Thank you Beth!

Congratulations On Your Retirement!

We cannot say thank you enough to Beth Schafer for all of her tremendous work in developing outreach programming here at Holy Cross over the last eight years. Her heart of service and care and compassion for the marginalized, oppressed, and those in need has been a guiding light as we seek to find Jesus in the homeless, the imprisoned, the refugee, the poor, the sick, and the hungry. She has made so many connections and opened up transformative opportunities for our community. So many lives have been changed through corporal and spiritual works of mercy because of Beth. We look forward to building on the foundations of Faith in Action and continuing to live out the Gospel in our city and in our neighborhoods. Congratulations Beth on your retirement and know we are grateful and blessed by all the ways you continue to care and serve all of us!

From Beth Schafer

It has been a joy and a privilege to serve the community as Director of Faith in Action. Faith in Action Ministry is the name that was given to outreach ministry eight years ago when I began working at Holy Cross. The new name indicated that “something new” was happening: my goal was to develop volunteer opportunities in which a variety of parishioners could participate at a level that respects their availability and their desire to serve others.

Holy Cross now has a variety of opportunities to donate time or items for people in need. In addition to our Samaritan Center Team and food pantry collection, regular outreach opportunities include Tuesday Sandwich ministry, Wednesdays at Road to Emmaus Ministry, Refugee Assistance Committee & the Care for Creation Small Group and a variety of collections for community organizations. A delightful result of living out the Gospel mandate to love and to serve one another has been a deepening of relationships with each other as a community.

The time has come for me to move in a new direction, responding to God’s call for the next chapter in my story. I look forward to watching Faith in Action at Holy Cross grow as we tackle the challenge of encouraging one another to take on or deepen our leadership roles in community outreach. Please keep me in your prayers as you are in mine.

Gratefully,

Beth