Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church
Hot Springs Village, Arkansas
We are truly living in a "Communication Age" where information is coming to us and at us in many varied ways.  This is happening in society as a whole and in the Church as well, as it seems that we know almost immediately what Pope Francis is saying or doing no matter where he is in the world at any given moment.  Locally, we have gone from providing information to parishioners by verbal announcement at Mass and through the bulletin to a website (www.hsvsacredheart.com) which can update information on a daily basis, to now, a system called "One Call" in which we have the ability to get out to all parishioners information by phone or by e-mail that we feel is helpful or even needed for you to know in between our gathering for Mass on the weekends.  These would be death and funeral announcements, especially when a parishioner dies early in the week and the funeral will take place before the weekend; also, reminders about special liturgies for holydays and seasonal Reconciliation Services, and large social happenings at the church, especially when they occur later in the week.  You might be surprised to find out that at many of our events in which people have signed up to come - usually 10-20% of those who signed up don't show up.  Some of that number has to be people who forgot about the event after signing up to come.  Our parish organizations will now be able to send voice or written messages to their members only, with information that is pertinent to them.

Before we start this system in earnest, we will soon be sending a letter by mail to all registered parishioners with the current contact information (phone numbers and e-mails) that we have for our members.  We will ask you to let us know by e-mail, mail, or through a box that will be left in the narthex if there are any changes to the information we have on you. It is also important to make you aware that when these messages start coming to you by phone or e-mail, you can opt out of getting future calls or e-mails from us if you choose to do so.  I ask you, though, to please don't do that too quickly as it will be difficult to add you back to our system if you want to come back.  We will do our best not to contact you through this system so often that you get "tired" of hearing from us.

I hope this system helps our active parishioners to stay up with what's going on and our inactive parishioners to want to get more involved in what this wonderful parish has to offer.  I pray that you will be open to this new form of communication that technology allows us to do, and keep up with what's going on in the parish with the current means we have (the bulletin and website).  Thanks in advance for your efforts to help us update our contact information on you and for your involvement in the parish at Mass and for some, in other ways.