• Welcome
• Bienvenido

Welcome!

Dear Friends of St. Andrew's,

From the founding of our Parish in 1958, we have grown and developed with Sierra Vista - as partners in building up this great community we call home.

Over the decades, we sought to be active participants in every aspect of community life. We believe that serving the common good and making this city a place where people come first, where the least and most easily-overlooked are served and cared for, and where the quality of life is enhanced for all our fellow citizens, is an essential witness to our faith.

We hope our parish church is a place where all experience the Presence of God and the welcome of God's People. We pray that its beauty will speak a wordless invitation to those who are seeking, those who are wearied by life's burdens and those who are drawn to lift their hearts in prayer.

We thank God for giving us this opportunity to extend His blessings and to share our church and campus facilities with the Sierra Vista community.
The pulse of St. Andrew's is reflected through our ministries and individual parishoner efforts.  I hope to highlight these achievements and bring focus to upcoming events in the article following this message.

Yours because His,

Fr. Greg Adolf
Pastor

Bienvenido

Estimados amigos de San Andrés,

Desde la fundación de nuestra Parroquia en 1958, hemos crecido y nos hemos desarrollado junto con Sierra Vista construyendo esta gran comunidad la cual llamamos nuestra casa.

A través de las décadas hemos tratado de participar activamente en todos los aspectos, dentro de nuestra comunidad.  Creemos que un testigo esencial de nuestra fe es el servir al bien común y el hacer de esta ciudad un lugar para quienes lo más importante es su gente, donde los más necesitados y los más olvidados son servidos y cuidados, y donde la calidad de vida es mejorada para todos nuestros ciudadanos.

Deseamos que nuestra parroquia sea un lugar donde todos puedan sentir la Presencia de Dios y se sientan bienvenidos como hijos de Él.  Rogamos que su belleza les haga una invitación silenciosa a aquellos quienes están en busca de Dios, a aquellos quienes se encuentran abrumados por los problemas de la vida, y a aquellos quienes han sido llamados a levantar sus almas en oración.

Agradecemos a Dios por darnos esta oportunidad de extender sus bendiciones y de compartir nuestra iglesia y nuestras facilidades con la comunidad de Sierra Vista.

El servicio de San Andrés está reflejado en nuestros ministerios y los esfuerzos individuales de nuestros parroquianos.  Espero que podamos realzar estos logros y llevar enfoque a futuros eventos los cuales mencionamos en el artículo debajo de este mensaje.

 

Suyo en Cristo,

 

Padre Greg Adolf

Pastor

 

...that we hosted a capacity crowd for the 12th Annual Community Hymn Festival last Sunday and received a record Offering for the “Wounded Warrior Project” of our local Veterans’ Center?

These “community events”, such as the Hymn Festival, and the up-coming Community Concert of ‘The Messiah’ in December, are a wonderful expression of the “bridge-building” we are called to do in the wider Christian Community. To provide a welcome and offer support for local Christian churches to come together is a very practical form of ecumenism! All of the Popes, since the Second Vatican Council, have made ecumenism a priority, and we have seen extraordinary – even a miraculous – healing of the wounds of division in the Christian Community! Pope St. John Paul II’s last encyclical letter was on the necessity of working for healing of divisions and toward the unity of the Church! Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have both undertaken extraordinary journeys to build these bridges of understanding and mutual affirmation, with the Orthodox and Protestant Churches (The Pope’s title “Pontifex Maximus” literally means “Supreme Bridge-builder”!)

Our Parish has taken this priority to heart and has provided the ‘lead’ on a number of shared ministry events in our area, such as the Community Hymn Festival, the Community Easter Sunrise Service, the Community Thanksgiving Service, the ‘Father of Lights Festival’, the Community “Messiah” Concert, and many other events!

When our ‘new’ church was dedicated in June 2006, Lutheran Pastor Richard ‘Dick’ Anderson, who was the “Religion Editor” for the Sierra Vista Herald at the time, spoke at the Dedication (and later wrote up the event), and said, “I don’t want our Catholic brothers and sisters, who have sacrificed so much to build this extraordinarily beautiful church, to take this amiss, but your new church belongs not only to you, the parishioners, but in a very real way, to the whole Community! It is not only a showplace, and the first building to catch the eye of those driving into our city, but it is also a place where the whole Christian Community will, in the years to come, gather and celebrate what unites us as God’s People!”

The words of Pastor Anderson have proved ‘prophetic’ and we hope that our ‘new’ church AND our Kino Hall will continue to be holy places for “bridge-building”!!!

* * * * * * *

This past week, we received $66.00 in donations to the “Building Our Church Fund”, which provides necessary funding for emergency and unbudgeted repairs and up-grades on our two-campus Parish! The “big” repair at present is replacing the large overhead screen in the church, which “aged out” in a pretty spectacular failure on 27 October! Ordering the replacement has been difficult and the cost is going to be pretty high (we’re still ‘negotiating’) – so we are very grateful to you, for the support for our “Building Our Church Fund”!

This is the last “big step” before Deacon Ordination (2021) made this

especially moving and encouraging.

Please give my gratitude and warm hello to all!

Blessings,

Richard