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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2010 /  Spirit Awards

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published March 5, 2010

Photos by Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic Anna Tyler, SFO, is the 2010 Urban Parish Spirit Award winner from St. Charles Borromeo Parish, Detroit.

Shirley Partida, Urban Spirit Parish Award winner from Most Holy Trinity Parish, is president of her parish's Our Lady of Guadalupe Society.

DETROIT — Shirley Partida and Anna Tyler are examples of the kind of person who makes a difference in a parish, whose participation goes beyond just regular attendance.

Partida, of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit's Corktown area, and Tyler, of St. Charles Borromeo Parish on the lower east side, are among the 21 recipients of this year's Urban Parish Spirit Award, all of whom were recognized at a Feb. 10 ceremony at Sacred Heart Church, Detroit.

The awards are co-sponsored by the archdiocesan Office for Black Catholic Ministries and the Urban Parish Coalition of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance.

"Shirley's a fireball, she's always looking to do more here," says Fr. Russell Kohler, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish.

Partida is president of the parish's Our Lady of Guadalupe Society (the Guadalupanas) and a member of the parish's Hispanic choir, which sings at the 9 a.m. Spanish-language Mass.

She is also one of the parish's group that prays for the sick.

"Shirley's a faithful and generous person. She and the Guadalupanas are a blessing to the parish," says Mercy Sr. Mary Ellen Howard, executive director of the St. Frances Cabrini Clinic at Most Holy Trinity.

Partida was a long-time volunteer at the clinic, the parish's healthcare outreach to the uninsured, and has done other volunteer work in the southwest Detroit community, Sr. Howard continues.

"You can just count on her – she's going to be there," she adds.

Partida can remember being involved at Most Holy Trinity back in her school days, and even though her family officially belonged to the former St. Boniface Parish nearby, they were always involved with Most Trinity and the work of its longtime pastor, Msgr. Clement Kern.

Then, when St. Boniface closed in 1989, Partida was back at Most Holy Trinity.

She says she loves the warm, family feeling of the community that gathers for the Spanish Mass, but also enjoys it when, once a month, they join with the English-speaking members of the parish at the 11 a.m. Mass.

Her membership, and now leadership, of the Guadalupanas reflects a deep devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

2010 Urban Parish Spirit awardees This year's Urban Parish Spirit Award winners, and the parish (in Detroit unless otherwise noted) or group they belong to are: Nick Nicasio, SS. Andrew & Benedict Albert Garigan, Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament Richard Larkins, Good Shepherd Shirley Partida, Most Holy Trinity Trudy Shiemke, Nativity of Our Lord Walter Norwood, Sacred Heart Velma Coleman, St. Elizabeth Tom Oubre, Our Lady of the Rosary Juan Quezada, Our Lady Queen of Angels Karen Bernacki, St. Patrick John Fleming, St. Aloysius Carolyn Smith, St. Gregory the Great Mable Jones, Madonna Patricia Dixon, St. Cecilia Anna Tyler, St. Charles Borromeo William O. Wingate, St. Luke Richard Jungwirth, St. Philomena Judy Burkhardt, St. Ignatius Sr. Colette Heck, OP, St. Alexander, Farmington Hills Marilyn Webb, Holy Family, Inkster Jackie Morgan-Hill, St. Leo

"I am very comfortable talking to her, and asking for her intercession. She's always there, she never leaves me," Partida adds.

Capuchin Fr. Raymond Stadmeyer, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish, said Tyler is a "woman of prayer and deep faith, a very humble person."

Noting that Tyler is one of the parish's "prayer warriors," he continued, "People will go to her when they're in trouble and ask her to pray for them. She's a retired psychiatric nurse, and brings that kind of calmness to situations."

And although disabled by an old back injury, Tyler helps many other parishioners by driving them to doctor's appointments and other places. "She'll drive anybody anywhere. Her car becomes a vehicle for ministry," Fr. Stadmeyer says.

Tyler's connection to the parish goes back a long way, having graduated from the parish's high school in 1962. She lived in other parts of the country during some of the intervening years, but returned to St. Charles when she moved back to Detroit.

She serves on the parish council and Renaissance Vicariate council, and was a member of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. "I do what I can," she says.

Tyler is also involved with the parish's ministry to area nursing homes and group home residents.

And she is a member of the Secular Franciscans.

Although the back injury she has had since the 1990s still gives her trouble and causes her to need a cane or walker to get around, she says she doesn't mind too much: "It allows me to share in some limited degree in Jesus' suffering, and it helps other people too – by allowing them to fuss over me."