Dr. Erwin and the 2025-26 School Year

Dear Holy Trinity Families,

We are having a remarkable year at Holy Trinity Catholic School and our school continues to flourish. As we move into Christmas Break I hope you and your family have a blessed holiday season and find time to rest and rejoice. I have some news to share with you before the break.

As you know, last February Dr. Anne Erwin came out of retirement and jumped aboard as principal to complete the school year. Transitioning from administration of a public high school to a smaller Catholic grade school presented a significant change for Dr. Erwin. She openly shared that this was an enriching experience.  In other words, she really liked it here. I think that is a sentiment we all shared. So, through mutual discernment, and to the delight of many, she agreed to remain as principal for the 2024-25 academic year.

In recent weeks, Anne and I engaged in discussions regarding the future of our school and the role of principal. I am delighted to announce that Dr. Anne Erwin will be returning for the 2025-26 academic year!  Under her leadership, we will continue to build upon our school’s strong foundation to strengthen the school’s mission. As a community, we will continue to pray, discern, and fortify the school so that when the time is appropriate, we will be well-prepared to welcome her successor. Our goal is to ensure a seamless transition and maintain the high standards upheld by our staff, students, and families.

Thank you, Dr. Erwin, for your tireless efforts of love for our families, their children, the teachers, and faculty who you will continue to shepherd. Here’s to a successful end to this school year and a remarkable 2025-26 school year!

Sincerely, 

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor

A Year To Remember Ends and a New One Begins

Dear Parishioners,

Last week, we concluded the academic school year, one that will go down in the history of amazing years for our humble school. God was blessing this important ministry all through the hard times of constant change and in the months when some regulations were rescinded. We added two new teachers, Katie Alderman and Samantha Austria-Gerig amidst the throws of the pandemic. New drop-off and pick-up procedures were created and executed. Grants and other funds were miraculously made available to help us excel in creating a safe environment for our students, faculty, and staff. The PTO stepped up to do new and heroic things for the school. And the list goes on. With Summer Vacation beginning, please keep our children and their families in your prayers. Ask God to protect them and help them grow in faith and wisdom. Please pray also for the new teachers who have and will be hired between now and the end of the Summer. God is doing some amazing things in and through our school.

Next weekend, we say goodbye to Fr. Arjie who has been serving here for the past three years. Last weekend he offered Mass at our Missions of Our Lady of the River and then St. Patrick of the Forest. Next weekend, he will be offering all the Masses here at St. Anne. Maybe you might let him know of your support this one last time as time allows after the Masses. He will be heading to St. James in McMinnville and its missions as the Parochial Vicar with Fr. Mike Walker. Please keep in your prayers, as he begins a new journey in his priestly ministry. We wish him well and pray that his gifts will shine forth for the glory of God!

Following Fr. Arjie, we expect to received our new Parochial Vicar, Fr. Stephen Kenyon, in the days that follow. Work will be done, as per usual, to the parish house on Churchill in preparation for his arrival. He will immediately be scheduled in our common weekday and weekend Masses schedules  starting July 1st. Please extend him your prayerful support and warm welcome St. Anne style!

Anthony Hoangphan will be concluding his Pastoral Year on Sunday, July 4th. He will be returning home in Tigard for the rest of the Summer and will continue on his Theological studies at Mount Angel Seminary in the Fall. God willing, he will be ordained a deacon next Summer. Please let him know of your prayerful support. 

It has been a year to remember. Through the good and bad, we kept the faith and did our best to offer what we could in the ways of ministry, Sacraments, and most importantly, the Mass.  May God who has been with us through it all continue to keep our hearts and minds open to the things he wants to do in us in the coming year.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor

Thank You!

Dear Parishioners,

Last Saturday’s Dedication Mass was a momentous event in the history of our parish. It was truly awe-inspiring. I am so grateful to all who made it possible. This miracle in our midst is the fruit of our faithfulness and the graciousness of God to help us on our pilgrim journey.

