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Community Events, News & Events

Bishop Checchio will ordain Ketan Christian, the first Gujarati as a Deacon along with 15 candidates and one other as a transitional Deacon.

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Bishop Checchio will ordain Ketan Christian, the first Gujarati as a Deacon along with 15 candidates and one other as a transitional Deacon. The ordination will take place on Friday, May 03, 2024, at 4:00 PM at The Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, 32 Elm Avenue, Metuchen, NJ 08840.

Bishop Checchio will ordain Ketan Christian, the first Gujarati as a Deacon along with 15 candidates and one other as a transitional Deacon. May 03, 2024

The permanent Deacon is an ordained member of the Church who has received the sacrament of Holy Orders (as does a Bishop and Priest) and is deemed a cleric. Permanent Deacons make promises of obedience to the Bishop. They also promise to pray the Liturgy of the hours each day for all the people of God. Deacons can perform Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals. A Deacon also assists Priest or Bishop at Mass and may give the Homily.

From Left Max, Stephanie, Ketan Cristian, Bishop James Checchio, Ila Christian and Christine.

My younger brother and son of Late Mr. Joseph Beda Parmar and Late Sushila, Ketan Christian is married to Ila Christian and they are proud parents of three beautiful daughters, Christine, Stephanie and Sydney living in South Plainfield for the last twenty plus years. He and his family are the members of the Church of the Sacred Heart in South Plainfield, NJ 07080. Coincidently Bishop Checchio was ordained and installed as a fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen in the same very Church of the Sacred Heart in South Plainfield on May 03, 2016. On the 8th anniversary of his ordination to bishop on May 03, 2024, Bishop Checchio will ordain Ketan as a Deacon. May 3rd is the Feast of Saints Philip and James.

Ketan and Family Invite to attend the ordination to the Sacred Order of Deacon – May 03, 2024

Link of Live streaming – https://www.youtube.com/@CathedralofStFrancisofAssisi/stream

Pease note Ketan and family is pleased to invite you for dinner after the ordination on May 03, 2024 at 6:30 PM at Royal Albert’s Palace, 1050 King Georges Post Rd, Fords 08863. Please RSVP by April 26, 2024 Call/Text (732)331-5192

Ketan and Family invite for dinner after the ordination on May 03, 2024

Traditionally, the beginning of the order of deacons is traced back to the story in Acts of the Apostles, Acts 6: 1-6. The time finally came during deliberations of the Second Vatican Council in 1963, calling for restoration of the diaconate as a permanent level of Holy Orders. In June 1967 Pope Paul VI implemented this decree of the Council when he published the apostolic letter “Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem” (“The Sacred Order of the Diaconate”) in which he re-established the permanent diaconate in the Latin Church.

Please click here to read: THE PERMANENT DIACONATE: A HISTORY.

Please click here to read: Diaconate A Short History of the Permanent Diaconate.

The very first time in US history five men from the Archdiocese of Baltimore were ordained as a Deacon On June 12, 1971 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland.

Members of the first class of permanent deacons and their wives stand outside the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in 1971. The deacons and their wives, from left to right: Charles and Janet Kruger, Hubert and Dolores Derouaux, George and Joyce Evans, Bernard and Antoinette Bak, Doris and Americus Roy, and Angelina and Richard Johe. (CR file)

Please click here to read more about the first class of permanent deacons from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Although a resolution was already passed by the CBCI for accepting the permanent Diaconate in India as a proper and permanent state of the hierarchy in 1966, it was only in 1982 that the CBCI finally petitioned the Holy See. A year later, the CBCI received permission from the Holy See to restore and promote the permanent Diaconate in India, with a proviso that before it could be introduced in any diocese, the bishop would consult the bishops of the region. On January 22, 2006, Bombay was the first and only diocese in India to introduce the permanent Diaconate when, the then Archbishop of Bombay, Cardinal Ivan Dias, ordained two permanent Deacons, Mr Lloyd Dias from Sacred Heart Church, Vashi and Mr Elwyn De Souza from St Joseph Church, Juhu.

Archbishop of Bombay, Cardinal Ivan Dias, ordained two permanent Deacons, Mr. Lloyd Dias from Sacred Heart Church, Vashi and Mr Elwyn De Souza from St Joseph Church, Juhu.

