What Does It Mean To Be a Sister Parish?

by Amy Stewart

Sometime in late 2005, at a parish ministry fair, Maria Boden charmed me into joining the Las Vecinas ministry. My husband, Miles Handley, and I were interested in taking our teenage son on a delegation to El Salvador in June 2006, but the timing didn’t work out for us. Miles and I began helping with ministry activities, and we were finally able to join a delegation in 2010. The bonds of friendship forged with the members of the Las Vecinas ministry at Parroquia San Antonio during that trip have remained strong, reinforced by their almost-annual visits to St. Ignatius. Other parishioners and priests have visited our sister parish before us and after us, always returning with stories of their faith, hard work, and warm hearts.

Those bonds of friendship are at the root of our sister parish relationship with Parroquia San Antonio. In Maria Boden’s words: “Our friends at San Antonio have accompanied me during my illness, lifting my spirits with their concern, love, and sincere prayers. We all grieved together the loss of Padre Estefan, their cherished pastor, to Covid in 2021. Anyone at St. Ignatius can ask for their prayers and be sure of a warm response.”

We also share a deep commitment to serving those who are less fortunate than ourselves. Many St. Ignatius parishioners have experienced the Las Vecinas pancake breakfast, silent auction, and crafts sale, where we raise funds for student scholarships, vocational training classes, disaster relief, and special needs of individuals at Parroquia San Antonio. Our fundraising efforts could mislead people into thinking of this ministry as one in which we are the givers and they are the takers. But in reality, we are full partners with Parroquia San Antonio in efforts to serve the most needy in their communities.

While we at St. Ignatius generously open our wallets and volunteer at Las Vecinas fundraising events, our counterparts at Parroquia San Antonio are doing the work on the ground in Soyapango and neighboring areas in El Salvador. They identify the needs of their community and come up with programs and initiatives that will improve people’s lives. They prepare and deliver the food and other necessities to those in greatest need, whether that be due to extreme poverty, natural disaster, or during the worst of the Covid outbreak. They develop and manage the vocational training classes and select the students who will receive the scholarships. And they keep us involved, sharing updates on the programs and documenting every expense.

Paty Lazo, who has been part of the ministry at Parroquia San Antonio from the beginning, describes Las Vecinas this way: “I believe we are part of the Lord's people called by Jesus through Saint Romero, chosen in fraternity to unite our gifts, abilities, and values to the feeling of the Church that puts the faith it preaches into practice. This means feeling the needs of our brothers and sisters as our own and being an agent of change in the midst of indifference.”

Our sister parish connection gives us the opportunity to live the Gospel message that we are all one family, that borders do not separate the Body of Christ, and that we are doing God’s work when we take care of our neighbors and serve the least among us. Our partners in El Salvador tell us that this relationship gives the people they serve hope, assuring them that they are not alone, that they have not been abandoned. Uniting the efforts of both parishes in the Las Vecinas ministry allows us to share the grace and joy of connection that comes with caring for others.

Amy Stewart, Coordinator, Las Vecinas Ministry

Photo: Parroquia San Antonio Soyapango, 2011