Even though they won’t be activated as part of the Renew My Church process until 2022, seven churches in Tinley Park, Orland Park, Crestwood and Orland Hills came together in the spirit of the process and built part of a duplex that will house families in need.

Three hundred volunteers turned out June 7-8 in St. George’s parking lot to create the frames for walls that would be part of a Habitat for Humanity house in Hanover Park. Volunteers came from St. George and St. Julie Billiart in Tinley Park; St. Elizabeth Seton in Orland Hills; Our Lady of the Woods, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Michael in Orland Park; and Incarnation in Crestwood.

Cardinal Cupich stopped by to greet the volunteers on June 8 and lend a hand.

The group worked with Crossroads Mission’s Help Build Hope program to construct the framing. Once completed, the frames were shipped to the Habitat for Humanity site.

After learning about a similar project another parish did, St. George pastor Father Kenneth Fleck thought working on a duplex would be a way the area parishes could work on a project together.

Fleck said the pastors in their grouping were energized by the Renew My Church Summit held last October and didn’t want to wait for their activation to start working together.

“We felt we need to really keep the fires burning [from the summit] and work in coordination and cooperation with the whole archdiocese and help build this concept of Catholic church with a capital c rather than every individual parish surviving on its own,” Fleck said, adding that several parishes have begun working together on efforts such as RCIA and youth ministry.

Parishes raised $16,000 to pay for construction materials and people of all ages pitched in to work or provide refreshments.

During a prayer service June 9, before the frames were packed up, the parish blessed the finished product. Volunteers also wrote prayers and messages on the frames.

Angie Brady, a volunteer with St. George Parish who co-chaired the project, said the project showed how all of the parishes could work well together.

“It brought families of faith together to really see church in action. That’s what Renew My Church is all about,” she said. “People were investing a lot of their spirit in this. It was great.”

The project also showed how eager people are to help those in need.

“The beauty of this project is it brings a mission project and mission work to the parishes,” Brady said. “People are so eager to do this kind of work for humanity. They just really want to. It showed up in all of this.”

Working together had other benefits as well.

“The thing is we’re not just one church in Tinley Park but we’re members of the bigger church and connect together,” Brady said. “That part of the event was probably the best part of all. Everybody got to work with people from other parishes. It was wonderful.”

Sheila Pluchar, human concerns coordinator at St. Julie Billiart and co-chair of the event, agreed.

“A lot of us know each other from the parishes but we don’t necessarily work together. This was a great opportunity to come together and do something good for the larger community and meet our neighbors at the same time,” Pluchar said.

Partnering before being officially activated in the Renew My Church process can help parishes build bridges between the communities and provide hope for the future, she said.

“The more we do things like this, the more comfortable we are with the parishioners from another parish,” she said. “It just makes it easier to cross those parish lines. I think when the time comes for us to be activated for Renew My Church officially … the process will be much easier because we will know each other better and we’re only going to want what’s good for all of us.”