the insider – your olph e-newsletter for april 12,...
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Roy Sakaguchi
From: OLPH webmaster <[email protected]>
Sent: April-12-14 8:51 AM
To: OLPH Webmaster
Cc: Fr. Jim Hannah; Helen (OLPH Office)
Subject: OLPH e-Newsletter - Easter Greetings from The Insider (April 12, 2014)
The Insider – Your OLPH e-Newsletter for April 12, 2014
(“The Insider” is our parish e-Newsletter issued seasonally (based roughly on liturgical calendar) and on as-needed basis – now sent to almost 700 recipients. If you wish NOT to receive future newsletters, please email OLPH webmaster below)
� Welcome to New Parishioners – if you have recently moved to our parish but have not yet registered with the
parish office (Helen), please do so online via our website.
� News and Holy Week Mass Schedule
Thur April 17 NO 12:10 Mass
Holy Thursday Mass – 7:30 pm (Byzantine Romanian Congregation attending – read about their
pastors below under Profiles)
Fri. April 18 NO 12:10 Mass – Office Closed
Good Friday Walk – 12 noon – see pictures from 2013 Walk –
www.olphtoronto.com/News_events/Photo_gallery/goodfri_walk13.php
Altar Server Rehearsal – 2:00 pm
Good Friday Service – 3:00 pm
Sat. April 19 Decorate Church – 9:30 am
Altar Server Rehearsal – 11:00 am
Easter Vigil – 8:00 pm
Sun. April 20 Easter Sunday Masses at 9:30 and 11:00 am
NO 4:00 pm Mass
Mon. April 21 Easter Monday – NO 12:10 Mass
9:30 am Mass ONLY – Office Closed
� HELP wanted for OLPH Website – in General and Specific areas We need help in two broad areas:
(Note: web experience is helpful but not required. if you are interested to help but not sure how to do the
requested task, we’ll show you how. Contact Webmaster below)
• Regular maintenance
o weekly recording of homily – and posting of homily/bulletin in website
o weekly gathering of News & Events for the web Parish & Beyond-the-Parish
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o photo taking and processing at parish events.
• Specific projects (you can pick any project that interests you):
o overhaul the Photo Gallery for improved presentation
o sort/improve different Sections, e.g. Links
o archiving OLPH history/architecture (some material has been
collected already)
o start new sections, e.g. Youth Section, Kids Section (as in St. Luke’s
www.stlukesparish.ca).
� News and Upcoming Events in Our Parish
� OLPH Annual BBQ & Fr. Jim’s 40th
Anniversary of Priesthood – Sunday June 22, 2014 This is a little in the future but please mark this in your calendar. As a parish community, we will be celebrating Fr. Jim’s 40
th year as a priest on Sunday, June 22, immediately following the 11:00 mass. The festivities will be centred around the
annual BBQ. Details to follow in Bulletin.
� News & Upcoming Events in BEYOND THE PARISH � Numerous telecasts from Salt & Light TV (if you don’t have Rogers Chan. 240, you can watch their telecast on
their website http://saltandlighttv.org/ - click “Watch LIVE” (upper right):
• Holy Week events from St. Peter’s – see their schedule - http://saltandlighttv.org/schedule/
• “The Francis Effect” – documentary of Pope Francis – April 17 (Thurs), 9:00 - 10:00 pm and repeated 1:00 -
2:00 am
• Canonization of Two Popes (John XXIII and John Paul II) – April 27 (Sun), 3:30 – 7:30 am (Live) and repeated
9:00 – 1:00 pm & 10:00 pm – 1:00 am.
� Profiles of OLPH clergy & parishioners We are continuing with this “Profiling” Project. Since the OLPH clergy have been profiled, we’re moving on to the clergy
of our “sister” church at OLPH – the Romanian Catholic Mission who celebrate their 12:30 Sunday mass at OLPH.
Fr. Emil Jude & Fr. Ionel (John) Maier – Annunciation Byzantine Romanian Catholic Mission (thanks to Fr. Emil for writing most of their profile)
Fr. Emil Jude was born in 1972 in Transylvania, the north-western province of Romania. He grew up in the city of Turda
during the religious persecution of the Catholic Church in communist Romania (1947-1989). Fr. Emil’s priestly formation
took place at the Archdiocesan Seminary of Blaj, Romania, after the fall of communism and their Church emerged from
the “catacombs”. After completing his studies, he was ordained first as married deacon and later as ordained priest (a
married deacon can become priest in the Byzantine Rite. He has three lovely daughters). After his 1996 ordination, he
was appointed pastor of the Romanian Catholic Parish of the Holy Spirit in Sighisoara, Transylvania.
