Feature Partner: St. Joseph Parish, Mission Team

St Joseph Parish Feature Image
The St. Joseph Parish, local here in York has a Mission Team who travels to Jamaica once a year to serve the community. Throughout the year they collect donations of clothing, books, toys, school supplies and more for the community. These donated items are stored with Moove In Self Storage on Morgan Lane in York. Then in the fall, volunteers from the parish and local businesses package all the donations for shipping. The parish depends on the support of local businesses to provide support to the mission team by volunteer time and monies for packaging items, placing everything on pallets and shrink wrapping the donations. They even help with the logistics of shipping the items to Jamaica.

St Joseph Parish Jamaican MissionThis past January, the Mission Team traveled to Jamaica and helped serve the community in many ways. Not only by providing the donated items, but serving the community with several growth projects. Their memories from the week can be enjoyed in their blog.

St. Joseph Parish started as a mission church, when in 1908, Father George Breckel, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, took a census in East York and discovered that over 300 Catholics lived in the area. Bishop John Shanahan authorized him to build a chapel not to exceed $5,000 in East York. In the spring of 1909, they broke ground and the construction started. With a full capacity crowd of 180 people, the first Mass was celebrated on Christmas Day 1909. Bishop John Shanahan dedicated the church in the spring of 1910. For the next few years, Reverend Arthur J. Wittman, who was then assistant pastor at Immaculate Conception Church, served the spiritual needs of St. Joseph Parish.

St Joseph Parish Father Stephen FernandesSt. Joseph Parish, part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, works to be a vibrant Faith community. They work together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and live the Tradition of the Roman Catholic Church through the Word of God and the seven Sacraments. They work to promote the Kingdom of God in everything they do; through their witness, service, education, worship and fellowship. They believe that there is a place for everyone at St. Joseph’s and they are eager to build up those who are willing to grow in Faith and Love in Jesus Christ. The parish is located at 2935 Kingston Road, York, PA, 17402. For more information please visit their website.

If you belong to a local church or organization and are in need of storage, you can contact us today, or reserve or rent a storage unit online.

Leave a Comment