Ministries & Organizations 
Alphabetic Listing

Contact: Jackie Ellis  

Altar Servers are boys and girls who have received First Communion. They are prepared to assist the priest during our Masses. Note: Due to COVID-19,  Altar Servers currently are not serving at Mass, except for special occasions. Watch for updates here and in parish communications. 

Contact: Jackie Ellis

Senior Altar Servers are adults who assist at funeral Masses and special liturgies. 

Contact: Davesene Lawson, president

The core mission of the Holy Cross Altar Society is to provide care for the altar and worship space at Holy Cross.  Check back soon for additional details. 

Contact: office@holycrossdurham.org

Click to contact our office manager, Toni Hall, to start the process for the Baptism of your child. She will inform Gina Cain Tate, our Baptism catechist. 

Contact: Ava Thompson: 

Mission Statement

The Care for Creation Ministry (previously called Environmental Justice) supports parishioners in practicing the Catholic Social Teaching: Care for God’s Creation   and protection of people and the planet through education, advocacy, service and worship.

Education

• Develop quarterly themes and provide educational opportunities.
• Plan and host annual Earth Day events.
• Encourage Youth Ministry to attend interfaith Youth Climate Conference and other programs in the area.
• Encourage Youth Ministry to incorporate climate change in its curriculum and activities.
• Publish and distribute a quarterly e-newsletter.
• Create a list of parishioners who have an interest in areas of environmental justice to assist with planning events and leading climate conversations.

Advocacy

• Disseminate Care for Creation advocacy information to parishioners.
• Hold letter-writing campaigns by youth and adults to elected officials to support policies that address climate change.
• Encourage the use of washable plates and tableware for small parish events. 
• Establish and implement a parish policy to purchase compostable plates, cups and flatware for events.
• Ask all ministries that have meetings or events to use only compostable or washable plates and other tableware.
• Encourage providing only enough food for events that will be consumed, to eliminate waste.
• Create signs that encourage the separation of compostable serviceware and vegetable scraps from non-compostable food scraps.
• Add all compostable food scraps to the composting station adjacent to the Sharing Garden.

Service

• Research opportunities to partner with community groups to assist with projects, such as clean-up of greenways and creeks.
• Join tree planting projects, especially in low-resource neighborhoods.

Worship

• Ask our clergy, whenever possible, to integrate climate change and creation care in their homilies.
• Ask the Liturgical Ministry to include World Day of Prayer for Care for Creation in the parish’s liturgical calendar. 

Contact: Anna Rzewnicki, (content) and Kevin Green (technology)

Team coordinators: Anna Rzewnicki and Kevin Green. Team members: Toni Hall, Quincy Purvis, Don Baker, Renee Nixon, and parish ministry leaders

Communications strives to collaborate with all parish ministries, organizations, and staff to keep our parish, the local community and diocese informed and engaged. 

Opportunities include: 

• Photography and videography
• Writing feature stories for our news blog
• Assisting with our livestream processes
• Technical support and training for use of technology resources
• Contact list management 
• Coordinating with ministry leaders to maintain a parish editorial calendar
• Posting updates to our parish website and social media
• Preparing content for our electronic billboards 

If interested in sharing your communication skills or gaining experience, click to send an email message to Anna Rzewnicki. 

Parishioners are encouraged to look beyond themselves to people in our

Community and  to share the love of Christ. Holy Cross does this through

participating in existing outreach programs, listed below. Contact: Ava Thompson.

Contact: Quincy Purvis

Do you have medical credentials and experience as an emergency responder? If so, would you like to be on the parish's list of emergency response volunteers to assist with immediate medical needs until emergency health services arrive? Click to send a note to office@holycrossdurham.org. Include your credentials and which Mass you normally attend (when attending in person).  

Contact: Deacon Phil Rzewnicki, OFS

Click here to explore the the resources available through the parish's account with FORMED, an online Catholic faith formation resource for individuals and families. You will need to register to access the parish's account (there is no charge to you). Click to open the registration page and follow the steps to create your account. Enter Holy Cross Catholic Church and our zip code (27713), then check your email messages at the address you entered when signing up and follow the remaining steps. There is no charge for parishioners to use FORMED resources. 