Fr. Emil came to Canada in 2001 to help organize the Romanian Catholics of the Byzantine Rite in Toronto. In August
2001, the Annunciation Byzantine Romanian Catholic Mission was established by Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic. They can
be found on the OLPH website via http://www.olphtoronto.com/Home/byzantine_romanian_mission.php . In November
2001, they were welcomed for their first Divine Liturgy (Mass) at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. He was appointed
as the first pastor of the Romanian Catholic Mission in Toronto in 2001 when Fr. Cyril Robitaille was still OLPH pastor. At
the same time, he says “I began my additional ministry at the Toronto hospitals. On one hand, the Romanian Mission
was too small to support its pastor. On the other hand, there was a big need for Catholic ministry at the Toronto
hospitals, especially at Sunnybrook. So I divided my time between parish and hospital ministry”.
At that time, Fr. Jim Hannah was in charge of Lay Ministry and Chaplaincy for the Archdiocese of Toronto. He guided Fr.
Emil through the process of chaplaincy preparation. During 2002-03, he completed the Residency in Clinical Pastoral
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Education at Sunnybrook and was appointed by the Archdiocese to be the Catholic Priest Chaplain for Sunnybrook
Hospital. So by the grace of God, they “converged” to OLPH in 2002 – Fr. Jim as the new OLPH pastor and Fr. Emil as the
pastor of the new Romanian Catholic Mission (www.bunavestire.org , “Bunavestire” means Annunciation in Romanian).
Starting small, the Romanian Mission has been growing steadily over the past 13 years – now about 200 households –
with typically about 100 attending their single Sunday 12:30 mass at OLPH. Starting from the city of Toronto, they now
have parishioners spread widely – Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Markham and beyond. Whitby and Kitchener are their
eastern and western boundaries with Barrie as their northern boundary.
Their Mission has many goals – short and long-term goals. Their dream of having a dedicated church for the Romanian
Catholic Mission is a long-term goal, supported by their parishioners with donations and many fundraising activities. But
a quick calculation showed they may need at least 100 years! They didn’t give up and with increased efforts, it’s been
reduced to 50 years - with hopes of reducing it further. Emil says “We are also aware that what we can do is limited,
and God can do what we can’t. We have seen miracles before, and we believe that if it is God’s will and we do our part,
God will do the rest”.
Another very important goal for their Mission was to support its own pastor, allowing
more pastoral ministry for the Romanian Catholics. Efforts were made and finally in April
2013, a big step was made when a new pastor was appointed.
Fr. Ionel (John) Maier – current Pastor of Romanian Catholic Mission
Fr. John is also from Transylvania in Romania. Born in 1981, he also went to the
same Seminary in Romania and was ordained in 2009. He came to Toronto in March 2013
with his wife and was appointed as the new pastor of the Romanian Mission. Fr. Emil
continues his church ministry on a part-time basis as a “Weekend Assistant” Priest.
It was a major step forward with many benefits for the Romanian Mission. From Fr. Emil’s
perspective, “I’ve been able to continue my ministry for the Romanian Catholics while
taking part in a new pastoral project of the Archdiocese of Toronto for the hospitals. Since February 2013, together with
two other priests, I am ministering the Catholic patients at Sunnybrook, Toronto East General and Baycrest Hospitals.”
The development of parish Ministries is a work in progress. But they already have a Pastoral Council, a Stewardship
Committee as well as Prayer group, Women’s group, Seniors group and Youth group. A choral group helps with their
Sunday Divine Liturgy. Their Sunday School activities varied over the years, with preparation for First
Reconciliation/Holy Communion and Christmas children preparation being their main activities. For the future, they
plan to increase and expand the Sunday School activities…They hold joint Mass/Service with OLPH occasionally, as in
the coming Holy Thursday (they will likely stand out with their colourful vestments!).
Fr. Emil, joined by Fr. John, “want to express our gratitude for being welcomed at OLPH. To Fr Jim Hannah, OLPH pastor
and all the parishioners of OLPH – a big THANK YOU!” (Romanian Catholic Mission - 416-443-8796, email
• Debra Rolph – An Alabama sharecropper’s granddaughter (thanks to Debra for preparing her own profile) Debra Rolph, an usher and a “fixture” at the Sunday 9:30 Mass (in her own words), is the granddaughter of an Alabama sharecropper and a Wisconsin car dealer. How on earth did she find her way to OLPH? Well it was relatively simple. Debra met a Canadian while attending college in Vermont, married him, and moved with him to Toronto in 1973. Her husband, Hal, an Anglican, grew up in Montreal, but like many FLQ’s (fellows who left Quebec), he joined the exodus out of Montreal in the early 1970’s. Upon arrival in Toronto, both attended Osgoode Hall Law School, and lived on campus. Debra’s first Toronto parish was therefore St. Wilfred’s at Finch and Keele Street. Father Cyril Robitaille (former OLPH pastor) was then the pastor at St. Wilfred’s.
