Our Needs
Queen of Peace, the newest and largest church in Dickinson, has three areas of need: pastoral, educational, and maintenance. Foremost of these is pastoral as our large and growing faith community has a greater need for pastoral care than our one priest can provide. Providing the facilities that are necessary for a parochial vicar (associate pastor), as well as seminarians and visiting pastors will help our pastor fulfill all his obligations to the spiritual and temporal welfare of our parish.
Our educational and maintenance needs apply to our responsibility to raise funds for the newly built Trinity High School, the necessity of purchasing a new boiler, and the completion and funding of the remaining elements of our landscaping project.
Need for a Rectory That Can House More Than One Priest
Although the current house that is serving as the rectory is sufficient for Fr. Shannon’s needs, it does not meet the requirements set for housing an additional priest. The diocese requires that a rectory provide each resident priest a personal suite – a bedroom, bathroom, and study. Ideally it would also include a chapel.
As our parish membership has grown and our ministry has expanded, it is evident to all that additional pastoral assistance is needed. Fr. Shannon wants to adequately care for and nurture our faith community, which is difficult for one priest in a parish the size of Queen of Peace. One can imagine how one priest is stretched and taxed to serve all who desire and need his guidance. Though lay leadership is essential to a healthy ministry, a parochial vicar is necessary to effectively serve our community especially in sacramental needs.
The house currently being used as the pastor’s residence limits our parish to having one priest. And, one priest is unable to effectively attend to all the needs of the parishioners, services, programs, and ministries. So, many opportunities are being lost, such as:
- Being unable to strengthen our current services and programs.
- Being able to implement additional programs and services to better provide for our community.
- Being unable to deliver more catechetical instruction to our members, particularly our children and young adults.
- Our pastor being unable to visit more homebound parishioners because of constraints on his time.
- Our pastor being unable to be as involved in and supportive of our current exciting ministries, programs, and services because of his being too busy.
- Eliminating the Sunday 7:30 a.m. Mass because Abbot Brian and other Abbey priests are no longer able to provide adequate Sunday coverage.
- Being unable to invite seminarians to experience pastoral ministry at Queen of Peace Parish.
- Being unable to invite retired priests to continue providing priestly ministry to our parish and the community (rather than having to move to Bismarck as in a recent case).
Need to Help Support the Building of New Trinity High School
Our parish, along with the other three parishes of the Dickinson Catholic Schools, is being asked by the Diocese to help fund the building of the new Trinity High School. We are responsible for raising our share of the cost.
Need for New Boiler
The boiler, original to the church building, is inefficient and unreliable. For several years, weekly problems have resulted in many times when the church is not heated properly. We need an energy-efficient, updated, and reliable boiler to service our church building.
Need to Eliminate Any Remaining Landscaping Debt
We recently addressed several issues in the southwest corner of our property with a landscaping project. Drainage issues were addressed, exposed mechanical boxes that were covered with bushes were cleared, and we created additional outdoor gathering space directly outside of the community room. We have remaining debt on this project that needs to be paid.