In my remarks at the end of the Mass, I failed to mention some important people who have been deeply involved in the process of making our new church possible, a group that has demonstrated great patience when the process intersected and/or disrupted their normal work of ministry. Probably hardest his is our school. Second would be our pastoral ministries for our children and adults. I want to express my thanks to all of our staff who have sacrificed in myriads of ways during the fundraising, demolition, and construction may displaced a ministry or caused gaps in communication or forced something to cancel. Our Business Manager, Stephen Voehl, and school Principal, Colleen Kotrba, have had to shoulder many unexpected things and roll with the punches as them came. Our parochial vicars, Frs. Tetzel and Arjie have especially helpful in taking on more work, as I had to take on more administrative duties related to the new church building. Indeed, I am very proud of all of our staff, for they have demonstrated a steward’s response to the continually changing situations in this journey, especially those which presented themselves without warning at times. Again, thank you to our administrative and ministry staff, teachers, aides, and volunteer ministers who have done so much behind the scenes during the last two years of this building project.

I also failed to thank our Evangelization Team who helped to reach out and contact various clergy and other important persons who have played important roles in our history. Thank you to our Evangelization Team! A big thank you needs to be offered to Cora Carino whom I asked to lead and coordinate our reception that followed the dedication Mass. She was able to seek out and find parishioners from our Knights of Columbus, Hispanic community, and Filipino community to offer food. She was able to recruit helpers to set up and take down the tables and chairs that we used. Clearly, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Thank you to all who did their part to make the reception such a wonderful and joyous event! Thank you also to Alan Crews and his Transition Team who quietly moved us out of our old church and is still in the process of moving us into the new church. Thank you to our Liturgy Committee who has been reflecting on our Divine worship ever since I arrived eight years ago and who has been studying ideas and options to lift up and normalize our liturgy. Their work continues, for which I a am so grateful. Finally, thank you to all those whom I have not mentioned who made many sacrifices, mostly unseen, which enabled us to be where we are today.

Hopefully, we will now be more present and able to offer pastoral ministry while letting our new church serve as an opportunity and catalyst to lift up our faith knowing what God has done in our midst. As for me, I look forward to offering opportunities for faith formation for our parish and missions.  In that vein, I plan to personally offer opportunities via a workshop on the Theology the Body for adults and a six week series for our teens. I am planning on guiding a six-week series on the Mass via some new videos produced by Bishop Robert Barron. See the rest of this bulletin for details about these as we get closer to October.

May God help us continue to be faithful stewards of the gifts which we have been given, for by being people of gratitude, we proclaim Christ’s loving mission.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor

The School, Memorial Weekend, and Boatnik

Dear Parishioners,

This last weekend, our country celebrated Memorial Day. The weekend was full of all kinds of activities here in Grants Pass due to Boatnik. This was a wonderful time for people from all over to gather together for a common purpose. Memorializing our fallen veterans is near and dear to all of our hearts.

Our float during the 2016 Boatnik Parade

Part of the festivities included the Boatnik Parade. Our school, once again, participated with our children, parents, teachers, and fans of the school. I think it is very safe to say that we had a great time. The float won first place overall! A big thank you needs to go out to Tiffany & Allen Fuller, along with Nikki & Garry Huffman who spent most of Friday afternoon into the night putting the float together. Even Fr. Karl was there to lend a hand. Many other people spent countless hours painting and creating the elements that would be later assembled on the float. During the parade itself, there was clearly a wonderful outpouring of joy and support by the people of Grants Pass.

This is one of our most visible opportunities to share the Good News. Our school continues to educate and form our children to be faithful Christians and great assets to our society. We should all be proud of what we are doing for our church and community through our school. Please share this good news!

This coming year, the school will be adding a 3-year old preschool and offering grades up through 5th grade. We will be dropping 6th grade and focusing on being the best elementary school we can be. St. Anne Catholic School is something we all need to promote by getting the word out to those who are discerning where to take their children for the coming school year. We have so much to offer our young people that they need. I am a fan of all that goes on there. And with the continued leadership of our principal, Colleen Kotrba, and the wonderful teaching staff, we have a bright year ahead of us. May God continue to bless our parish and school. May we be beacons of light to all who come our way. May we be the welcoming people we are called to be, sharing Christ’s loving mission.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor

New Principal Selected

Dear St. Anne Parish and School Community,

It is an honor and pleasure to officially announce the selection of Mrs. Colleen Kotrba as our new principal effective July 1, 2015.  This is an important transition in the history of our school, and I am excited, confident, and  thankful that Mrs. Kotrba will be leading our precious school into the future. This decision caps a year-long process that began when Frankie Bytheway announced her intention to retire after 22 years of selfless service to our school as a teacher and two-term principal.  

