New Pastor named
The following message is in the bulletins of the June 7 Masses:
The Madeleine Parish Announces New Pastor
As Father Painter used to say, “The Holy Spirit is at work in this parish!” It has become apparent Father was so right when we learned last week that the Archdiocese had already found a new pastor for our community.
Fr. Painter’s funeral was on Tuesday, May 20. Fr. Brennan, Vicar of Clergy for the Archdiocese, had discussed with the Archbishop the possibility of Fr. Michael Biewend as a potential candidate for The Madeleine, however he had not yet talked to Fr. Mike.
After Fr. E.B.’s funeral, Fr. Mike approached Fr. Brennan and asked if he should start packing his bags! Fr. Mike had recognized the need, wanted to continue to work in a parish with a school, and a door opened here at The Madeleine just in time to make that decision and transition by July 1, 2008. That is truly the Holy Spirit at work.
Parochial Vicar Rev. Michael Biewend comes to us from St. Pius X in Beaverton, where he is currently working in an associate pastor role. He is a former Chaplain, Lieutenant Colonel, in the United States Air Force, where he worked as a pastor for 20 years in locales as varied as Germany, Japan, California, Hawaii and Texas. After a yearlong sabbatical, he landed at St. Pius X in 2007.
At the tri-council meeting of May 29, Fr. Brennan described Fr. Mike as someone who is “easy going, extroverted and has a great sense of humor.”
During the month of June, staff and councils will be meeting with Fr. Mike to help him get to know the parish. We hope you will find time to reach out to him and extend him a warm Madeleine welcome. Feel free to introduce yourself when you see him around the church and school, drop a note by the office or join us for the parish-wide social the councils are planning for this fall once Fr. Mike gets settled in and the families return to school.
The Holy Spirit truly was working to enable us to secure such a wonderful priest for our parish in such a short amount of time.
God bless,
The Madeleine Staff and Councils
The following message was read at the Masses of May 31-June 1:
On Thursday evening (May 29) the Administrative, Pastoral, and School Advisory Councils met with Father Pat Brennan, the Vicar for Clergy for the Archdiocese of Portland. He announced to us that a decision had been made for a new pastor for our Madeleine Community.
He is Father Michael Biewend, the current Associate Pastor of Saint Pius the Tenth Parish in Beaverton. He will officially start as our pastor on July 1st.
The Councils will work together to plan a formal parish welcome for Father Biewend. We will keep you informed as we receive information. Next week’s bulletin will have an insert with a more detailed introduction. Continue to watch the Madeleine web site for more information.
The following message is published in the bulletin for the Masses of May 25:
Dear Madeleine Parishioners,
Along with you we are deeply saddened by the death of our pastor, Fr. EB. It is a great loss to our parish community and we grieve with you. We witnessed a community who had great gratitude and love for Fr. EB and honored him by showing that we know how to be one community. His funeral was such a beautiful expression of what it means to be Church. We want to encourage you to continue to work together and support one another. We want to thank you for supporting us with your kind phone calls, offers of help, and words of encouragement and sympathy. We also want you to know that we have most of the coverage for weekend Masses and confessions scheduled through July. We also have coverage for most of the daily Masses. If we don’t get coverage for a particular weekday, there will be a Word and Communion Service.Please be patient with us and we will give you information as we receive it in regards to Fr. Painter’s replacement. Please continue to pray for us and we will pray for you. God Bless,
Your Madeleine Parish Staff