Please click here to read more about the above.

One more Link to read more about the above.

Please click here to read about The Diaconate within the Diocese of Metuchen.

Please save the date and join: Ketan will serve as Deacon of the Mass and preach is first homily.

Church of The Sacred Heart, South Plainfield Bulletin April 14, 2024

HOLY MASS OF THANKGIVING
Sunday, May 05, 2024 @ 11:30 AM
Church of the Sacred Heart
South Plainfield, NJ 07080

Fr. Paresh Parmar, the Episcopal Vicar of The Diocese of Ahmedabad, Gujarat will be attending all above events and will offer a Mass in Gujarati as per details below:

Fr Paresh Deacon Ketan-Guj-Mass 05-05-2024N
Fr Paresh Deacon Ketan -Meet N Greet 05-05-2024
Community Events, News & Events

Holy Week with Bishop Checchio of Metuchen Diocese – Live streaming.

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This year Holy Week will be unlike any we’ve experienced before. To help you decide how you would like to keep this holiest week of the year, here are some suggestions. Attached here is a PDF of suggested activities as well as Stations of the Cross for COVID-19. Please click to read.

Unfortunately, no gatherings are permitted at the church during Holy Week. There will be no confessions.

The diocese will be live streaming Bishop Checchio’s Holy Week services on the Cathedral website: https://www.stfranciscathedral.org/

We will be carrying it live here on our website too. Please scroll below:

Here is the schedule for the live stream Holy Week schedule:

Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020 10:30am (blessed Palms are not to be distributed under any circumstance at this time by order of our Bishop, but may be made available for distribution at a later date!)

Monday, Evening Prayer and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, April 06, 2020 4:00pm

Holy Thursday, Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 9, 2020 – 7:30pm

Good Friday, Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, April 10, 2020 – 3:00pm

Easter Vigil, April 11, 2020 – 8:00pm – Holy water fonts are to remain empty. RCIA sacraments will be re-scheduled.

Easter Sunday, Holy Mass, 10:00am

Available services from The Church of The Sacred Heart, South Plinfield.

Traditional devotions during this week include the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross. These can be viewed online at churchofthesacredheart.net at your convenience. See also the attached PDF for details on praying the Stations of the Cross at home.

Monday, April 6 – Daily Mass can be viewed online at our website, churchofthesacredheart.net

Tuesday, April 7 – Daily Mass can be viewed online at our website, churchofthesacredheart.net

Wednesday, April 8 – Daily Mass can be viewed online at our website, churchofthesacredheart.net

Holy Thursday, April 9 – Daily Prayer of the Church (Morning, Evening and Night Prayer) is available at our website, churchofthesacredheart.net

Good Friday, April 10 – Morning Prayer of the Church is available at our website, churchofthesacredheart.net

Holy Saturday, April 11 – Morning Prayer of the Church is available at our website, churchofthesacredheart.net

Easter baskets will NOT be blessed this year.

Easter Sunday, April 12 – The Mass of the Resurrection will be live streamed from our church and can be viewed online at churchofthesacredheart.net at 10:00 AM.

The Ecumenical Sunrise Service that normally takes place at Spring Lake Park will move to our own front doors. The brief prayer and more details will be available at the parish website, and in the Observer.

The church doors will actually be locked for the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday) and Easter Sunday to keep people from gathering. Stay home, Stay safe. The Easter Season is fifty days and please God before Pentecost we will be back to celebrate joyfully and properly decorate the church at that time as well.  

Fr. John Alvarado

Community Events, News & Events

The 10th annual Christmas program organized and managed by the youth wing of GCSofUSA.

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The 10th annual Christmas program organized and managed by the youth wing of GCSofUSA.

 

“Gujarati Catholic Samaj of U.S.A” a not-for-profit organization established in 2010 had a grand and a highly successful celebration of “Christmas Garba / Dance Night 2019” planned and organized by Youth wing of Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA.