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Debra was born in Alexandria, Virginia, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Northern Virginia was and is a great mixing bowl, attracting people from all over the United States to work for the federal government. Such was the case with her parents. Her father escaped the grinding poverty of the depression-era Alabama to join the Navy towards the end of World War II. Her mother left small town Wisconsin to work as a secretary with the government. They met there and were married. Debra says “My father was from a rural fundamentalist background; his father read his Bible every Sunday morning, but refused to join any Church because he objected to what he perceived as the hypocrisy of the membership. He also refused to join the local Klan. Debra’s mother came from an observant Irish/German Catholic family in Wisconsin. She became a teacher, and then a principal, in two Catholic schools in Alexandria, Virginia.” After arriving in Toronto, Debra and her husband Hal obtained their law degrees and called to the Bar. After spending two years on Roehampton Avenue, and attending St. Monica’s, they moved to Chester Avenue in Holy Name Parish. Two daughters, Frances and Megan, were baptized there and both attended Holy Name School. In 1991, the Rolph’s moved to their present home on Inglewood Drive, and joined OLPH . The children went to OLPH School. Daughter Frances was married at OLPH in 2007. About fifteen years ago, Anne Nunez (the late former OLPH parishioner) encouraged Debra to participate more actively in parish life. Her first assignment was to hand out bulletins after the 9:30 Mass. Next, Chris Hay and Mark McConnell, who were then the ushers, asked Debra to also help take up the collection. Eventually, Chris was sadly unable to continue and Mark left the parish. So Debra says “I became ‘chief’ usher at the 9:30 Mass by default. Fortunately, Paul Pierobon has been extremely helpful, but we are always looking for more ushers. It is actually fun to do. We have had ushers as young as 9, and as old as 90! Families willing to take up the offering would also be welcome.” Volunteers are asked to contact Debra at (416) 598-5865 or email [email protected] . In other OLPH ministries, Debra was also a member of the Finance Committee for seven years, the Counting Committee for two years, and has been the leading member of the ShareLife Committee for the past 12 years. For the past 30 years, Debra has worked for the Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Company, which provides malpractice insurance for Ontario’s lawyers. In that capacity, she is the author of many legal papers, and is currently helping to edit a textbook on the law of limitations. She is also her company’s Charities Co-Ordinator. Because donating blood takes little time and no money, she became a regular blood donor, and hopes to make her 150
th donation within
the next two years. Regrettably, Debra says “I have few hobbies or outside interests. This may change when I retire – probably at about the same time Father Hannah does! But you can expect to see me handing out bulletins and passing the basket at the 9:30 Mass for many years to come” (lucky for OLPH!).
• Dr. Jian Yu – Busy Anesthesiologist with extended family Jian Yu was born in Beijing and came to Montreal in 1990. He studied at McGill University
for his undergraduate (1993) and medical school (1997). He did his residency at Harvard
University and Univ. of Western Ontario. He first worked for the Thunder Bay Regional
Health Science Centre. He moved to Toronto in 2002 and has been working as an
anesthesiologist at the Scarborough Centenary Hospital since 2007.
Jian met his wife, Szeuwen Chang, in Boston during his residency and was married there.
He brought her to Toronto in 2002. Szeuwen worked as an architect for a few architect
firms in the GTA before joining Kohn Partnership Architect Inc. for about one year ago.
They have two children - daughter Faith Yuchi is in Grade 5 and son Luke Yuchi in Grade
1, both at OLPH School. Jian’s has three sisters all still living in Beijing.
Jian’s parents, Ruiheng Yu and Huazhen Yang were both born in Catholic families in Northern China. Their faith
devotion continues as they usually attend the weekday noon mass at OLPH – besides the Sunday 9:30 mass, often with
their two younger generations. They are both retired and now live with Jian since they came in 2005. Jian says “they
help us a lot. They send our children to school bus in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. They cook for us on
weekdays - a real bonus help!”. Besides OLPH, they sometimes go to Chinese Catholic churches in Toronto.
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With two young children and his own parents, Jian doesn’t have too much
spare time but he says “I fish as much as I can – ice fishing in Lake Simcoe
(Beaverton) and Rice Lake (Bewdley). I do kayak fishing in Holland River,
Toronto Islands, Algonquin Park and elsewhere”. He leads his kids to the
9:30 Children’s liturgy downstairs and helps out when he can. (Pictured at
right are recent family trips to The Vatican and Xi’An, China)
Best wishes for a Blessed Holy Week and A Joyful & Happy Easter!
The Insider e-Newsletter is published by
OLPH Website Committee
Roy Sakaguchi and Mark Grant
www.olphtoronto.com