Professionals and local business owners crowd around a conference table in the offices of an Atlantic City marketing firm. Some have years of experience in business and finance; others are just starting promising careers in event planning and marketing. It’s after 5 p.m. and a sandwich tray is passed around. A diagram with notes passes in the other direction. The meeting is chaired by a Holy Spirit High School graduate recently included in Atlantic City Weekly’s Top 40 under 40 list of young professionals.
Only the presence of a priest suggests it is not an ordinary dinner meeting at Masterpiece Advertising Design.
In fact, the firm is hosting a meeting of the Wedding of the Sea Festival committee. Some of the committee members are parishioners; others are members of the community. All share one purpose: to make this year’s Aug. 15 festival a financial success for the Parish of Saint Monica and a great community event for Atlantic City.
Last year, a festival at Saint Michael’s Church followed the Mass at Boardwalk Hall for the first time in nearly 30 years. This year, the festival returns to the Ducktown neighborhood to build upon last year’s success. The festival, like the parish, is multicultural. Italian, Hispanic, and Vietnamese food are offered alongside seafood, snacks, and desserts. Some vendors are parishioners, but most are the neighborhood’s oldest and best known restaurants and bakeries.
The festival extends the theme of the Wedding of the Sea. Each year, on the feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Bishop of Camden and the Mayor of Atlantic City enter a lifeboat to renew the “vows” between the city and the Atlantic Ocean by tossing a ring tied to a wreath into the water. The event imitates a Venetian tradition dating back to 1000 AD. At the altar and in the lifeboat, the prayer is the same: that the city’s relationship with the sea will continue to be fruitful for city residents and businesses. In a city named after the ocean and famed as a resort, that relationship is essential. The festival affords the opportunity to bring together our diverse community and highlight local businesses to our visitors.
The Wedding of the Sea’s celebration of cultural diversity and support of local business are intentional goals, but evangelization is a welcome bonus. Imagine walking the Atlantic City Boardwalk in your bathing suit and flip flops and you spot a traffic jam ahead. The police are holding traffic while a procession crosses the Boardwalk onto the beach. A bishop, priests, and elected officials are escorted by men in full dress uniform complete with ceremonial swords. Or imagine you’re on the beach sunbathing. You hear a commotion behind you and you turn around to look: hundreds of people, none of them dressed for the beach, are marching toward the surf. It’s not every day a Catholic bishop and a mayor inadvertently kick sand on your towel.
Sand in their shoes and sweat mingled with sunscreen on their foreheads probably isn’t what Pope Francis imagined when he encouraged pastors to live with the “smell of the sheep.” Nevertheless, the Wedding of the Sea achieves his goal: bring the church to the people. And when bewildered tourists ask what’s going on, we proudly answer: “The Church is blessing Atlantic City.”
Father Jon Thomas is pastor, Parish of Saint Monica, Atlantic City.
at the bottom and then tap “Add to Home Screen”
