The Observation Deck

From Channel 19...

http://www.woio.com/story/17103699/atto ... h-closures

Revenue must be down in the Cleveland Diocese.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

This is entirely unexpected. It will be VERY interesting to see how Lennon and the diocese proceed.

Channel 5 is saying St. James is saved!

WOW -- I am stunned by this news, there is a gathering around the Church right now.

Still some work to be done, but just amazing.

Tim Carroll wrote:WOW -- I am stunned by this news, there is a gathering around the Church right now.

Still some work to be done, but just amazing.

St. James parishioners and friends from the neighborhood gather at St. James minutes
after it was announced that the Vatican had overturned the closing of 13 churches in
Greater Cleveland. St. James was one of them.

Thank God, for this resurrection.

.

St. James saved for sure? They said on tv that the Diocese is sitting on the envelope til tomorrow morning. It would be amazing if true but false hope would be cruel. Wow.

Paul

I heard it discussed on the national news. I think its for real.

Dug these out to remind all of us what we almost lost.






For many it was personal. Here Tim Carroll says goodbye. It should have been personal for all of us.

From my album, St. James' Last Weekend http://lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs/jim-obryan/st-jamess-last-weekend

From Gary Rice http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs/gary-rice/st-james-62010after-mass
Gary's article ""I Am A (St. James) Catholic, Please Call A Priest"" http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/read/2010/01/13/i-am-a-st-james-catholic

The Save St. James Group which gets the credit on this one. http://www.savestjameschurch.com/

.

Hopefully this is not premature, but congratulations to those who worked so hard. I must admit, I thought it was a lost cause.

Where will the priest come from?

Will the parishioners who failed to support their church now support their church? I guess we are about to find out.

Hope, like Spring, would seem to spring eternal.

Especially, from the "Eternal City of Rome".

I also wrote another column about St. James that people may wish to view here:

http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/read/20 ... ineanother

...concerning the church being the PEOPLE, more than any building...

It would, (and HOPE fully WILL) be wonderful to see the beloved Parish of St. James open again... but a reminder here.

The brick-and-mortar building is but a part of the Church.

An essential element here will be the work involved by hundreds of dedicated souls, and especially, the Power of God to work miracles.

...and then, there's that old expression from my Appalachian hills and hollers past: "The Lord helps those who help themselves"

The return of St. James will take hard work, compassion, prayers, ca$h of course, and most of all, Love.

Yes, even, and perhaps... ESPECIALLY for your bishop.

Let your light shine, Lakewood. Resurrections don't come around too often y'know.

Back to the banjo....

Today just keeps looking better, at least for a dozen closed churches in our area that now could be re-opened.

For me, it's getting to be an incredibly emotional day, as well, and I'd like to share why.

I also wrote a column in the Lakewood Observer about another Catholic Church that had been slated to close. (and that did finally close)

St. Barbara...

http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/2009/0 ... the-hillby

That closing decision also apparently seems to have been reversed, thank God, according to the Cleveland Scene website:

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-hea ... es-rejoice

I do know that numerous people took my columns about St. James and St. Barbara, and that a number of them said that they would be "sending them on"... I do recall seeing a huge stack of Observers having my columns in St. James entrance way. I took a number of them over to St. Barbara's, as well, before they closed.

I can't help but wonder if the Lakewood Observer, and my columns, might, in some small way, have helped to sway someone with those two wonderful possible decision reversals that we are hearing about?

I CAN tell you that there was this...this inspiration... that virtually compelled me to write those columns back then-that I simply cannot explain.

Forgive my speculations here. I'm just in awe of what seems to be happening today.

To God goes all the glory.

Back to the banjo...

They might have to reopen it, but does not necessarily mean it will prevent Lennon from closing it the proper way in the future. We have to wait and see what the Vatican says, but I wouldn't quite celebrate yet. Its exciting, and could be potential great, but it doesn't change the fact that the diocese, and the churches, have less money, parishioner are down, and St. James still has a lot of money worth of repairs to be done. we will have to see how this unfolds over the next week, month, and maybe even couple years.

That's true, Chris. While the Diocese chose to push aside the cluster's top recommendations and do it their way, we did agree on one point -- four Catholic churches serving the Lakewood-West Cleveland cluster was not sustainable. If it's not St. James closing, it will probably be one of the others ... maybe not this year, or next, but sometime in the future. I'm fairly certain the outlook as far as Catholics attending mass in our area has not improved in two years.

All I know is, my three years of work on the cluster committee was clearly a monumental waste of energy, time and emotion, during which I witnessed a personal toll being taken on everyone involved. From our work was supposed to emerge a plan to set the course for future Catholics that would last for a very long time. But it feels like we walked around the block, and broke a few windows along the way.