Being Franciscan in North Carolina

St. Julia Church in Siler City, North Carolina

It gets very hot in Siler City during the summer. This is North Carolina, after all. St. Julia Church – a Conventual Franciscan-led parish - lies in the splendid countryside just east of Siler City; its parishioners understand the intensity of the southern heat very well. For the last several years as August winds down and children are about to return to school, they have held the St Julia Back-to-School Ice Cream Social. The social allows the youngest members of the congregation officially to bid the summer adieu. The delightfully chilly ice cream – which everyone can garnish with toppings – also gives all St. Julia parishioners a brief respite from the pounding, moisture-rich heat.

Community life at St. Julia Parish

St. Julia Parish pastor - Friar Jim Fukes – works hard to reflect Franciscan values in his ministry. The Back-to-School Social is only one of the many examples where he along with the rest of his staff reach out to their community and in cooperation with it improve everyone’s lives. Another example is the fact that St. Julia Parish offers several Masses in Spanish. In recent years the demographics in the American southeast have changed. Many people from Spanish-speaking nations in the Americas have moved to the region. One notices this in Siler City where 39% of the population is Hispanic. It was only natural then that St. Julia Parish respond to this change in such an appropriate way; and as the world changes around it, the parish will continue doing whatever it can to help make the wider community living around it a better place to live.

Siler City, North Carolina