By Lois Rogers |Correspondent

Second of Two Parts

Of all the ways trust has been built during the process to unify Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, Highlands, and St. Agnes Parish, Atlantic Highlands, preserving the legacy of each has been key.

As the July 1 unification date approaches, members of the team who worked, prayed, studied, read and strove together to complete this process on a harmonious note, spoke of the nature of the parishes. They see the legacies as being as steadfast and luminescent as the Twin Lights, Highlands, which have become the symbol of the conjoined parish.

And, they say, the most important element in reaching accord was coming to consensus on keeping both churches – the visible symbols of those legacies – open.

While an administrative office and rectory will be housed on the St. Agnes campus, also home to Mother Teresa Regional School, the assurance that the 600 families registered in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish would still be able to worship in that church is vitally important, they said.

Members of the team spoke of the significance of both parishes to The Highlands area and how their place on the landscape reflects the very nature of the terrain.

To hear members of both parishes tell it, over the centuries, both were built by warm, caring and close communities, a construct that has remained even as demographics changed. They took pride in sharing that the descendants of the founding or nearly original families worship side by side with more recent arrivals.

The rectories, convents and schools in both parishes were proud heralds of the strong Catholic presence that evolved along the coastal reaches of the Raritan Bay, said Richard Everett, Joe Bulwinkle, Mary Schoales and Mari Kovach, who all served as members of the unification team.

Sharing their Hopes

With the exception of the first two years of his childhood and the decade he spent teaching in schools for the military, Bulwinkle, a retired Mater Dei social studies teacher and father of eight foster children, has been an active member of St. Agnes Parish.

Everett, who serves as a trustee, became a member of St. Agnes Parish 58 years ago after settling his family in town following a move from north Jersey with his wife, Janine. Their two sons received their sacraments in St. Agnes and graduated from St. Agnes School – now Mother Teresa Regional.

Their affection for St. Agnes was palpable during interviews.

“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for the many (families) in St. Agnes who were baptized, married and raised their families in the parish,” said Everett, who served in the Marines.

Bulwinkle sounded the same note: “As a life-long member, I have long roots in the parish … I attend 7 a.m. daily Mass where there is a real bond among communicants. We take care of each other. If someone has a problem, we take a collection to take care of it.”

It’s their ardent hope that such bonds will emerge as the new parish – Our Lady of Perpetual Help – St. Agnes Parish – comes together. “I’m looking forward to having people make new friends,” said Bulwinkle. “I made a point of going to OLPH for morning Mass and one morning, I was asked to (proclaim) Readings.”

This year during Lent, he made a point of attending Soup and Scripture sessions and sitting with members of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. “With added committees, activities and adult education, we can create bonds,” Bulwinkle said.

Kovach, a trustee in Our Lady of Perpetual Help, spoke directly of the unique geography of The Highlands, bisected by Route 36.

It was she who noted that the campus of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is located on the “waterside” of the Highlands on Route 36 which was badly battered by many storms over the decades including Superstorm Sandy. St. Agnes, she pointed out, is located “across the highway” 3.8 miles to the north on the inland side which did not suffer the extensive damage of its near neighbor.

The attachment of the OLPH families to their church, already strong, was strengthened even more after Sandy, as the campus sprang immediately into ongoing action, coming to the aid of those in need with food, clothing, counseling and more.

Schoales, also a member of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, spoke of how moved she was by the way the parish served so many in need in the aftermath of the that storm. “Everyone helped. Everyone still helps...” she said.

Keeping both churches open – especially when OLPH is a “walking church” for many members – was essential, Kovach said. “It was important that the two buildings stay so that there would be access, so there would be a choice of a place to worship,” she said. “It was a very wise move.”

Indeed, everyone is on the same page with that decision, from Father William Lago, the pastor, who championed keeping both worship sites open to parishioners, to diocesan officials and Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., who gave his consent.

Working Together

Father  Lago, who will mark his first anniversary as pastor on July 1, the same day the parishes unify,  is considered by many the guiding light who worked hard to bring the process – underway since Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Agnes parishes were twinned in 2009 – to a successful conclusion.

Father Lago, in turn, credits the unification team and the helpful ministrations of diocesan officials including chancellor Anthony J. Mingarino and Terry Ginther, executive director of pastoral life and mission, with providing the strong support that complimented his efforts over the past 12 months.

“People in general have been very much on board,” said Father Lago. “Both Terry Ginther and Tony Mingarino have been very helpful,” as the collaborative work needed to forge a unified parish was underway.

Ginther, who described her role as “helping the pastor and councils to come to a consensus,” said with Father Lago’s steady hand, the “communities were able to work in a healthy way toward a new reality.”

“When Father Lago arrived a year ago, he was able to bring the parishes together,” said Mingarino. “He found that they were (already) aware that a (unification) would be necessary in order to thrive. In order to accomplish this, there would need to be one administration and the merger of the financial council and creation of a (single) parish council.”

A focus on how to make the best use of the buildings involved, including the school building and rectory on the OLPH campus, was also emerging and is still underway, Mingarino said, with Father Lago and his team considering options.

That the overall effort, conducted with transparency and consideration, has “helped people to see that this is necessary for the Catholic Church to continue” in The Highlands, he said. For Father Lago and his team, Mingarino said, “it’s been heavy lifting. (They) did the heavy lifting.”

Moving Foward

 “There’s not going to be a grand beginning,” Father Lago said with a smile. “Just a smooth transition – we’ll be that which we’ve been preparing to be.”

Among the steps in that “smooth transition,” the unification team will cease to exist, one parish council and one finance council will be formed. The lower level of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, so badly battered by Sandy, will be “refreshed to enable it to become a center for young adult activities,” Father Lago said. The very popular thrift shops which benefit the parishes will remain open at both locations, he noted.

The weekly bulletin will be re-done to include what is happening liturgically, socially and educationally at each location, he said, with a 5 p.m. Mass being added on geared not only to parishioners but to vacationers as well.

“We’re reaching out, encouraging those who weekend or daytrip to the Bayshore not only to end their time there on a prayerful note but perhaps to linger a while and wait out the traffic with dinner in the area before heading home,” Father Lago added.

Parishioners are eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Father Carlo James Calisin as parochial vicar. Ordained May 31 in St. Mary of the Assumption Cathedral, Trenton, by Bishop O’Connell, the appointment of Father Calisin is seen as a “symbol of great hope” for the newly unified parish, Father Lago said.

He added that parishioners are also eagerly anticipating the priestly ordination next year of the Rev. Mr. Jarlath Quinn, who will be the first vocation ordained from the new parish entity.

Included in the planning stages are a July visit from Bishop O’Connell to inaugurate the new parish and a festive picnic at a location midway between where the former parish boundaries were. “Instead of a ribbon cutting, we’re going to have a ribbon tying,” said Father Lago.