When I arrived six years ago, I was immediately given the task of finding a new principal. Frankie did not even apply and was quite content teaching first grade. When it became apparent that she was the one we needed to help steer the school back on course, she was more than gracious to accept my request to take up the helm once again. I will be forever grateful for her selfless dedication to St. Anne Catholic School.

Mrs. Kotrba will be stepping up to succeed Ms. Bytheway, having already taught four years at St. Anne and several years in both private and public schools prior to coming on board with us. She originally came to St. Anne as a Title One Math teacher through Grants Pass School District #7. The following year, we invited her to work additionally with St. Anne as our teacher for language arts. The next year she was brought on even further to teach 7/8th grade social studies and create a language arts/Social Studies block. This year she has been serving as our main middle school teacher focusing on math, language arts, and social studies in addition to her continuing role as a Title One teacher through District #7. This will be her first time serving as a principal. Officially, Colleen will be spending 80% of her time as our Principal and 20% in a teaching capacity. This is a shift from Frankie’s 50-50 role as principal/teacher. I believe this will help Colleen to immerse herself in this new role as well as help us in ways that have not been possible due to previous time constraints. 

Colleen has my full support. And while her new role does not begin until July, we are immediately beginning her transition process to make her first days, weeks, and months as smooth as possible. Colleen has that rare and very important quality of a servant’s heart for children. She is full of ideas and experience that come from being a teacher, wife, and mother of four children. Colleen has a heart for Jesus and is focused on why our school exists. I am very excited about her new appointment, as I believe she will continue to build on our commitment to faith formation, scholarship, leadership, and service according to our Catholic Values which we expect of our school. 

Finally, I want to thank all those who helped in this search process, most especially the critical help of the search committee and the superintendent of the Archdiocese Department of Catholic Schools.  Please share your heart and hopes with Mrs. Kotrba while also thanking Frankie for a job well done.  This year is ending with clarity of focus and hope for the coming years for our families.  Please join me in congratulating and thanking these two wonderful women in our school for their service and dedication.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger

Pastor

A Year of Gratefulness

Dear Parishioners,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! With all the bad news in the world that covers our headlines, it is important not just to be nostalgic, but to once again, root ourselves in those things that are truly good, beautiful, and true (cf. Philippians 4:7- 9). For in these things are true joy and peace. For in these things we encounter the Good News who is Jesus Christ.

This year, for me, I look back and I am thankful for the work of all our pastoral ministers who have tirelessly worked in the vineyard with equally passionate volunteers. Events such as Joe’s Camp to Summer Bible School to the events surrounding Our Lady of Guadalupe show how much God had been working in the lives of our people. For a second year in a row, those who entered the Church through the Easter Vigil celebration, made up a group so large that the room where their classes where held was moved to a much larger one in the Parish Center. This year our sacristan crew (those who help prepare for Mass), more than tripled in size! I am so humbled to see their selfless dedication to this important task each week.

I am grateful that the Lord has blessed our school with a large increase in students which has allowed us to spread the Good News to more children and their families. The school community continued to grow in vibrancy. I am also so grateful for our wonderful teaching and administrative staff at the school. The sense of camaraderie and morale is inspiring.

I am excited about the work and direction our Core Building Committee who have taken a year to explore all the options for a new church building. Please note that I did not say renovation. In the course of our explorations, it turned out not be a significant cost difference to rebuild versus renovate the existing structure. So, early on after making that decision, we explored almost every location and arrangement of a proposed new church. In the Spring, we will have a feasibility study done in order to determine what financial potential there is in this project. I am so pleased with the discernment that has been so seriously undertaken in this task. I believe you will love what will come out of it all.

Finally, I am so very thankful for all the people who have newly come to worship here at St. Anne’s. They have helped us have new people helping with ministries. They have brought fresh eyes and ears to help us with our mission. I hope that we continue to be that church where Jesus is prophetically preached, hearts are healed, and the Mass becomes ever-more the center of our faith, for it is there that we encounter the sacrificed and risen Lord, Jesus Christ. In all, there is much for which to be grateful. May all these things give glory to God!

