VANCOUVER – For three years, parishioners at St. Joseph in Vancouver have had a special connection with people at St. Bernadette Parish in Samoya, Kenya.

Under their sister parish covenant — renewed in August for three more years — St. Joseph has donated an average of $20,000 a year to St. Bernadette’s. The $60,000 in donations have helped build a church that holds 1,200 worshippers, construct a rectory and install a well (an anonymous $30,000 donation helped with that). The money raised in Vancouver has also provided scholarships to more than 50 students in Kenya this year.

At St. Joseph, parishioners have benefitted from the prayers of their 6,000 sister parishioners, who are part of the community of parishes that make up Christ the King Cathedral Parish in Bungoma, Kenya.

“It’s been a wonderful relationship,” said Wayne Monroe, who co-chairs the sister parish committee with Dale Magers.

Since 2014, the two parishes have promised to support each other spiritually, culturally and economically. That covenant is a reminder that “we are all members of the one body of Christ,” said Father Christopher Wanyonyi, pastor of Christ the King Cathedral Parish, who visited St. Joseph in late August to renew the pledge for three more years.

“Knowing that brothers and sisters far away are praying for you brings a lot of joy,” Father Wanyonyi said in a phone interview.

Faith and joy in Kenya

The interest in finding a sister parish began when a former pastor at St. Joseph raised parishioners’ awareness of the poverty in his own Kenyan village. Through Father Jim Dalton, then pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Arlington, St. Joseph was connected with Immaculate Conception’s sister parish — Christ the King Cathedral.

St. Bernadette, one of the cathedral’s 11 sub-parishes, had struggled for 15 years to complete its church building. Learning about that concrete need, the St. Joseph community responded.

In 2015, the year after the covenant was signed, a group of six from the Vancouver parish traveled to Kenya to visit St. Bernadette. The party included St. Joseph’s pastor, Father Gary Lazzeroni, as well as Monroe and Magers.

“The faith and joy of the people of St. Bernadette is what made the biggest impression on our first pilgrims,” Father Lazzeroni said in an email. “They are a generous people who can teach us much about integrating our faith into everyday life.”

The group visited people’s homes, where praying the rosary and studying the Bible in small group meetings is common. “They are so focused on having Christ in their lives every day,” Monroe said.

“They’re a very gracious people,” Magers said. “Once you’ve experienced that, you feel compelled to help them.”

Supporting education

The sister parish committee keeps St. Joseph parishioners connected to the effort through bulletin articles and by hosting hospitality after Masses as part of two “Samoya Sunday” weekends each year. One of those weekends includes a special collection during Masses, which typically raises $10,000, Magers said (donations are accepted year-round online and through quarterly collection envelopes.)

The money raised has paid about 25 percent of the cost of the projects in Kenya, since St. Bernadette parishioners have raised the rest and contributed their labor.

To celebrate Father Wanyonyi’s visit to Vancouver, the sister parish committee sponsored a special Samoyan dinner, with typical Kenyan dishes that included kuku paka (chicken on the bone), kachumbari (a salad), dengu (mung beans) and chapatti (flat bread).

In October, a group of 10 St. Joseph parishioners is slated to travel to Kenya, where St. Bernadette’s is planning construction of a parish hall. It will include an office for a resident pastor, who will be assigned now that the rectory is complete, Father Wanyonyi said.

The hall will also house classrooms for sacramental instruction; 130 children will be making their first Communion at St. Bernadette’s this year, he said. Another important part of the St. Joseph sister parish effort is helping the children attend Catholic school — tuition is about $300 American for elementary students and $500 for high schoolers.

Since so many families in Kenya live below the poverty line, Father Wanyonyi said, education is “the only thing that can ensure a better future for themselves and their family.”