Alive and Well . . . and Flourishing!

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Fellow Spirit of St. Stephen’s Catholic Community member, John Koller, has the following letter in today’s Star Tribune.

It Was Never a Building but Rather a Community

Both the Feb. 15 column by Jon Tevlin on St. Stephen’s parish and the Feb. 22 letters in response describe a parish in decline, a sad story, a dying community. But there is another side to the story.

A larger portion of the former St. Stephen’s parish is alive, well and, indeed, flourishing. This group made a concerted decision a year ago to stay together to continue the fully inclusive and evolving form of worship that had nurtured it over recent decades. It has created the community structures needed to sustain us in its identity, prayer and in its work for justice and care of the poor and needy of our larger neighborhood. We have had to find a new place for our worship and mission, but we are still here in south Minneapolis and very much alive. The spirit of St. Stephen’s lives!

John Koller
St. Louis Park, MN


Recommended Off-site Link:
Spirit of St. Stephen’s Catholic Community

The Spirit of St. Stephen’s Video Documentary:
Introduction
Part 1 – The Early Years

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The Shrinking Catholic Tent
A Catholic “Crisis and Opportunity” in South Minneapolis
Of Mustard Seeds and Walled Gardens
Dispatches from the Periphery
The “Underground Church”

Opening Image: “We Are the Church” banner by Anne C. Brink.