Also, visit our parish online calendar and News Blog for faith formation oppportunities provided by Deacon Phil and Fr. Pius Wekesa and others at Holy Cross.. 

Contact: Kierston Abernathy-Brown, Director of Religious Education

Holy Cross provides faith formation for our youth, from kindergarten through grade 12, and includes music, sacramental preparation and ongoing faith formation. Contact: faith.formation@hcdnc.org

Contact: Nadine Goodwin Blake 

This council is comprised of individiuals with finance management experiene who serve as advisors to our pastor on financial matters of the parish. 

Contact: Gloria Burton

Funerals are coordinated with the help of the parish's Liturgy Committee. Coordinators: Gloria Burton and Liz Rolllins. 

This position is currently being filled by interim volunteers . Those interested in serving in this role are invited to contact Fr. Pius. 

The Holy Cross Gospel Choir leads us in songs of prayer and praise at our 10 AM Sunday Mass, under the leadership of Gloria Burton, choir director. The repertoir includes African American spirituals and hymns, contemorary Gospel music and traditional Catholic hymns.  

Contact: Rodi Lane

Our Grounds Beautification Ministry manages gardens that enhance parish grounds, including container plants, flower/shrubbery  beds

and indoor plants in our gathering space. Contact Rodi Davis-Layne by calling or texting at 919 824 8270.

If you prefer to grow and harvest vegetables, scroll down to the Sharing Garden entry.

Contact: Chris Cameron, Lector Coordinator 

The ministry of a lector is to read the Word of God from the lectionary containing Sacred Scripture. Lectors must be available for periodic training.  Proclaiming the Word as a lector helps the parishioners develop a warm and living love for Sacred Scripture.  Click to send an email message to christine.cameron@frontier.com.

The celebration of Mass and other liturgies is enhanced by the active participation of the faith community. While delegated by the Bishop to oversee the liturgical life of the parish, pastors need the help of those in their faith communities who are serious about living out their baptismal right and responsibility to worship. Read what the USCCB write about the role of members of the church in liturgy.  

The Liturgy Committee also assists families with planning the funeral of a deceased family member. 

Consider serving in the liturgical ministries listed below.

• Altar Servers
• Altar Society
• Choir Members
• Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion at Mass
• Eucharistic Ministry to the Homebound
• Lectors
• Ushers

The Holy Cross Men's Society supports parish youth by raising funds for the parish's annual college scholarship fund. Scholarships are awarded to Holy Cross college-bound youth who have excelled in their high school education. This organization also hosts or supports several parish events each year.  President: CC Fisher; Treasurer: James Turner; Secretary, Quincy Purvis

Contact: Yvonne Fisher

These volunteers count and process funds collected at our weekend Masses. Each group volunteers to serve about once a month.

Contact: Ava Thompson

Outreach and Social Justice Ministry at Holy Cross has four components:

• Advocacy  is action that speaks in favor of, recommends, argues for a cause, supports or pleads on behalf of others. Holy Cross is a member of the Durham Congregations in Action (DCIA) and Durham Congregations and Neighborhoods (Durham CAN). Both serve as a forum for increasing awareness and advocate for action. 
• Durham CROP Hunger Walk is an annual global fundraising effort to help the needy, here in Durham and elsewhere. Contact: Debbie Hilliard. 
• Education helps parishioners to understand that the social teaching of the Catholic Church is essential to our faith. The OSJ team incorporates education in events it offers throughout the year.
• Outreach is the practice of looking beyond ourselves to the people around us and sharing the love of Christ to serve and connect with our community. We do this through our ministries within our parish, in our community and beyond. 
• Ongoing outreach activities include our Sharing Garden and Packaged Food  Donation ministries, responding to local community needs.
• Global solidarity is the promotion of unity within the entire human family. It is active commitment to our world neighbors and a shared responsibility for all humanity.  Our OSJ efforts encourage solidarity with others, locally and globally. 

