Bishop Udumala Bala Showreddy, bishop of the Diocese of Warangal, India, opens the doors of the new St. Joseph Chapel Feb. 2 at the MOP’s mission in Warangal. The much-needed chapel, funded by St. Ann Parish in Charlotte, seats 70 people. (Photos provided by St. Ann Parish)CHARLOTTE — Thanks to a long-standing partnership between St. Ann Parish and the Missionaries of the Poor, one of its missions in Warangal, India, has a new chapel. Named in honor of St. Joseph, the chapel was dedicated Feb. 2.
Based in Jamaica, the Missionaries of the Poor is a Catholic monastic religious order dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor. The order has more than 550 brothers serving in nine missions around the world, including a mission in Monroe, N.C.
“For 30 years St. Ann’s Parish has enjoyed a warm relationship with the Missionaries of the Poor, and we’ve had dozens of parish mission trips over the years to MOP houses in Jamaica, Uganda and India,” said St. Ann’s pastor, Father Timothy Reid. “The first time our parish went to the mission in Warangal in 2016, we recognized right away their need for a chapel – among many other very pressing needs. Knowing that this mission receives very little outside help, we decided then that we would invest in it long-term as a special outreach program for our parish.”
Over the past six years, using donations earmarked for the MOP and donations to the church’s poor box, the parish has already been able to provide tuition money for the orphans in the MOP’s care, rebuild a broken cistern that collects their drinking water, build homes and provide annual Christmas gifts for the poor, as well as make repairs and upgrades to the brothers’ monastery and grounds, Father Reid said.
“However, helping to build this new chapel has been our crowning achievement, and a dream come true for the Missionaries of the Poor and our parish,” he said.
The 1,100 square-foot chapel can accommodate up to 70 people.
“St. Ann’s is blessed to have an inspiring relationship with the brothers, residents and poor in Warangal,” said Terry Alderman, parish financial administrator. “I am very fortunate to have gone on the first trip, represent St. Ann’s at a jubilee, and take my husband there for his first mission trip.”
Chris Brunhuber has also been on mission to Warangal. “Although it is the service the brothers provide to the people that is so important, the MOP are servants of Our Lord, and to honor Him with building a chapel where they could truly worship was much needed . The chapel is beautiful and I’m so glad St. Ann was a part of making it happen,” she said.
Brother Benjamin Dungdung, who heads the Warangal mission, expressed his gratitude to the parishioners of St. Ann in a letter penned shortly after the Feb. 2 dedication.
“Thank you so much for taking care of our spiritual life by supporting to build a chapel at our Warangal mission,” he said. “We are blessed to have you, our friends in Christ Jesus.”
“The mission has waited so long to have a place to pray but God (has shown His) favor to us through God seeing your spiritual life and making (you) an instrument to build a Chapel in a foreign land. We will always be united with you whenever will enter to pray in the chapel,” Brother Dungdung wrote.
Father Reid added, “I’m humbled by and very grateful for the tremendous generosity of our St. Ann parishioners, who’ve always had a heart for the poor. Whenever I ask our parishioners to help the poor and needy, they always exceed my expectations.
“And I’m grateful as well for the opportunity to serve the good people in Warangal. My parishioners and I always come away from our mission trips with our hearts filled with the profound truth it is more blessed to give than to receive.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
