Twinning: A Holy Cross Encounter

1. Assemble a Twinning Leadership Team
Your Twinning Liaison is asked to form a Twinning Leadership Team of three to ten people who can commit to helping fundraise for and exchange communications with a Twinning partner. Once formed, the Twinning Leadership Team is invited to set up a planning call with the Holy Cross Mission Center.

2. Pray
Regularly include your Twinning partner in your community prayer intentions.

3. Fundraise
Host a fundraiser, which may be as simple or complex as your Twinning Leadership Team desires. The fundraiser will serve to raise funds for your Twinning partner and to educate the wider community about your Twinning partner. The Holy Cross Mission Center is happy to provide direction and resources to make this a simple process.

4. Encounter
Participate in opportunities for your community to better know your Twinning partner through email communications, video conferences, social media engagement, or other avenues. As your community grows its relationship with your Twinning partner, these encounters may grow into virtual collaborative learning experiences, service-immersion trips, international student exchanges, or other forms of in-person encounters.

5. Reflect
At the end of the year, invite your Twinning Leadership Team to reflect on the following:
· What have you learned about your Twinning partner, their culture, and their faith practices?
· What has Twinning taught you about the Holy Cross charism?
· How would you like to get to know your Twinning partner better in the future?
· What went well about the fundraiser(s)? What could be improved next time?
· Moving forward, what kind of support would you like from the Holy Cross Mission Center?

September
Identify your Twinning Liaison and assemble your Twinning Leadership Team.
Schedule a planning call with the Holy Cross Mission Center.
Begin praying for your Twinning partner at your community’s Masses.

October
World Mission Month: Take up a Mass collection on World Mission Sunday.
Schedule an introductory videoconference with your Twinning partner.

November
Begin planning fundraising efforts to be completed by May.
Invite your Twinning partner’s Liaison to share photos, videos, and stories.

December
Complete your Mid-Year Twinning Update and email it to the HCMC.
Send a fun “Christmas Card” photo or video to your Twinning partner.

January
Holy Cross Heritage Month: Inquire about how the Holy Cross charism is alive in your Twinning partner’s community.
Schedule a videoconference with your Twinning partner.

February
Host a spring fundraiser, which may integrate well with Lenten almsgiving.
Maintain communication with your Twinning partner.

March
Host a spring fundraiser, which may integrate well with Lenten almsgiving.
Maintain communication with your Twinning partner.

April
Reflect on the past year of Twinning with your Twinning Leadership Team.
Invite new members to join your Twinning Leadership Team for next year.
Communicate your hopes for next year to your Twinning partner.

May
Complete your Year-End Twinning Update and email it to the HCMC.
Send donations to the HCMC for confirmation of the matching grant and disbursement.

The Holy Cross Mission Center offers the Bricklayers Matching Grant to support official Twinning partnerships. With this grant, Twinning fundraising efforts will go further in benefitting the international ministries of Holy Cross and the communities they support.

For all funds received by the HCMC for Twinning partnerships by the end of the fiscal year, the HCMC will match up to $2,000 USD to support your Twinning partner’s ministry priorities.

Why “Bricklayers”?

Bishop Vincent J. McCauley, C.S.C. (1906-1982), was passionate about building up the local Church, which required industriousness and creativity in addition to missionary zeal. He knew firsthand the value of hard work from his years of service as a Holy Cross missionary in Bangladesh in the 1930s and 40s.

Before establishing Holy Cross’s Mission to East Africa in 1958, then-Fr. McCauley, C.S.C., spent years forming missionaries in the Foreign Mission Seminary in Washington, D.C., and raising funds for the Congregation’s missions. In these efforts, he often shared his Mission Appeal slogan, which emphasized the practical work necessary to improve the world and serve those in need:

“WANTED TO BUILD A BETTER WORLD:
FEWER ARCHITECTS,
MORE BRICKLAYERS!”

Thus, the Holy Cross Mission Center is proud to honor Bishop McCauley’s missionary legacy through the $2,000 Bricklayers Matching Grant.

• Secure online donation form exclusively for Twinning partners
• Sample Twinning Packet
• Calendar for U.S. Twinning Partners
• $2,000 Bricklayers Matching Grant
• Mid-Year Update Form
• Year-End Update Form
• Country Overviews
• Missionary Heroes
• Recursos en Español – Paquete del Programa de Twinning

International Holy Cross ministries may submit their ministry for consideration by following the instructions found in the HCMC’s “Twinning Participation Form for International Partners”.

The following Holy Cross ministries have submitted their Twinning Participation Form and are ready to Twin:

• Audrey Veldman Vocational Training Centre (Kitete, Tanzania)
• St. Brendan Preschool & Primary School (Kitete, Tanzania)
• Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church (Bolipara, Bangladesh)
• Corpus Christi Catholic Church (Jalchatra, Bangladesh)
• Holy Cross Novitiate (Saaka, Fort Portal, Uganda)
• Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Sombetini, Tanzania)
• St. André Bessette Parish (Diglakuna, Bangladesh)
• St. Denis Ssebuggwawo Holy Crosss Parish (Kampala, Uganda)