May 6, 2012

To The Saint Brigid Community

From Deacon Henry and Maura Hein

We were delighted to hear that I would be assigned as a Deacon to Saint Brigid Parish.  It was very kind of Archbishop Gregory and Msgr. Tally to permit us to transfer here.  It is equally kind to invite us to offer this letter of introduction.

Maura and I had just moved to the Atlanta area from our home in Connecticut.  Both of us just retired from our career positions and wished to be closer to our family here in Georgia.  My daughter Brenda and her husband Charles are parishioners at Saint Brigid and they have three children, Olivia, Charlie, and Sophia.  I had a career spanning over forty years working in management positions for major corporations and a large academic medical center.  My last career assignments were as a university professor and Dean of the Business School at Southern Connecticut State University.  Maura had a similar interesting career in credit management with large furniture manufacturers and, of late, a major German engineering corporation.

In July, I will have been ordained for seventeen years and have had assignments in two parishes in the Diocese of Bridgeport.  I have been privileged to serve in a variety of functions including a major strategic planning and parish reorganization effort in my last parish.  I have also served on the Bishop’s Pastoral Council and have been on the faculty of the Diaconate Formation Program of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

Maura and I have been partners in life and often partners in ministry.  We have been enriched by exposure to many forms of spirituality over the years and have developed our approach to life based on that exposure.  We have enjoyed  serving the members of our parishes and have a particular affection for those who are hanging on their faith by the tips of their fingers…and those who have already let go and have given up.  We meet many of these individuals and couples on a day to day basis and consider it fundamental to our lives just to listen and be present to them.  A large number of our Catholic Community are divorced, separated and remarried.  Others have given up their involvement with religion altogether.  Yet others live lives that are not traditional.  We feel that when we meet them in their circumstances, it is our precise responsibility to be church for them at that moment.

We look forward to being of service to Saint Brigid as a whole and to you specifically as we begin our tenure in this beautiful parish.  Thanks for having us.