Father Joji Thanugundla will join us in mid-July as our new Associate Pastor. Fr. Joji came to United States in 1997 and has served in various parishes as an associate pastor. His first appointment was at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, on the northwest side of Chicago. In 2003, he was transferred south to Saint Gerald Parish in Oak Lawn. In 2009, he moved to St. James Parish in Arlington Heights, where he has served for seven years. In Father Joji’s words, he has learned a lot from these various communities and he is still learning to grow in faith.
Mary Ellen Johnston has accepted the staff position as our new Director of Human Concerns. Mary Ellen has a background in fundraising and development. She raised funds for poor U.S. mission dioceses at Catholic Extension, for pediatric health care at Children’s Memorial Foundation, for international emergency response programs at Concern Worldwide and for epilepsy research at C.U.R.E. Mary Ellen looks forward to working with parishioners through outreach programs that show compassion to those in need.
Mary Howard has already begun her new position as the Director of Hope Ministries. She moved to Barrington in 2013 from Pennsylvania with her husband, who had just retired from 30 years of active-duty military service, and their elementary school-aged son. Mary managed advocacy programs for the National Safety Council in Itasca before coming to Hope Ministries. According to Mary, she is looking forward to becoming an integral member of the communities of Saint Anne and Barrington and serving her neighbors in crisis.