As part of merging St. John's-St. Ann's and St. James parishes, we have been asked to submit three possible names for our combined faith community to Bishop Howard Hubbard. The submission must be made by May 14, 2009.
Each parishioner is invited to participate in this process of selecting three possible names. The Parish Merger Transition Council has established a process to consider your recommendations:
Phase One
From September 20 to October 4, parishioners submitted suggested names to the Parish Merger Council.
Phase Two
From October 11 to October 25, parishioners chose three parish names from those contained on the Phase One list.
Phase Three
From November 1 to November 28, the Parish Merger Transition Council accept both electronic and paper submissions of ballots, each parishioner to choose three parish names from those contained on the Phase Two list.
Ballot One included all the suggestions that were made. Following the article in The Evangelist in July, in which Bishop Hubbard's naming of new churches was explained, the Parish Merger Transition Council made some decisions about names that would not be acceptable. Below are the names taken off the list (even though they had enough votes to make the cut) and the reasons for these decisions.
- Church of the Holy Family - There is already a Roman Catholic church with this name on Central Avenue
- Church of the Three Saints - The Bishop will reject any name that tries to hold onto the old church names
- Holy Spirit - There is a Lutheran Church around the corner from St. James with the same name
- St. James-St. Ann-St. John - We know that the Bishop will reject any attempt to stay with current names. The name must help reflect a new community being formed.
- Trinity of Saints - While "trinity" means three, the "Trinity" in theological terms refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So this name mixes two meanings.
Between Saturday, November 21, and December 6, parishioners will be asked to indicate their first, second, and third preferences on the Phase Three list of names. Thanks for taking the time to be part of this important process.
Our parish community will receive ranked list of the top three names, to be submitted to the Bishop, at worship services on New Year's Day.