CHARLOTTE — First-graders at St. Patrick School made a trip to the Ronald McDonald House again this year and were able to donate 15 pounds of tabs from soda cans.
The money raised from recycling the tabs helps to ensure that the Ronald McDonald House is able to accommodate every guest, regardless of their ability to pay.
— Angie Noonan
GREENSBORO — One of the most challenging things about moving to a new place is finding community. My mom would always say, “Go to church,” and that’s excellent advice. But as a young mom of four kids 8 and younger, sometimes hanging around after Mass looking for a friendly face to befriend is exhausting. And many ministries at church happen during hours that don’t work for our family. This is not the fault of our local parishes; they do so much to provide opportunities for engagement. But increasingly, young families are looking for a deep, faith community who may communicate differently than the church friends our mothers found.
Alternative Catholic communities that transcend parish boundaries have been in the news more frequently. “Ecclesial movements” are often urban and have members who live in the world but come together regularly for prayer, formation, social time and service. They follow a particular charism or spirituality. St. John Paul II recognized the growing importance and maturity of these communities when he called them for a month-long World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities in 1998.
Related to ecclesial movements but different in structure are “intentional communities,” often identified as following the “Benedict Option” – a term popularized recently by journalist Rod Dreher to refer to communities taking a step back from the pressures of modern culture and toward a more intentional mode of community life. Often this looks like a highly involved and vibrant Catholic group of families centered around a monastery or Catholic school. They follow the promptings of St. Benedict to live in a community that serves each other’s needs, prioritizes reverence and hospitality, and integrates prayer and faith with daily life and work.
In a less formal way, a new online community of families in the Triad area of Greensboro is creating new roads to friendship, formation, service and deeper parish involvement. TACKS stands for “Triad Area Catholics w/ Kids.” This Facebook group page was a five-minute solution to a need I saw in our parish, and God has allowed it to flourish through the investment of strangers made friends.
After serving as a youth minister at Our Lady of Grace Parish for a year and participating in two local co-ops for my pre-schooler, I noticed a lack of connection between young Catholic families in the Greensboro area. The families I met at one parish or event frequently felt that there were only a couple other families like them at their church. However, this was far from the truth. There were many similar families – but they were split up across parishes, ministries, schooling environments and Mass times, so they didn’t have a consistent way to meet new people and form friendships. I had only lived in the area for just over a year. It struck me as strange that I was often introducing families to each other who had both lived in Greensboro much longer than me.
As a missionary to college students after college and later as a mom in a rapidly growing Catholic community in Wake Forest, I had seen the power of efficient, online forums for creating community. In a digital age with two-income families, few neighborhood schools and an ethos of stranger danger, online familiarity with a group can sometimes be a helpful prompt to off-line interaction. So, in the summer of 2015, I created the TACKS Facebook group in all of five minutes. It is a sort of digital bulletin board where people can let others know about events at their parishes, plan to meet up at a playground, ask for prayers, or line up help with meals for a new mother. I invited every young family I was connected to on Facebook and called it a day. I was pretty maxed out with work and family, and I knew that if God wanted this to thrive, He would have to provide other hands to help lead.
A friend I had met recently, Rosa Braden, was also new to the area and eager to connect with Catholic community. She had experienced vibrant, faith-filled friendships and ministries in the past and hoped to foster those types of relationships in Greensboro as well. Before I knew it, she had initiated monthly rosary play groups and a Well Read Mom’s chapter. As various mothers got engaged, the husbands looked for opportunities to connect as well. L.T. Terrell began a chapter of the Chesterton Society. Every month, the men grab some craft beers and discuss the writings of a 20th century Catholic essayist and its relevance to family life and modern culture.
Two and a half years later, TACKS is blessed with 120 members, and about 30 of those families connect with each other at least monthly if not weekly at an event or social engagement. We have monthly rosary play dates, moms’ nights out, Chesterton Society, family potlucks, and Well Read Mom’s meetings that are all primarily TACKS-based gatherings. Members have also used TACKS to draw new participants to existing ministries such as Regnum Christi retreats, Walking with Purpose and Kingdom Kids at St. Paul the Apostle Parish, youth retreats, Respect Life events, the Room at the Inn gala, Our Lady of Grace School and homeschool co-ops, and Family Honor weekends. People use it to find handymen, veterinarians and pick-your-own farms. There is almost always a calendar activity for bringing meals to a new mom or someone recovering from illness or surgery. And this fall, when I posted on TACKS about a non-Catholic mom and her two sons who had just left an abusive situation and needed home goods, my car and my neighbor’s trailer were filled in a matter of days with furniture, kitchen items, food and gift cards for them. The beautiful thing about Christian community is that it overflows and creates a source of life and support for others.
When asked how the TACKS online community has benefited them, members were quick to affirm its value. Tracie McGinniss received a part-time, work-from-home job through the network. Kristen Fulton said, “I have been so glad to find this group. Before we knew no other Catholic mothers or families, it felt like. Now we go to co-op and play dates. I’ve really enjoyed the rosary play dates as well as the mother’s retreats and MNO (Mom’s Night Out). They’ve been amazing to me and really helped me start to embrace my faith more!”
Last June, Katie Holder joined with me and Rosa Braden to plan our first TACKS mother’s morning retreat called Cherish. Holder shared, “This site has been very helpful. I appreciate that it’s a safe place to brainstorm and plan fun activities for moms and our families that are also faith-friendly. It helps me as a mom stay in the loop of local activities we can participate in without having to search high and low.”
While TACKS members communicate online about where they are going and send invitations, the time spent together in person circles back and boosts the community life of the local parishes. Liturgical events, consignment sales, study groups, and Eucharistic Adoration hours are all drawing participants from more than one parish. And parishioners who participate in TACKS are eager to get their new friends to join their favorite ministries, after-Mass potlucks and fundraisers.
St. John Paul II encouraged families to live out their faith in community with others. “In our world, often dominated by a secularized culture which encourages and promotes models of life without God, the faith of many is sorely tested, and is frequently stifled and dies. Thus we see an urgent need for powerful proclamation and solid, in-depth Christian formation.... There is great need for living Christian communities!” Perhaps TACKS is just one step toward meeting that need.
— Kelly Henson, correspondent
Learn more
On Facebook at “TACKS: Triad Area Catholics w/ Kids”: If your family lives in the Greensboro area and would like to be considered for admittance to this closed Facebook group, send a private message to the group for more information, telling them how you are connected to the community.