July 3, 2022

As Father Nathan mentioned last week, we are in the beginning stages of creating Pastoral Teams consisting of 8-10 prayerful and engaged servant-leaders from each Church. These leaders would be intergenerational and represent all facets of our church family: hospitality, worship and spirituality, outreach, evangelization, faith formation, youth and young families, seniors, buildings and grounds. These leaders will be invested with:
 
1. Working with a Parish Staff Leader (pastor, parochial vicar, or pastoral life coordinator) and meet at least once monthly to identify and act upon their own spiritual and leadership gifts and then do the same for others in the parish family to nurture identity, community, and ministry.
 
2. Working with the Parish staff leader to identify needs of their church, set short and long-term goals and collaborate/communicate with parishioners on church events, activities, ministries, worship, and faith formation.
 
3. Acting as a bridge and liaison between their church and the parish for parish-wide events, networking with the other leadership teams, planning, fellowship, communication and ensuring the wider parish vision (CLI) is integrated.
 
Please keep the following words of Pope Pius XII in mind:

"… the lay faithful, find themselves on the front lines of the Church's life; for them the Church is the animating principle for human society. Therefore, they in particular, ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the head of all, and of the Bishops in communion with him.” (Christifideles Laici, no.9).

In conclusion, all Christians are invited to join in the ministry of strengthening the bonds of faith, hope, and love that unite God’s Family as one by placing their gifts in service t/bulletinso the Church and collaborating closely with the Church’s ordained ministers. In this way, the laity contribute mightily to the health and vitality of the Church’s inward life and her outward mission.

August 6, 2021

PORTLAND — A newly-assigned priest will be joining St. Brendan the Navigator Parish in the coming weeks. Bishop Robert Deeley, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, has announced the assignment for Fr. Divine Fossoh, who has arrived in Maine from the Diocese of Kumbo in Cameroon. The assignment is effective immediately, but Fr. Fossoh will be completing an orientation program prior to starting his service.

Fr. Fossoh has been assigned as parochial vicar at St. Brendan the Navigator Parish (Our Lady of Good Hope Church, Camden; St. Bernard Church, Rockland; St. Francis of Assisi Church, Belfast and St. Mary of the Isles Churches on Islesboro, Vinalhaven, and North Haven). Fr. Fossoh was ordained to the priesthood on April 30, 2014. Since his ordination, he has served in the Diocese of Kumbo as a parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish in Ndzevru; a parochial vicar at St. Matthias Mulumba Parish in Donga-Mantung; a parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception in Tobin; a chaplain for the Catholic Women’s Association in Tobin and a school chaplain at Our Lady of Immaculate Conception College in Bambui. In addition, Fr. Fossoh participated in the implementation of programs assisting victims affected by the Cameroonian Civil War. Most recently, he served as supervisor of rural youth empowerment training programs.

“I have been able to assist about 550 young people in the rural areas over four years,” he said. “Many have become not only employed, but actual job creators as rural entrepreneurs. Others have pursued their education at higher institutes of learning.”

Fr. Fossoh earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and theology (divinity) from St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in Bambui, Cameroon.

Fr. Hyacinth Fornkwa, who has been serving as parochial vicar of St. Brendan the Navigator Parish in Camden, is now the administrator of Holy Family Parish in Greenville and St. Anthony of Padua Parish (St. Faustina Church, Jackman).