgr Pereira concludes, “Conscious that the Gospel of Jesus is best proclaimed by fulfilling the demands of Matthew 25 and Luke 4 we trust that rooted in our Catholic tradition and faithful to our relationship with the Living God, the Santa Rosa Parish can continue to bring life to the wider Borough and to the wider community by deeply Nurturing the Family Santa Rosa.”