GCS of USA’s vision is to bring our community together to unite, preserve and propagate and grow the rich cultural heritage of Gujarati Catholics from around the world. We organize various Programs, Events, Educational Fund-Raising Activities, and Education Developmental Projects for the community, Social Events; Various yearly Celebrations, Entertainments, Various Seminars on Social Awareness, Religious Awareness in Regards of Gujarati Speaking Catholics Residing in Unites States of America. To stay connected to families, relatives and friends back home to Gujarat, India.

On December 28th, 2019, Youth Wing of GCS of USA organized an annual Christmas program/Garba/Dance night. Fellow Gujarati Christians and friends from various Christian denominations were invited for the program. Key difference this year was newly formed Youth Wing of GCS of USA. The program was organized and managed by Youth wing from start to finish under guidance of the elders of the community. It was a great success.

The youth wing of Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA

To encourage people to arrive on time, early bird surprise was announced. Professional photographs and framed prints were presented to all early bird guests. Thank you Mr. Ketan Christian.

At 7 pm the evening many dressed in typical and colorful Indian costumes created a distinctive and homely environment that many Indians miss in USA. 

Youth Wing made this event very interactive, connecting with the crowd such an enthusiasm and created a family get-together environment. Thank you Mr. Augustin Macwan for handling the photography and Mr. Ketan Christian for Videography.

Program commenced with a short speech by Mr. Shantilal Parmar (President of GCS of USA) followed by candle lighting ceremony.  Ceremony included lightning of five candles resembling hope, joy, love, unity and peace.

Rev Fr. John Alvarado-Pastor of Church of the Sacred Heart concluded ceremony with powerful prayer. All members and guests together prayed “Our Father, who art in heaven” in Gujarati.

We welcomed our guests from all Christian denominations.

  • Gujarati Christian Fellowship of Philadelphia 
    • VK Makwana
    • Pastor Dinkerrao Taylor
  • Gujarat Christian Federation of America, New York
    • Stevenson Borsada 
    • Sapna Gandhi
    • Royal Merchant

Our special guest was Rev Fr. John Alvarado- Pastor of Church of the Sacred Heart and rev. Fr. Pervaiz Indrias  Parochial Vicar of Church of the Sacred Heart. Thank you, Rev Fr. John Alvarado, for allowing us to use hall and cafeteria.

We also honored sisters from Sr. Chandrika’s Congregation (Cenacle Sisters of Sacred Heart) Sr. Chetna and Sr. Anjana. They have various houses in India like in Chandigarh, Punjab , Patna, Chhattisgarh. Recently open house is Fairview in New Jersey on 1st September 2019.

Among the others who were honored included the following  – Founder of Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA- Dada (Mr. Joseph Parmer), President of GCS of USA,  Mr. Shantilal Parmer, Chairman of GCS of USA  Mr. Jagadish Christian ,Treasurer Eric Leo, GCS  of USA committee members Amit Macwan, Deepak Parmer, Kokila Russell, Anita Parmer, Raj Macwan, Alex Rathod, tireless supporter Ketan Christian.

Despite Garba being the highlight of the event, talented youth wing also added fabulous performances including a group dance, solo dance and melodious solo singing.

Delicious full course dinner was served accompanied with an open floor karaoke.Catering from Kokila Russell.  Also Thank you for Mango Lassi and Tea.

As Prakash Parmar, the Lead singer and all the musicians were making sure that the atmosphere stayed energetic and everyone was enjoying Garba. Mrs. Sapna Gandhi and Mrs. Neela Leo, as a designated judge were busy observing carefully to choose a male and a female winner best Garba players. Sejal, Sage, and Liza were declared winners in the female Garba category and 3 best male performers. Joy Christian, Eric Christian and Amit Macwan won the prizes. Female Winners were presented with $25.00 gift certificates and Male winners were presented with $25.00.

As the end was approaching, the energy level was at the pick and “Sanedo” and “ Punjabi” style was being enjoyed by everyone there. There were few who sat on the side watched this amazing display of celebrations.

TV Asia is a supporter of GCS of USA always cover our annual Christmas program. Mr. Madan Pal Singh of TV Asia covered the whole event. This year there was an addition of ITV Gold. Mr. Bhupendra Raja Bhaatty of ITV Gold also covered this event and a 10 minutes long segment was aired on “Vision of Asia – Voice of community on ITV Gold channel on December 31, 2019 and January 05, 2020. 