May God bless you all!

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor

Job Openings

Dear Parishioners,

This week, Julie, our Coordinator of Youth and Young Adult Ministry (CYM), approached me and discerned that she needed to leave and pursue other opportunities in her life. She will be missed by us all. She has been an enthusiastic presence in our parish which was a delight for us all. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors back home. She has agreed to stay on until August or until we find her replacement, which ever comes first. I ask that you keep her in your prayers as she strikes out in a new direction.

In the meantime, I have posted ads for a new CYM on our web site as well as other local and national locations. Please pray that in the course of our search, we will be able to find the right person for our community. I am not worried, but hope-filled that we will reap the fruits of being faithful as we were when we hired Julie. If you know of someone interested in this position, please direct them to our web site for full details. It is very late in the year to be seeking out a new CYM. Many candidates have already taken their perspective jobs. I am also not going to rush this process if it means just filling the position. We need to have the right person more than we need to have a warm body doing the work.

As you also may know, our school has two position openings as well. One is that of a Pre-K teacher and the other is for a teacher for our 3/4 grade class. Information about these openings has been on our web site for a month. Those searches are well underway.

This season of year is always a time for change and renewal. May God be with us and our former employees moving on. May we all be open to His promptings and follow our Lord where ever He leads us.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger

Pastor

Listening Sessions Overview

Dear Parishioners,

In the first several months of my arrival, you may remember that I hosted a series of what I called “Listening Sessions.” After nine sessions, three churches, and with over one hundred in participation, I presented a summary of these sessions to the Pastoral Council. My intent was to try to meet as many parishioners as possible, to get a sense of the community, and finally to understand the parishioner’s hopes and dreams. I heard many ideas. Some were repeatedly mentioned while others were only brought forward once or twice. In order to keep my summary succinct, I offer you an abridged summary of the most commonly mentioned topics.

General

St. Anne’s has gentrified over the years
Great desire to bring in more young people especially families into the parish.
Desire to have greater overall involvement in the parish.
Want more opportunities for Adult Education
Want to know more about those who are sick or have died in the community
Increase visibility through the newspaper

Ministries

Continue inviting back those who have left the church, ie. Welcome Back Catholics program
Desire to have more “small church communities” like Disciples in Mission program Renew
Parish Nursing ministry
Desire for youth to be more involve and visible
Renew, recruit, and reorganize communion ministry to the homebound
Renew Human Concerns Committee Reorganize R.C.I.A

Church Building

Renew efforts to complete deferred maintenance
Improve lighting in the church
Improve intelligibility of sound system
Renew/Revisit church renovation plan

Liturgy

More involvement desired, esp. young people involved
Want a youth/teen/family-oriented Mass
Renew music - desire for new/more lively music - include more instruments
Desire to be more welcoming at Mass
Increase reverence in church (concern about talking & dress code)
Desire to move announcements to the end of Mass
Consider moving location the choir due to distraction
Want more prayers for veterans and service personnel

School

Want more unity between parish and school
Desire better communication between school and parish
Desire that financial issues be reviewed and solved

Misc.

Increase participation in Perpetual Adoration, esp. youth
Increased coordination between ushers and nurses at Mass when emergencies arise
Desire for a regular 12:05 Mass at St. Anne
Desire for additional priest & Sunday Mass at Cave Junction
More Youth involvement at Cave Junction and Rogue River
Desire for Saturday Eve. Mass in Rogue River
Like to have bells at Mass
Desire to be thanked more
Would like to know which priest will be doing which Mass

Again, this list is not intended to reflect everything mentioned, but rather a highlight of the most commonly mentioned topics. All this information is important for our pastoral planning, a prayerful process which turns parish vision into reality. In the months and years ahead we will take measured steps, refine our mission, identify pastoral priorities, set goals and objectives, and revise our Pastoral Plan. Both Pastoral and Administrative councils are truly needed for this process, and I will continually look to them for this process. If you have any questions regarding this information, please don’t hesitate to talk with me or any member of the Pastoral Council.

Sincerely,

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor