This weekend we are officially introducing our new parish as St. Mary of the Rosary Parish, as decreed by Bishop Thomas Daly of the Diocese of Spokane. The new decree outlines the reorganization of the parishes of: Holy Rosary Parish, Chewelah (St. Mary of the Rosary’s original name), Sacred Heart Parish, Springdale, Holy Ghost Parish, Valley, and The Church at Jump off Joe (St. Joseph’s). Prior to this new document, there is no diocesan decree regarding a name change for St. Mary of the Rosary from Holy Rosary (established in 1885), but we assume the new name started being used around the 1940s/50s as we look back at several records. The four corporations of St. Mary of the Rosary, Holy Ghost, Sacred Heart and St. Joseph have also now been merged as one corporation, officially as of Oct. 7, 2024, the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary. The boundary description for St. Mary of the Rosary Parish has also been updated to incorporate and include the boundaries previously defined for St. Mary’s, Holy Ghost and Sacred Heart. (See the photo for the boundary map - everything highlighted in orange is now the St. Mary of the Rosary Parish boundary). The Bishop’s decree begins: “After consultation with the Presbyteral Council, and having heard the interested parties, in order to provide for the pastoral ministry of these parishes and stewardship of their temporal goods, I decree as follows: The territory of Holy Rosary Parish, commonly known as St. Mary of the Rosary Parish, shall be expanded to include the territory formerly assigned to Holy Ghost Parish and Sacred Heart Parish. The title of the reconfigured Parish shall be ‘St. Mary of the Rosary.’ As juridic persons, the parishes of Sacred Heart and Holy Ghost are suppressed. However, Holy Ghost Church will remain as a location for the celebration of sacred rites and other pastoral activities...The Church of St. Joseph at Jump Off Joe remains open on a seasonal basis as a place of worship within St. Mary of the Rosary Parish.” The new logo for St. Mary of the Rosary Catholic Parish was hand-drawn by Patsy Cotter with guidance from the pastoral council. In the coming weeks, it will continue to be refined as we work to digitalize it. Blue, a common Marian color, will become one of the main colors we will use within all our communication such as on our website, Flocknote, and our printed bulletin. You’ll see that we have also updated the parish name on our website, Flocknote and Facebook page to be consistent with our new name, St. Mary of the Rosary Parish. To sign up for our weekly Flocknote newsletter, go to stmaryrosary.flocknote.com. Our parish plans to become more active on all our digital platforms as it is one of the goals of our new pastoral plan, and especially as our Restoring Beauty project fundraising is now underway. Thank you to everyone who has assisted in this reorganization of our parishes, a goal we have been working toward for about nine months. It’s been a lot of work, time and effort for all our staff and several volunteers. Thank you for being open to this idea of a new Parish. Our liturgies and ministries serve all of the parishioners and communities in South Stevens County and that goal will continue, whether there’s a physical location there or not, as we continue to grow our parish and serve our community.