From the Pastor's Desk- June2, 2025
Hello brothers and sisters.
As announced by Bishop Daniel Miehm in April:
Our Lady of Mercy Parish, Honey Harbour and St. James the Great Parish, Mactier
will be served by one parish priest starting June 25, 2025.
Fr. Jithin Jose, CMI has been named Pastor of both parishes.
He will begin his ministry June 25, 2025 and will be living at the parish house in Mactier.
In order for one priest to provide Masses for both parishes we need to change our Mass Schedule.
Bishop Miehm met with the present pastors of Our Lady of Mercy and St. James and your new pastor, Fr. Jithin, to create a new summer schedule that will allow both parishes
to have a Saturday Mass and a Sunday Mass every week
with sufficient time for Fr. Jithin to drive between the four churches he will be serving.
Last weekend I announced the following new Summer Mass Schedule:
Parish Summer Schedule - Starting June 27, 2025
Weekend Masses
Saturday 4pm - St. John the Baptist, Port Severn
Sunday 11am - Our Lady of Mercy, Honey Harbour
Weekday Schedule
Fridays
11:30 Eucharistic Adoration
12:10 Mass
1:00pm- Bible Study (restarting in September after a summer break)
Saturdays- 3:30pm Confessions
As is our custom we will continue to close Our Lady of Mercy Church in the winter,
and re-open on the May Long weekend.
All Masses will be held as St. John the Baptist Church, Port Severn during that time.
Let us keep Fr. Jithin and each other in prayer as these adjustments are made.
For those in the area next weekend - after the 11 am Mass in Honey Harbour on Sunday, June 8, we will have a parish social with a chance for me to say my farewells to you before I move to my new parish at the end of June.
Be assured of my daily prayers for you and your families,
Fr. Charles
A Letter from the Bishop Daniel Miehm
Roman Catholic Diocese of Peterborough
April 10, 2025
Dear Parishioners of Our Lady of Mercy in Honey Harbour and St. John the Baptist in Port Severn,
As Holy Week dawns, I extend to you my prayerful best wishes as we celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
On my recent visit to the parish on Sunday, April 6, I shared with you the decision that was recently made to twin the two parishes of Our Lady of Mercy in Honey Harbour and St. James the Great in MacTier. Such twinning arrangements exist elsewhere in the Diocese of Peterborough, and they work well for small communities, reducing the financial burden on individual parishes and allowing for their longer-term stability.
In view of this, these two parishes will henceforth be served by one priest. I shared with you the plan that the rectory in Honey Harbour would be sold, while the new pastor would live at St. James in MacTier. Since Our Lady of Mercy Church is closed for over half the year and the Honey Harbour community is very tiny in the winter, MacTier presented as the better location for the pastor to reside.
To be clear, this is not a case of one parish being reduced to a mission of the other, but rather a linking of two individual parishes. The assets from the sale of the rectory will remain with Our Lady of Mercy Parish. Those proceeds will be of great help in meeting the future capital needs of the churches in both Honey Harbour and Port Severn.
I shared with you my decision that a new pastor should be assigned for this new parish arrangement, rather than appointing either Father Charles Orchard from Honey Harbour or Father Collins Okafor from MacTier. I understand your disappointment at losing Father Charles, who has led Our Lady of Mercy Parish very ably in his brief tenure. Nonetheless I believe that new leadership is called for to launch this new pastoral arrangement, and I am confident that the priest I have assigned will be well-suited to this task. I will announce his name along with the other clergy assignments for the Diocese of Peterborough in the next few weeks. He will arrive at the end of June.
As I said last weekend, there will be some impact on the Sunday Mass schedule in both parishes as the pastor will be called on to serve four congregations in the busy summer season. I know there will be some inconvenience for parishioners, but I trust that people will work together and strive to adapt to the new situation with patience and goodwill.
Be assured of my commitment to work together with the new pastor and both communities to ensure that this twinning arrangement proceeds as smoothly as possible. I am convinced that this new configuration presents the most secure path forward for both parishes. May God continue to guide, strengthen and pour out abundant blessings on all those who cherish these parishes as places of spiritual nourishment and Christian community.
Yours in Christ,
†Most Reverend Daniel J. Miehm
Bishop of Peterborough
