St. Terrence, Incarnation To Become One Under Renew My Church

ALSIP-CRESTWOOD/PALOS, IL — The Archdiocese of Chicago announced another round of changes under the Renew My Church plan, affecting St. Terrence, Incarnation and St. Alexander in the Alsip-Crestwood and Palos grouping.

The most significant change involves merging with St. Terrence in Alsip, with Incarnation in Crestwood. St. Alexander Church and School will remain in its current structure.

Over the past several months, the Feedback and Discernment team, made up of representatives from each parish, met to review and discuss the parish, school and church structures. Over the past many months, both groupings’ Feedback and Discernment Teams, made up of representatives from each parish, met to review and discern the future parish, school and church structures.

Feedback reports, including financial statements, parish and grouping trends, and other information, were submitted to the Archdiocese. Based on the reports, the following decisions were made:

• Incarnation and St. Terrence will unite as a new parish with two worship sites, one pastor and one pastoral team, effective July 1, 2022.
• Both churches will continue to host regular Masses and the pastor will determine Mass schedules in consultation with parish leadership.
• Incarnation will serve as the parish church where the united parish’s sacramental records will be kept.   
• The interim name of the united parish will be Incarnation and St. Terrence Parish. The local community will discern possibilities for a new permanent parish name, within guidelines provided by the archdiocese.
• Rev. Arek Falanaof Incarnation, will be pastor of the united parish.

• St. Alexander Parish and School will continue in its current structure.

According to an archdiocese news release, uniting Incarnation and St. Terrence will better developing a cohesive pastoral plan for the areas of Palos Heights, Crestwood and Alsip, while addressing the realities of the declining number of priests available to staff parishes.

Using Incarnation and St. Terrence as worship sites allows for continued physical presence in both communities, along with providing parish leadership the opportunity to decide how best to use each campus’s spaces for ministry and outreach.

The grouping will also promote Catholic education, with a preference for St. Alexander School in Palos Heights.

The parishes will continue work on the next phases of Renew My Church.

In 2018, Incarnation's parish elementary school closed despite an outcry from parishioners, who had presented a plan to the Archdiocese of merging Our Lady of the Ridge School with Incarnation.