New Pastor Installed for Three Parishes in One

By Marie Elena Giossi

Three faith communities, newly united as one parish under the patron saint of interracial justice, warmly received their new pastor Sunday afternoon, Nov. 4.

Father Paul W. Jervis was installed as pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish, created through the Sept. 1 merger of three Bedford-Stuyvesant churches: Our Lady of Victory, Holy Rosary and St. Peter Claver. Father Jervis had been appointed administrator of St. Peter Claver in June, 2006; Our Lady of Victory in April, 2007, and Holy Rosary in June, 2007.

“This is an important reconfiguration because it’s the first with three parishes joining together,” Msgr. Fernando Ferrarese, episcopal vicar for Brooklyn East, said prior to Mass. “It’s a new model and it’s working well. We want to get the word out that these reconfigurations are a positive thing.”

He commended the new parish’s “sharp and intelligent” transition team who worked on this merger. Headed by Father Jervis, the team was comprised of five-six representatives selected by the pastors of each church almost two years ago. They met to consider each parish’s spiritual practices, population shifts, finances, and clergy availability among other factors. To better address certain aspects of parish life, they formed subcommittees: temporalities, liturgy, societies and organizations, and religious education.

Father Jervis sought advice from the committees who also brought him “their own concerns and the concerns of parishioners.”

Transition team members have now become the de facto pastoral planning council.

Marie Elena Giossi Photos 

NEW PASTOR: Above, Father Paul Jervis, the new pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish, responds to questions from Bishop DiMarzio during installation ceremony at Our Lady of Victory Church. Below, Bishop DiMarzio greets Father Jervis’ mother. Below, the bishop and the new pastor greet members of the flock of St. Martin de Porres parish.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio presided over the 2 p.m. Installation Mass at Our Lady of Victory, which was nearly filled to capacity.

Kevin Johnson from St. Peter Claver helped ushers distribute programs to arriving parishioners. A sixth-grader at St. John the Baptist School, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Johnson thinks the merger is a “good idea,” saying, “Jesus wants us all to work together.”

United Parish Choir

Choirs from all three churches showed how harmoniously they work together as St. Martin de Porres Choir during the opening hymn, “Sing a New Church,” under the direction of S.P.C. organist Daniel McCalla.

Father Jervis smiled as he processed into Mass alongside Msgr. Ferrarese. They were preceded by several familiar faces, including Franciscan Friar of the Atonement Father Martin Carter, S.A., O.L.V.’s immediate former pastor; Father William Smith, Holy Rosary’s former pastor; and Msgr. Joseph Nugent, pastor of Our Lady of the Presentation and a former pastor of O.L.V.

Bishop DiMarzio conducted the installation rite during which he presented the pastor-elect and instructed him to “make every effort to know your flock” and to seek “perfection in love” for them. Msgr. Ferrarese read the document of appointment.

The bishop then shared an account of the life of the new patron, a statue of whom is enshrined in O.L.V.

Life of Patron Saint

Born in Peru in 1579, Martin was the illegitimate son of a freed black slave and a nobleman. He joined the Dominicans first as a lay helper, and then became a brother, caring for the sick and poor until his death in 1639.

“How important he will be to this parish … a place that is open to all people,” the bishop said.

St. Martin de Porres consolidated parish family has about 1,000 members, mostly of African-American and Caribbean descent. Although they are now one parish, the bishop noted that all three churches will stay open, continue to bear their original names and offer a complementary schedule of weekday and weekend Masses.

“They’ll function together as three churches, one parish, one community, like the Trinity, three in one,” he said.

“You have created a wonderful model here. … I want to thank you for what you have done. You have made this easy….

“We have three strong traditions in these churches. Joined together, you are stronger yet,” he said.

He reminded the flock that, as he wrote in his recent pastoral letter, they must revitalize their relationship with Christ and encouraged them to “Be conduits to bring others to Christ.”

Civil trustees from each church and from the merged parish were presented to Father Jervis as was Father Christopher L. Coleman, St. Martin de Porres’ new parochial vicar.

The new pastor and the congregation then responded to a series of questions put forth by the bishop, who extended his hands and blessed Father Jervis. Father Jervis joined in the parish’s profession of faith and then recited his own pastoral oath, which sparked sustained applause.

Father Jervis’ mother Ruby, his sister Angela and nieces Cicely and Christine watched from the front pew. His brother Courtney, sister Pearl and other family and friends sat nearby.

A contingent of former parishioners and friends from St. Paul the Apostle, Corona, clapped in approval as well.

Remarks by New Pastor

In his remarks, Father Jervis said the merger is a means to building up Christ’s Church “not with bricks but with living stones.”

He asked the people gathered before him to work with him “to build a new parish of faith” so “Jesus can lift us and save all of those who are lost.”

Richard Flateau, a self-employed real estate broker and lifelong Claver parishioner, assisted with the merger process by serving on both the transition and temporalities teams.

The temporalities committee, he said, focused on two goals – selecting a business manager and creating a common budget for the consolidated parish – so priests can “focus on evangelization.”

“Churches have a lot of fixed costs and you have to have a plan. You have fuel and electricity costs. That’s why it’s important to get people involved in Sunday collections,” he said, adding that the new parish is starting off in the black.

For his own part, Flateau said, “People have to get over phobias. Once they start to get to know people on a one-to-one basis, the fear that local traditions will be obliterated will pass. Father Jervis plans to keep all the local traditions and that goes a long way toward alleviating fears.”

“This is a new experience and people have fears and there is a sense of loss. People fear losing parish autonomy,” Father Jervis later acknowledged.

“My motto is ‘In unity, there is strength.’ By uniting our work, each one of us becomes stronger,” he said.

The greatest challenges he faces in the days ahead, he noted, are addressing the problems of low Mass attendance at all three churches and the diminishing Catholic population in the neighborhood. He plans to bring the parish together to create “an evangelization program that will work at all three churches and ensure the survival of each one.”

“I look forward to the day when people can’t think of us as being any other way than united,” he said.

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