Christ Renews His Parish: Green Bay Parishioners Introduce Powerful Retreat Experience to the Diocese

Seventy-five parishioners from three diocesan parishes – St. Mary Gate of Heaven, Ozone Park; Good Shepherd, Marine Park; and Holy Trinity, Whitestone – recently gathered at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Huntington, L.I., to begin a process called Christ Renews His Parish.

Christ Renews His Parish, or CRHP, is a powerful experience of Christian witness and renewal that has been in many parishes and dioceses throughout the U.S. and in many other countries for over 40 years. Essentially, it is a renewal process in which parishioners prepare and give retreats to other parishioners in their community.

“In this experience parishioners give the gift of themselves, their stories of faith, to each other. It is all about becoming a real Christian community that shares faith with each other,” remarked Robert Choiniere, director of pastoral planning for the Diocese of Brooklyn and one of the organizers of this initial weekend.

“I received this gift as a parishioner many years ago in another diocese, and I have always wanted to bring this gift to Brooklyn,” says Choiniere. “In order to get it started, a group must give the first weekend. That has been the difficult part. There was no community close to Brooklyn who could offer the experience.”

That was until last spring when Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio approved a grant to bring a group of parishioners from Green Bay, Wisc., to offer the first retreat to parishioners in Brooklyn.

“This is exactly what we need at Gate of Heaven,” said Deacon Rich Gilligan, who serves at the parish. “This is a true movement of the Spirit and the team from Green Bay was on fire!”

Twenty-four parishioners from several parishes in the Diocese of Green Bay volunteered to offer the experience.

“We prepared for seven months to give this retreat,” said Kim Corey of the Green Bay team. “We have been praying for you in Brooklyn for a long time, and it is such a privilege to be called and to be here giving the gift that was once given to me.”

More than just a retreat, Christ Renews His Parish is about giving as much as receiving. The 75 parishioners listened and reflected on the powerful faith stories of the team from Green Bay and shared their own stories with one another.

“We became gifts to each other,” said Nancy Rullo, a parishioner at Holy Trinity.

But it does not stop here. Each team, including both a Spanish-speaking and English-speaking team at St. Mary Gate of Heaven, will return to their parishes to begin a period of preparation to give the same retreat to another group of parishioners from their own parish. This process then continues with groups receiving the experience and then being asked to give that experience to others.

Paving the Way

The hope is that this retreat experience will spread beyond the first three parishes to other parishes in Brooklyn and Queens. Each of the three pastors, Father Gerald Fitzsimmons at St. Mary Gate of Heaven, Father Jim Devlin at Good Shepherd and Father Joe Gibino at Holy Trinity, are enthusiastic about the retreats going forward. Each contributed to making this first retreat a great success and is paving the way for the process to spread to more parishioners in the near future.

The parishioners left Huntington with a new zeal and enthusiasm. Perhaps Jim Lonergan, a parishioner from Holy Trinity, said it best: “I never felt so much in community with my brothers in Christ as I did this past weekend. I believe the bonds created will never be broken. So many years sitting in the pews saying hello and goodbye but never getting to know my fellow brothers in Christ as I did this past weekend.”

If all goes well, many more in our diocese can look forward to receiving the gift of one another and allowing Christ to renew His parishes.