You're invited:
Parish looks for boost with direct mailing
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 18, 2006
Detroit – The people of St. Patrick Parish believe they have something worth sharing, and are going to invite both new neighbors and old friends to share it by joining the parish.
Using a direct-mail campaign, the parish is hoping to reach the hundreds of new residents of the Midtown Detroit area, and at the same time also reach out to people who only visit on St. Patrick's Day or other special events, inviting them to come to a special open house planned for Sunday, Sept. 10.
The marketing effort will let area residents know there is a parish in the Midtown area that is "vibrant and alive with the sacraments and liturgies, a place where people really experience being the Body of Christ, that is involved in the neighborhood, and helps bring stability and offers a beacon of hope in the neighborhood," says Fr. Mark Soenher, OFM, pastor of St. Patrick Parish.
"I know it's the kind of church I would want to join," he adds.
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Photo by Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Talking with Fr. Mark Soehner, OFM, outside St. Patrick Church, Detroit, after Mass are (from left) Janet Stonehill, Floria Ellison, Clara Doulty and Pamela Rodriguez. | A combination of new construction and renovations of existing buildings has resulted in many new condominiums and loft apartments in the Midtown area, bounded by the Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94) to the north, the Chrysler Freeway (I-75) to the east, the Fisher Freeway (I-75) to the south, and the Lodge Freeway (U.S. 10) to the west.
"There's been just a remarkable revival of spirit, with people banding together to keep St. Patrick's viable," says Jim Reed, parish council president.
But Reed figures the chances of many newcomers to the area having even noticed St. Patrick Church are pretty slim, tucked away as it is on Parsons Street, a side street, behind the Max M. Fisher Music Center's Orchestra Hall on Woodward Avenue.
The hope is that the mailing — to about 1,300 people — will correct that, and intrigue recipients enough that they will come to the 9:30 a.m. Mass that Sunday, then stay for a guided tour of the church and the St. Patrick's Senior Center next door, as well as gather information about parish life and service opportunities.
Reed lives just west of the parish boundary, in the historic Woodbridge neighborhood, and says he joined St. Patrick about 10 years ago, attracted by its Christian outreach efforts, its peace and justice program, and by the opportunity to help at the senior center.
Deborah Baitinger says she and her husband Kerry were attracted to St. Patrick Parish 10 years ago because it "is just an amazing mosaic."
St. Patrick provided the kind of parish community in which they wanted their son, Michael, now a student at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, to grow up: "It truly reflects the Kingdom of God – you've got young and old, black and white, city and suburb, and every socioeconomic level you can imagine."
Baitinger says she likes belonging to a parish where everyone knows everyone else. "In too many of the large suburban parishes you tend to get lost in the congregation. At a parish we used to belong to the pastor didn't even know my name, and I had been president of the school's PTO for two years," Baitinger continues.
But with just 62 registered families, and about 100 people attending the one Sunday Mass, there is also a realization that St. Patrick Parish must grow in membership or face likely extinction.
"We're really trying to expand who we are, because we want to survive. We have to have more people filling our pews," says Baitinger, who is chairing arrangements for the Sept. 10 open house.
While the Baitingers live within the parish boundaries, in the condominiums just north of Comerica Park, Janet Regan is a parishioner who drives in from Warren to attend St. Patrick.
"We started going there 21 years ago because my husband, Robert, had grown up in the neighborhood and knew (then-pastor) Fr. (Thomas) Duffey. But we also became really interested in the work they do," Regan says, referring to the parish's outreach programs.
St. Patrick Parish runs a food pantry that provides bags of groceries to about 600 low-income persons a month. There is also the St. Patrick's Senior Center, next door in the former Girls Catholic Central High School Building, which provides a daily meal to area seniors, as well as other services. Although independent from the parish, the senior center is the focus of many parishioners' volunteer efforts.
"You know, sometimes when you give money you don't really know where it's going, but at St. Pat's you can see it – people are eating it," Regan says.
Besides helping others, St. Patrick parishioners will also be able to take part in a bowling league being formed this fall that will bowl at America's oldest bowling alley, just a block and a half from the church.
Something else St. Patrick parishioners believe the parish has going for it is the way the liturgy is celebrated there and the parish's pastor for the past year, Fr. Soehner.
"I like to come out of church feeling more uplifted than when I went in, and that's always the case at St. Pat's," says Regan.
In Reed's view, "Fr. Mark is such a remarkable addition to this parish; he's a wonderful guy."
Baitinger says, "Fr. Mark is the man who's going to provide the leadership to keep us open and to keep serving the poor the way we have been."
The direct mail campaign was the idea of Dick Marcy, business manager for St. Patrick and its cluster partners, St. Aloysius Parish, downtown, and the St. Dominic Outreach Center.
"Dick Marcy is a powerhouse. He brings experience that comes from the business world and understands how to get to the root causes of stuff," Fr. Soehner says.
For more information about St. Patrick Parish, call (313) 833-0857.
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