Greetings Columbia River Catholic Community,

I am blessed to be your Parish Manager, assisting Fr. Nathe, our wonderful staff, and so many volunteers with the leadership of our amazing parish family, Columbia River Catholic Community.  I have been in this role now for 18 months and am still learning so much all the time.  By the time I retire, I might have it figured out 😊.  I worked in business for forty years, and the differences between working in that world and the world of the Church are dramatic.  In many ways, I’m relearning so many things, especially priorities, such as how much the Lord and you matter.  

I was born in Pannur, a traditional Catholic village of about 750 families in northeast Tamil Nadu State, India, on December 17, 1965. Catholicism in this area goes back to Saint Thomas the Apostle, who came to India in 51 AD. He first landed in Karala and then he came to Chennai, the nearest metropolis to my village. Our Catholic Faith goes back to the Apostle; he is the founder of Christianity in India.

In his apostolic exhortation The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis writes, “The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community.” As we look to the future in the Archdiocese of Seattle, the Lord is calling us to this openness and creativity.

We face immediate and long-term challenges that call us to move beyond the familiar and the comfortable. These challenges also provide an opportunity for us to grow in our life in Jesus Christ, to accompany one another on the journey of faith, and to live the joy of the Gospel each day.