Congratulations Resurrection Parish
Honored with the 2019 Senior Spirit Award

​Over the last 10 years, Resurrection Roman Catholic Parish in Johnstown has developed into a faith community whose acts of service have blessed others within and far beyond the Johnstown area. The parish is to receive the 2019 Spirit of Community award, given to seniors in a group or organization that supports and improves the lives of people in the community.

Resurrection Roman Catholic Parish is made up of five Cambria City churches that merged in July of 2009, bringing their own cultural backgrounds and abilities together to form a larger, stronger community of faith, said Michelle Rager, chairwoman of the parish council and president of the church’s ladies auxiliary.

Resurrection parishioners work together on a variety of community service projects: a sewing ministry, where prayer blankets are made and given to anyone who is ill or struggling and in need of comfort; an unused card ministry, in which they collect greeting cards received in mail solicitations and distribute them to residents at 13 area nursing homes; and collecting nonperishable food items for the West End Food Pantry, travel-size personal care items for Highlands Health — Laurel Highlands Free and Charitable Medical Clinic and items for the Cambria City Mission, among others.

The parish also takes a group of adults and youth on an annual mission trip to a community in West Virginia, where they make home repairs for and help the area’s residents in need.

​“We’ve really come together as a parish community and when there’s a need, someone decides we’re going to do this and people will help,” Rager said. “We are five ethnic parishes that merged, so I think through a lot of the things we do, we still try to keep the importance of ethnicity and those cultures alive.”
She said the parish members were both surprised and honored to learn about receiving the Arbutus Senior Spirit award.

“I think (it was) a little bit of shock, because this is just what we do,” Rager said. “This is part of who we are, giving back . . . trying to help out where we can.
​
“This shows that you can merge five parishes together. Are there ups and downs? Absolutely, but in the end you come out so much stronger and further ahead because we are pulling together and we know what our mission is.”