02/09/2026
Dear parish family,
I would like to address this concern before some people who might feel we are abandoning our duties to provide religious education to our children.
From the note that Renee, our Coordinator for Religious Education, sent out yesterday, we are literally at maximum capacity for our Religious Education program. That means we have exhausted our fire code-permitted capacity at Chapel 3 to provide a safe environment for our children. Please know that we are actively pursuing and exploring alternative options and sites with DoWEA and other Chaplain Corps facilities to respond to this year's growth. Nonetheless, we cannot make any firm promise until viable solutions can be secured.
Here are three important facts:
1. We maxed out every available room and space that can be used for teaching purposes at Chapel 3, including the cry room, to accommodate the growing needs.
2. We are sitting at 150+ registrations for this year (110+ from last year). That number does not include OCIA and OCIY participants, which are expected to be 50+ on top of the regular number.
3. We have a little more than 20 catechists, and we are utilizing each and every one of them to be in compliance with our Chaplain Corps' LOS program as well as the Church's directions to ensure a safe and sound environment for our children. We need at least 5 to 6 regular and substitute catechists to ensure coverage when someone is not feeling well or unable to teach due to family needs. The harvest is indeed abundant, but the laborers are few!
Please hear it from me that we are not intentionally turning down anyone, but we are running out of rooms and options at the moment. We ask that those who are registered be respectful of the catechists' sacrifices and be committed to the program, especially in taking your child(ren) to class, because your child(ren)'s presence means a commitment of funding and resources on our part. It also means we have to put someone else on the waiting list or be unable to respond to their desire to be at Holy Family's Religious Education program. Most important of all, we want you to know that your tithe and financial support to the parish permit us to supplement resources that are not readily available from government funding so we can continue to support our parish's growing needs.
For those who are on the waiting list, please accept my sincere apology, and please try to utilize other local installations if you would like to have your children attend Religious Education this year, or communicate with Renee to be put on the waiting list. We will communicate with you once we have open spaces to respond to the growing needs.
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
- Padre Khoi