Each year we have a collection for a mission, often connected to our diocese. This year is unique in that, not only is the missionary from our diocese, but three of his sisters were religious sisters with either the Sisters of Mercy or the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Father Damian Milliken, OSB grew up in Elmira and, after seminary training was sent by his order to Tanzania in 1960. There his focus has been education for girls in a country where women are not held in very high regard. Today Father Milliken is the manager of a residential high school for 900 girls which ranks among the best schools in the country.

As a true missionary, he and an order of Religious Sisters, set aside 25% of the enrollments for girls who come from families who live in homes without electricity, running water, or even the things that poorer people in our country take for granted.

The connection grows stronger in that parishioners from our neighboring parish of St. Joseph have had the opportunity to visit the school on three “pilgrimages” over the past nine years. This past year Father Jim Schwartz led a group of six who spent a week there and were overwhelmed with the vitality of the students as well as the beauty of the country.

Father Jim will be our mission speaker the weekend of June 23rd, saving Fr. Damian from making the trip. At 86 he still works 12-hour days, seven days a week, but knows that Fr. Jim will tell the story of the mission with clarity and enthusiasm.

Two different sessions have been set aside for a slide show and discussion of the work being done prior to Mission Sunday. The sessions are both on Tuesday June 18th at 9:45am to 11:15am, and 7:00pm to 8:15pm in the Parish Hall. All are welcome!