Everyone left with joyful hearts and suggesting continuing this type of celebrations!

May God bless all and see you all next year for another entertaining Christmas event. 

  • Report by Angelina the youth coordinator.
Report of the event in News India Times – January 17, 2020
Report of the event in Gujarat Times USA – January 17, 2020
Report in Akila.com – January 12, 2020

Please click here to read the article from News India Times in PDF format. 

Please click here to read the article from Gujarat Times in PDF format. 

Pictures of the event- Photographer Augustine Macwan and Sagar Macwan. Thank you very much for your services.

Community Events, News & Events

Silver Jubilee celebration of Priestly Ordination of Fr. Mari Joseph organized by GCSofUSA on October 12, 2019.

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Silver Jubilee celebration of Priestly Ordination of Fr. Mari Joseph celebrated by Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA on October 12, 2019.

Ten diocesan priests celebrated together the Silver Jubilee of their Priestly Ordination (1994–2019): Frs. Arulanandam Alankaram, Alex Clement and Savariraj Savrimuthu, from the archdiocese of Gandhinagar and Frs. Francis Kulandai, Lawrence Aruldoss, Lukas S., Maria Joseph, Peter Lopes, Xavier Amalanathan and Varuvel Gnanadhas from the diocese of Ahmedabad. As the ordination batch of 1994, they decided to have a common celebration of their Silver Jubilee on 27th January 2019 at Our Lady of Forsaken Shrine (Anathoni Mata Thirthadham), Khambholaj.

Fr. Mari Joseph has been visiting USA since 2009 and he has always spend few days with us and celebrated a mass for us. He was planning a visit to Lourdes to provide his services and then he included Canada and USA to his Itinerary. Fr. Salvador D’Britto also accompanied him to Canada and USA. He informed us that he will be with us for 3/5 days in New Jersey. So we decided to celebrate first ever 25th anniversary of a priest of our mother diocese Ahmedabad.
Mr. Ketan Christian arranged a church and a cafeteria hall for our celebration. On October 12, 2019 at 6:30 around 75 members of the Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA gathered at The Church of the Sacred Heart, South Plainfield for a celebration of Eucharist. Fr. Mari Joseph was the main celebrant and Fr. Salvador D’Britto and Fr. Pervaiz Indrias, the parochial Vicar of The Church of The Sacred Heart, South Plainfield. On this auspicious occasion, Fr. Salvador D’Britto preached a meaningful and enriching homily. He explained that this type of celebration are not to glorify the priest or nun but God and only God.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration all were asked to go to nearby school cafeteria for a dinner and felicitation program. The hall was nicely decorated with the a banner of Gujarati Catholic Samaj of USA and a special banner made for the 25th anniversary of priesthood ordination of Fr. Mari Joseph. People enjoyed the food and settled down. The program was started with welcome of Fr. Mari Joseph, Fr. Salvador D’Britto, Fr. Pervaiz Indrias, Mr. Shantilal Parmar, President of GCSofUSA, Mr. Joseph Parmar the founder and first president of GCSofUSA and a well-known preacher and bible study organizer Mr. Vinubhai Macwan from Vadodara. They all were greeted with a flower bouquet.

Fr. Mari Joseph was presented with a plaque of appreciation – “Fr. Mari Joseph Arogyapaa, Rejoice in your accomplishments! God is surely smiling on you today as you celebrate 25 years in service to our Lord! May God Bless you to continue His work in serving His people. Thank you for being part of our Community.” He was also gifted a wrist watch with his name and ordination date imprinted on it.

A nice decorative cake was cut by Fr. Mari Joseph with huge round of applause and cheers. He was very much pleased and appreciated the effort by GCSofUSA. He thanked everyone and assure all that he will cherish this moment throughout his life and will pray for all of the members of GCSofUSA. Fr. Salvador also thanked everyone and gave his blessings.

The program ended with a small 3 minutes of play played by four children Saloni, Alayana, Aaryan and Braxton called “ THREE DOLLARS WOTH OF GOD” .
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
— Wilbur Rees
Please find below pictures of the above event taken by Robinson Jones, Johnson MClin, Raj Macwan & Hensu Macwan. Thank you for your service.