AREA FAITH COMMUNITIES

Our plans for the Area Faith Communities between St. Gertrude's and St. John's has been approved by the Diocese.  We are moving into a new and exciting time in our parish life.  

Our emphasis will be to bring this call into focus as we work toward the faith community with St. John's. This process may take as long as 18 months to complete.  In the upcoming months, parish representatives will be working with members of St. John's to identify ways that the parishes can collaborate in the areas of Word, Worship, Service and Stewardship.  

We hope that you will respond when you have an opportunity to help with this process.   Remember - volunteerism equals a vital parish.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the task force members.

BAPTISM PREPARATION SESSIONS

Parents who request baptism for their child are required to take part in a preparation program before the baptism.  Preparation sessions for St. Gertrude and St. John parents consist of two sessions.  Both parents and the child's godparents, if possible, should take part in the preparation sessions, preferably during the pregnancy.  You may schedule your child's baptism - once the preparation has been completed - for Sunday liturgies outside of Lent.

The first session includes registration if that has not already been done. Names, first, middle & last, of the child, parents and Godparents are taken for the baptismal records. This session is usually done in the home of the family requesting baptism. The next session is at the Church and the rituals, roles and symbols are reviewed. There is a mini walk-through of the sacrament so folks know what to expect on the big day.

FUNDRAISING PROJECTS

There are several fundraising projects that we have going that are easy to participate in and will help with our expenses.  These fundraising projects are:

• Econo Foods Sales Receipts - save your sales receipts from Econo Foods and place them in the red box at church.  Once we have $150,000 in sales receipts we can turn them in to Econo Foods and we will receive $1,000.  Please patronize Econo Foods as much as possible and save your receipts.
• Aluminum Cans - please place your recyclable aluminum cans in the trailer that is located outside the church.  The money we receive from recycling these cans helps our Youth Group.
• Empties4Cash - please bring in your empty inkjet cartridges.  If you know of anyone who has emptry cartridges they would like us to recycle, please bring them to church and leave them on the table in the back.  The money received from this project helps our Religious Education program.

Fall raffle tickets are available in the Church office or from any parishioner. For a mear $20 one gets a chance at $1000, one chance for $500, three chances at $100, and fourty chances at $50.  We don't sell tickets online, but anyone may send us a check for as many tickets they would like.  The fall raffle only sells 500 tickets total.

Mailing address for the fall raffle is the same as the church 31608 650Ave., Litchfield, MN 55355