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Mission & Vision
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OUR IDENTITY AND MISSION
We are the Newman Catholic Community, a parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh ministering to students, faculty, and staff of UNC and alumni, families, friends, and visitors to Chapel Hill.
Our mission is to invite people to encounter Jesus Christ and accompany them towards deeper discipleship and commitment to continue His Mission.OUR VISION
Newman fosters growth in Christian discipleship through accepting the invitation to deeper union with God, joyfully responding to truly being Church in fellowship and community, responding to the call to serve the surrounding community and the world.
Grounded by and in vibrant liturgical celebration, we strive to be a local Church community, growing together in our Catholic faith, where all might experience a sense of belonging, both parishioners who live in the greater Chapel Hill area and the UNC students for whom Newman is their home away from home.
We envision a community of active participation and involvement in worship; spiritual growth and development; stewardship of time, talents, and treasure; and service in and for the surrounding community.OUR CORE VALUES
We value Spiritual Growth as disciples of Jesus Christ, to understand and experience Him more deeply and follow Him more closely in our daily lives.
We value Community as indispensable to being a disciple of Jesus Christ, Who desires His followers to come together as one Body.
We value Stewardship because the investment of our treasure, time, and talent signals real commitment to Jesus Christ and His Church.
We value Service which fosters the dignity of every person because we strive to be faithful to the command of Jesus.
Goals and Strategies to Accomplish our Mission in 2021-2022
STRATEGIC DIRECTION #1: Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ, Expressed in Prayer and Sacrament
Goals for 2021-2022:- Develop a broad list of resources (books/articles for free, retreat opportunities, types of prayer, etc.) on the Newman website and highlight in the bulletin on a rotating basis.
- Track the number of hits on core websites (Newman homepage and subpages, YouTube videos, etc.) and attendance at liturgies to create a baseline in 2022.
- Maintain current programs (adoration, prayer of hours, etc.) and experiment with new seasonal options (e.g., Advent, Lent) for various forms of prayer.
- Develop new experiences connected to liturgies to deepen people’s experience of prayer and community (e.g., combined prayer and social involvement/gathering opportunities).
STRATEGIC DIRECTION #2: Attitude of Openness to Grow in Faith
Goals for 2021-2022:- Ensure that the “weekend experience” communicates openness and need for growing in faith by including regular invitations to “go a little deeper.”
- Ensure that in all messaging about the need to grow in faith that “Openness to growth” and “a continual ongoing journey” are twin lenses for approaching the process.
- Organize faith development resources into categories and include a section on the Newman website for listing the catalog with links.
- Create resources and opportunities that explore how doubt is part of the faith journey (e.g., Jesus quoting Psalm 22 in Mt 27:46).
- Become known as a spiritual refuge that welcomes everyone and meets people where they are in their faith development.
Strategic Direction 3: Serve Others Regularly and Tirelessly, After the Manner and Command of Jesus
Goals for 2021-2022:- Collaborate more closely with local organizations that are also on paths of solidarity and service, including Durham County Food Pantry, Habitat for Humanity, IFC, and Orange County Justice United.
- Create at least one opportunity for (pandemic-adjusted) service per month. Create at least one service event per year specifically for participation by families with young children.
- Create multiple joint opportunities for service collaboratively between students and parishioners.
- Help parish deepen its sense of solidarity of givers-receivers (we are accompanying people, not serving from position of power or from a position of control).
HISTORY
The Catholic presence in Chapel Hill dates from at least the 1920’s. In 1922 the newly created St. Thomas More Mission began celebrating Mass for a handful of students in a second-floor room in Gerrard Hall of the University of North Carolina campus. By 1934 the congregation had grown to nearly 200, including some non-students, and Mass moved to the second floor of Graham Memorial. These faithful few pioneers contributed to the conversion of novelist Walker Percy to Catholicism. In 1940 the mission became an independent parish. Its growing size led to Mass being celebrated in the Hill Hall auditorium until a new and proper church was built on Gimghoul Road in 1957.
A separate campus ministry was made necessary by an influx of Catholic cadets to the U.S. Navy pre-flight school beginning in 1942. In 1945 the Diocese of Raleigh purchased the property and “White House” at 218 Pittsboro Street for the Catholic Student Center; a picture of this building can be found near the Pittsboro Street doors of the Church. The continuing growth of the Catholic student population at UNC led the Diocese of Raleigh to demolish the “White House” and replace it with a single-story multi-purpose Church building in 1968; this construction was financed by the first Bishop’s Annual Appeal (BAA). In 1971 Newman was canonically erected as an independent non-territorial parish serving the UNC Chapel Hill community. While it technically bears the title of Mary, Mother of the Church, it remains popularly known and loved as the Newman Catholic Community. Continued growth of the Catholic student population at UNC led in 1999 to an expansion and renovation of the Church building, and in 2013 the next-door Wesley Center was purchased as the Newman Activity Center.
Over the course of the decades Newman has been served by priests of the Diocese of Raleigh, the Society of Jesus, and the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, and, since 2013, by the Conventual Franciscan Friars. Various congregations of religious sisters have also ministered at Newman over the years, including at present the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters of Monroe, MI. Among the many professional staff who have ministered at Newman, special mention must be made of Dale Renguette, the sole staff member for over forty years (a meeting room in the Church building is named after him), and Kathy Martyn, who oversaw the 1999 renovations (she is commemorated by a plaque in the current Reconciliation Room).OUR PATRON
St. John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English theologian, scholar, and poet. Originally a member of the evangelical wing of the Church of England, as an Oxford academic and Anglican priest he was drawn to the high-church tradition of Anglicanism. He became one of the more notable leaders of the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to return to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In 1845 Newman, joined by some but not all of his followers, officially left the Church of England and his teaching post at Oxford University and was received into the Catholic Church.
Ordained a Catholic priest, Newman continued pastoral and theological work at the Oratory in Birmingham. His major Catholic writings include his autobiography Apologia Pro Vita Sua, the Grammar of Assent, The Idea of a University, a large compilation of sermons, several works of poetry, and the popular hymn Lead, Kindly Light, which we sing regularly at Newman. His deep attachment to Oxford University life has led his name to be associated with Catholic campus ministry outreach to higher education. He was created cardinal in 1879 with the motto “Cor ad Cor Loquitur” (“Heart speaks to heart”). He died in 1890 and was canonized in 2019; his feast is October 9.“God has created me to do H
im some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission ... He has not created me for naught ... If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;
If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about."— Saint John Henry Newman (1801 - 1890)