Parish Life committee members strive to create and sustain a strong and supportive church community that celebrates and enhances the life and spirit of all parishioners. This includes organizing, sponsoring, and/or hosting opportunities for parishioners to meet and interact, compete and play, eat and drink, love, share and bond.  Activities include annual or seasonal events as well as:

• Welcome receptions for new parishioners 
• First weekend receptions 
• Celebrating parish milestones
• Family life-focused events
• Parish-wide events that bring together those attending all our Masses 
• Meals and activities that uplift, support, and bring comfort to those going through a difficult time

Pastoral care brings Church to members of our parish in need. To protect their privacy, those in need of services from the Pastoral Care Team should contact the pastor directly or ask a relative or advocate to get in touch on on their behalf.  

• Email: pastor@holycrossdurham.org
• Pastor's emergency phone number: 919-943-0728.

Following are the ministries that assist with Pastoral Care 

• Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist for the Homebound: Holy Cross Eucharistic Ministers visit parishioners who are homebound or in care centers. Ministers pray with the parishioner and administer communion. Coordinator: Deacon Phil Rzewnicki, OFM  
• Prayer Support: Prayer is a powerful resource. Send a message to our office manager to have your name or the name of a loved one added to the prayer list in the parish Bulletin. office@holycrossdurham.org.

The Pastoral Council serves as a consultative body to the pastor, assisting with pastoral planning and goal setting, developing and implementing pastoral programs, improving pastoral services, and evaluating pastoral effectiveness. Members of the council are chosen from registered members of the parish in full communion with the Catholic Church. Our current Pastoral Council president is Ron Patterson. 

RCIA volunteers journey with adults seeking to join the Catholic Church through the sacraments of initiation. Adult volunteers in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program meet with, read, pray, discuss and witness to the Catholic faith. Contact: Deacon Phil Rzewnicki, OFM

Holy Cross welcomes those who have left the Catholic Church for any reason and are now discerning a return to active participation in the life of the Church and reception of the Sacraments.. 

Active Holy Cross parishioners are invited to consider serving as companions for those returning to the Church. Using resources from the Landings program, volunteers will be prepared to meet and talk with returning Catholics, helping to introduce them to the parish and refresh their understanding of Church teachings. 

Deacon Phil Rzewnicki, OFS, can provide spiritual direction, if desired, and our pastor, Fr. Pius Wekesa, will be available for reconciliation and to address concerns, as needed.  Holy Cross parishioners interested in serving in this Landings ministry may contact Deacon Phil. Click  for his email address.

This group, which meets once a week to pray the Rosary for special intentions currently is not meeting due to COVID-19 restrictions. Please watch parish news and announcements. Details will be posted here when available. 

The Diocese of Raleigh requires all people who work in leadership roles, engaging with children and youth in our parishes and schools, to attend a Safe Environment Training (SET) event, to learn how to recognize and report child abuse. 

As a parish and a diocese, we are working to provide safe environments for children. Holy Cross offers Safe Environment Training (SET) sessions for those who work with children in faith formation or other environments or who simply want to know how to help ensure a safe environment for children. 

Those working with children in any capacity are asked to complete an SET training session every five years. Read more here. If you are interested in attending an SET workshop, send a message to Kay Patterson, with SET Training Request in the subject line. 

For additional assistance, contact the Diocese of Raleigh Office of Child and Youth Protection at 1-866-535-7233 or send an email message to SET.support@raldioc.org.

Sacristans assure all items are in place for the celebration of Mass. If interested in joining this ministry. Click here to send an email message to Judy Gardiner.

The Sharing Garden is a ministry within the parish's Outreach and Social Action ministry. Gardeners rent a garden bed to grow produce for their own use, and also help with the 'sharing beds' where we grow produce to share with the Durham Coimmunity Food Pantry, for distribution to their clients throughout the growing season. For details, contact Anna Rzewnicki, garden@holycrossdurham.org

This ministry  focuses on increasing awareness of our responsibility as citizens to vote in public elections. Contact: Marie Richards

Ushers assist with the movement of people in the church.