A family that serves together, stays together

WILLIAMSTOWN — Members of the Our Lady of Peace core team all had one vision, one focus: create a vibrant parish by taking the best of St. Mary and St. John Neumann parishes and literally merging them into one entity.

“There was an openness and a welcoming attitude on behalf of the St. Mary parishioners,” said Richard Bruce, one of the driving forces on the core team. “We looked at opening our new joined home to the St. John Neumann people and welcoming their skills and talents.”

St. Mary is the seat of Our Lady of Peace. Bruce noted that St. John Neumann was originally a mission spun off from St. Mary.

“I was a parishioner of St. Mary and was chosen by the pastor, Father Ken Johnson, to be a member of the core team,” Bruce said. Father Cadmus Mazzarella was named pastor of Our Lady of Peace.

“There were four members from each parish,” Bruce said, “but we had no specific roles. As responsibilities came up, members took charge of them, based on their strengths and expertise. I was involved with finance.” He is IT project manager with Harrah’s Entertainment and gets involved with finances, among other areas. He is also a member of Our Lady of Peace Finance Council.

“I got involved with religious education and tried to utilize external resources,” Bruce noted. For instance he tapped the experience of religious education teacher Patricia Mullin and others to put together a viable program.

“We talked about how we could take the best of existing programs and how to use them,” he explained. “We took the strengths of these programs and brought them all together. The bottom line is we focused on the outcome.”

Bruce indicated that several ministries have been helped by the merger, not just religious education.

“People from St. John Neumann with leadership roles as ushers, for example, or in other areas are now leaders in the combined parish,” Bruce said. “Many people have stepped right in to help in any way needed.”

Bruce said it wasn’t uncommon for parishioners from St. John Neumann to attend Mass at St. Mary, so they were already familiar with the church.

Bruce, who is vice chairman of the St. Mary School Board, pointed out his whole family is involved in stewardship at St. Mary, now Our Lady of Peace. His wife, Deborah, leads the ministry of St. Mary’s Vacation Bible School for the one week it’s held each summer.

“It’s a structured program and runs for a half-day during the week,” said Bruce. “There is an overriding message each day with readings and music.” Deborah has led this ministry for six years.

“She was also arts and crafts director and I was director of the Bible School,” Bruce said. He pointed out though the last two years he handled what he called “critical projects” for Harrah’s and couldn’t give as much time to his stewardship projects. He and his wife, though, spent some five months prepping arts and crafts and the Bible School to be self-sufficient so others could take over.

“We would have 110 to 130 children from ages 4-10 in the Bible School with as many as 40 student volunteers and 30 adults,” said Bruce.

Although Deborah is no longer with the Bible School, she and her husband are part of the FOCCUS group (Facilitating Open Couple Communication Understanding and Study) where pre-marital couples make an assessment of their particular thoughts on certain questions.

“We facilitate discussions on those assessments,” Bruce said. “We provide 180 questions and discuss where there are differences. We did it ourselves as a couple.”

Their two oldest children, Rachel, 17, and Alex, 14, started as volunteers in Bible School. Rachel is now involved with the Good Samaritan Club at Paul VI High School and Alex is part of the Our Lady of Peace youth group. They have another child, Nicholas, 11.

Father Mazz called Bruce “conscientious, dedicated to his family, a good man of faith, very involved with the church, and is such a professional that we had to put him on the finance council of the newly-merged parish.”

Since the core team was an ad hoc committee and was dissolved once the merger was completed, Father Mazz said Bruce continued in his other roles.

“The finance committee has a lot of responsibility as we move forward,” the pastor said. “I’m definitely looking forward to continue working with the Bruces.”

For more information on stewardship contact Deacon Russell Davis, Office of Stewardship, at 856-583-6102.