Saturday evening, the Vigil of Pentecost, we hear (or heard) Jesus speak about the Spirit “on the last and greatest day of the feast.”

With Pentecost, we reach a milestone. We’ve kept 50 days of Easter joy. We’ve arrived at the moment that began with the preparations for Lenten fasting and prayer. We’ve celebrated the Lord’s death and resurrection. We’ve baptized new believers. We’ve welcomed children to the Lord’s table for the first time. Today we confirm our young people. It feels like we’ve done a lot. Time to sit back and relax. It’s summer, after all, isn’t it?

Think again. We have many things coming up these summer months. Part of me wants to list out everything going on this summer. But, I’m afraid that’ll be rather more confusing than useful. Let’s focus on one item: Our parish linkage with St Ann’s Parish.

In a perfect world, this would all happen in one fell swoop. Come July, we’d be assigned an assistant priest. We’d adjust Mass schedules for Sundays, weekdays, and special occasions. We’d come to a quick agreement on how to manage properties, how to combine (or not) activities and ministries. Then we’d sit back and let the whole system work.

But it’s not a perfect world. So, come July, we get our assistant priest. The rest we need to stage. We won’t be officially linked (that is to say, share one priest for two parishes) until October. Some things we can begin sooner rather than other. Others will wait. What will we do immediately in July?

First, the Sunday (including Saturday evening) schedule: The only change this summer will be moving the 10:30 am to 11:00 am. That begins July 5/6. That shift poises us to embrace the new St Ann/St Boniface schedule when October comes. It also means we don’t have to complicate our lives with second adjustments for college students or religious education students. (In other words, we don’t welcome those groups with one schedule in August/September and then say, “But, we’ll change it a few weeks from now.”)

Second, the weekday schedule: Beginning July 7, our schedule will be as follows:

• 7:00 am Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday at St. Lawrence Church
• 7:00 am Wednesday at Divine Providence Chapel
• 8:00 am Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday at St. Boniface Church

This schedule stays in place until October, when we incorporate St. Ann’s Church as a worship site. Not that the times set reflect the overwhelming majority of the responses on our recent survey. We will consider all options as we weave in the third worship space in October.