Western Deanery
President: Angela Morris
Spiritual Advisor: Rev. Jareck Sztybel
Western Deanery Council of Catholic Women is located in Polk County. We have a very energetic group of fine ladies from young to seniors who are young at heart, and so happy working with the Council of Catholic Women. Most of our affiliations meet from September through May. We would love you to join our Council of Catholic Women in one of these parishes. You will be empowered, educated and receive much spiritual growth, plus you will have so many beautiful friends and never be lonely again. have been truly blessed to be friends of the ladies from the many affiliations in all our cities. I have received much love, support and compassion for all in Council as well as in our Community and I want to share it with you.
Resurrection Church in Lakeland is the largest parish in Western Deanery with 2220 families. Our Annual Silver Tea, held close to St. Patrick's Day, benefits a local charity each year. We alternate with the Knights of Columbus to do a monthly donut/cookie Sunday after the morning masses and help with many of the parish receptions. We collect soups and monetary donations for the parish poor on "Souper" Bowl Sunday each year. Members also lead the rosary on Wednesdays, after our parish Faith Formation meetings. The list goes on...
St. Anthony in Lakeland - We are approximately 40 members strong and always looking to grow. We spend our year educating our Parish and surrounding community by monthly meetings with informative speakers such as Outreach Program Directors from Talbot House, Catholic Charities and Diocesan Office of Advocacy and Justice. We have a collection bucket always available for the water filter fund for our sister Diocese in the Dominican Republic. Every year we help with the Youth Group food and bag collection at Thanksgiving to provide meals to families in need and also have a major DOVE TREE collection of items the young and old would need and could use at the holiday season… such as clothing, personal need products, undergarments and footwear.
We make monetary donations as well with fund raisers such as our annual card party in November. Outreach programs such as Newspaper with a Heart, Talbot house, Senior Orphans, Catholic Charities and Water Filters benefit each year at the Christmas Season. Currently we have two days of service where we provide a luncheon to the Talbot house members. This requires the prep, cooking and serving of the meal to approximately 250 persons.
We support catholic School education by hosting a spaghetti dinner in January to kick off Catholic Schools week. All proceeds are donated to the school directly. We also run a PHANTOM TEA PARTY. This outreach program is to gain the help to send funds to help build homes in the Sister Diocese in the Dominican Republic.
Our Goal is to build our group as a whole to be a source of information for all as we are making disciples and in order to do so we must reach out it the community and not just the parish.
St. John Neumann, located in the far South corner of Lakeland, has less than 1000 families in their parish. They sponsor a family fun event called "Santa Breakfast" with the cost of only $1.00 per family. Picture with Santa is taken, and a famous pancake breakfast served. They also have their annual popular Chocolate Feast each year.