Eight people from St. Mathew Parish visited 350 homes throughout Morningside and East English Village neighborhoods Nov. 15
DETROIT — Towering over Interstate 94 and Detroit’s Morningside neighborhood, St. Matthew Parish is an impressive landmark on the city’s east side.
But many of St. Matthew’s neighbors have never entered the historic church.
So, one Saturday, a group of parishioners thought it best to go out into the neighborhood and bring the church to them.
Eight people gathered at St. Matthew on Nov. 15, equipping themselves with information about the parish and bags of cookies, and knocked on doors, introducing themselves to neighbors and extending a friendly invitation to the parish.
Parishioners told Detroit Catholic they were following Pope Francis' model of accompaniment, getting to know the people who live in the area and letting them know St. Matthew is also their parish.
“I think we baked over 300 cookies and packed them into bags, and then we put a little tiny prayer card with a Bible verse on it — different Bible verses for different bags — one or two cookies and a card with information about the parish,” said Danielle Center, herself a parishioner of nearby St. Augustine and St. Monica who joined the St. Matthew outing.
Don't miss another story
Did you know you can get Detroit Catholic's latest articles delivered to your inbox? It's easy and free to sign up!
After a quick prayer together, the group went out, two by two, knocking on doors, introducing themselves to neighbors and offering prayers, assistance or even a listening ear.
“It’s a little tricky because, of course, not everyone answers the door, but everyone who did answer the door was very kind, very receptive and grateful to receive a cookie,” Center said.
Center said just about everyone was familiar with the historic parish, but perhaps not familiar with Catholic terminology.
“I’m the one who made the handout, so I tried to use terms that aren’t terms that only an ‘insider’ would know,” Center said. “Instead of saying, ‘Come join us for Mass,’ if you’re not Catholic, that doesn’t make any sense to you. You don’t know what that means, and you may not know what’s going to be expected of you.”
Instead, Center said, neighbors were invited to upcoming holiday events and social gatherings at the parish — shallow entry points. The door-to-door evangelists visited about 350 homes in the neighborhood.
“I was very surprised as evangelization is quite a new concept for Catholics,” St. Matthew parishioner Ruth Ann Conn said. “People asked us a few questions about the church. I don’t think there was anyone who immediately shut the door after they opened it. They inquired about the upcoming programs in our flyers, specifically the music programs for the holiday. Some even said they were looking for a new church.”
In addition to sharing information and cookies, the teams from St. Matthew offered to pray for their neighbors.
“I felt like there was a strong sense of people needing this kind of hope in their lives,” Conn said. “Catholics don’t really have much experience doing door-to-door evangelization, but the people I spoke with were enthusiastic that we came out to see them.”
After two hours, the evangelists reconvened at St. Matthew to share their experiences, with each reporting at least one powerful encounter with a person they had met.
“God is always faithful, and the experiences we had that day were ones of deep grace,” Center said. “There is a personal risk in doing things with Jesus. The risk is that you don’t know how people are going to react, but I’ve always noticed that God is faithful. I believe that when you set yourself in the hands of God as one of His tools, He’ll use you and bring you the people who need you.”
St. Matthew Parish was buzzing the following day as the evangelists shared their stories, with other parishioners asking how they can get involved. St. Matthew is inviting neighbors to tour the historic church with Fr. Duane Novelly on Nov. 30, and the parish has an upcoming Advent concert that parishioners hope will serve as “shallow-entry points” to the church.
“This is what Jesus calls us to do in the Gospel, to spread the word,” Conn said. “A lot of times, people who maybe don’t go to church or don’t have any religious faith are just waiting to be introduced. So be bold, don’t be afraid. There are going to be people who won’t accept us, but we can start that small, little tiny seed of faith with people just by being there.”
The door-to-door evangelists also are composing short stories to be published in the bulletin, sharing their experiences.
“As a lifelong Catholic, this was a very emotional and wonderful experience, and I pray that others will take the opportunity to spread the news about their faith and bring the word of God to as many people as we can,” Conn said.
Center added it was a grace-filled day for both the evangelists and the people they encountered.
“A few days afterwards, I ran into the volunteers, and every single one of them shared stories of God’s goodness and grace with each other,” Center said. “But the day was for the parish as well, because everyone that Sunday was talking about what we did, they made announcements about it, asking us when we re doing it again.”
The timing of the outing coincided with the Archdiocese of Detroit's announcement of a two-year restructuring initiative, which only made parishioners more curious about the evangelization outing, Center said.
“People were coming up to us and asking when we're going out and how they could get to be a part of it the next time we go out,” Center said. “The church is always changing, because God hears the cries of the poor and asks us to respond. So our response, perhaps, is always going to look agile — to not be afraid to take bold steps into the pace where God is inviting us to go.”
