from St. James Parish, Liberty, Missouri
Peru Sister Parish to Visit St. James – October 13-19
It’s finally going to happen, a visit from three people of La Capilla, our sister parish located in Peru! We will have the opportunity to meet Lorenza and Carlos, a married couple who are very involved in their church and Padre Hilton, a young Precious Blood missionary and pastor.
The roots for the St. James Sister Parish relation prompted when the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement in 1997 on our international obligations as Catholics, challenging us to address the needs of people overseas. In their statement, they encouraged all Catholics to go beyond the parish’s boundaries to extend the Gospel, serve those in need, and work for global justice and peace.
In 1998 under the leadership of pastor Fr. Ron Will, many members of St. James participated in Project 2010, which challenged them to identify what was needed to accomplish as a parish within the first decade of the new millennium. One of the goals of Project 2010 was to establish a parish mission in another nation. The Precious Blood order has numerous missions in Latin America, and through correspondence with the Precious Blood missions office in 2003, a parish in the El Pinar district of Lima Peru known as Capilla de Preciosa Sangre was identified, to become our twinning or mission parish and began a twinning relationship with them that year.
During our first trip to Lima in November 2003, we found the La Capilla parish committee to be very warm and welcoming. They shared with us how they worship and how their faith helps their lives. They honored us for making the trip and gave us Peruvian gifts. We came away from that experience knowing that their faith is very strong. Our committees agreed to continue to learn about each other.
Since that time, St. James parishioners have made 6 mission trips to El Pinar. During the time they are there, they live with parishioners of the El Pinar parish, eat meals together, participate in their outreach program, work with them as they enhance their church and parish facilities, visit the sick, and much more. One of the highlights for our Peruvian family is cooking an American meal for them on each visit.
For several years we have been hoping to reciprocate their hospitality by having them visit our St. James Community. Unfortunately, government “red tape” has prevented that from happening.
Until now! It’s happening next week!
St James Church, Liberty, and Liberty Companions invite the Precious Blood community to join us for a dinner at Precious Blood Center on Tuesday, Oct 18 to honor our guest from our sister parish in Peru. We will gather at 5:30pm and dinner will begin around 6pm. Contact Fr. Timothy Armbruster to let him know that you’ll be attending.