VENTNOR – In an effort to bring more people into St. James Church and to help spread the Word of the Lord, Regina Tepedino and her family led the reconstruction of a side room off the altar to make it into a small chapel for Eucharistic adoration.
“With the support of Father Joseph Ganiel, pastor of St. James, we reintroduced Bingo about two years ago and with these funds and others we were able to build the chapel,” said Regina. “It’s called the John Paul II Chapel.”
“As a steward of God,” said Father Ganiel, “she helped make the Eucharistic adoration her most successful project. When I came here two and a half years ago she asked what could be done to help make the adoration more visible and viable.
She came up with the chapel idea. Bingo was basically started by the Altar and Rosary Society, of which she is a member, with the purpose of building the chapel.”
Regina and her husband, Michael, and two of her sons who still live at home, Jonathan, 26 – a lector who helped with the construction – and Anthony, 24, volunteered their time to build the chapel, which seats about 24 people, for the Eucharistic adoration.
“The John Paul II Chapel is open five days a week,” she noted, “and we have adoration from 7:45 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday.”
Many of the items used in the chapel were found in a closet at the church. Other items – such as benches – were donated, and the pews for the chapel were bought through donations from parishioners whose names were put on small plaques on the pews. The Bingo funds were also used to buy other items, such as lumber, for the construction. This feeling of stewardship, of giving, of volunteering, inspired another family in the parish to replace the monstrance in the church.
After Father Ganiel had come to St. James, Regina asked him what could be done to raise funds, and Bingo came up. The game was popular at the church in the 1970s but fell off with changing tastes and times. It was brought back, thanks to Regina and her husband and Father Joseph. Michael is still actively involved in the game.
“Bingo was very successful for us,” Regina said, “but as a shore parish, we now offer it only during the spring and summer.”
Father Ganiel said that through her stewardship Regina was able to get five leaders to maintain the John Paul II Chapel, one for each day the chapel is open.
“She’s the coordinator,” he explained, “and someone is always in the chapel. For as long as the chapel is open, someone is there.”
Regina’s devotion to the church goes beyond the chapel. She’s been involved in other fundraisers, bake sales for the Altar and Rosary Society, for one thing. Last year she and others spent a weekend cleaning the brass and marble in the church.
“Everything is beautiful again and sparkles,” she said.
She’s been a parishioner for 36 years but it’s only been in the past three years she’s gotten involved, with her husband and two sons also getting involved to a degree. Her other children, who live elsewhere, are a third son, Michael Jr. and two daughters, Nicole and Jaime Gormley.
Regina said everything she and her family do makes them feel blessed.
“We don’t hold back on anything, in money or in time,” she pointed out. “Michael and I have five healthy children. We consider ourselves enormously blessed,” adding that her daughter, Jaime, will make her and Michael grandparents for the first time in August.
Although she volunteers at St. James, she works as a secretary at St. Nicholas in Atlantic City.
“I was volunteering there for a while, now I work there,” she said.
Regina, among her many, many other activities, is involved with religious education and is on the Deanery Planning Board at St. James. She also visits shut-ins to give them Communion. As a Eucharistic Minister she travels to the Atlantic City Medical Center, to a shut-in at her home, and to her 93-year-old mother, Anna, in a nursing home, as well as to other sick relatives “and to anyone I know who is sick,” she said.
“I’m the representative for the Eucharistic adoration and Bingo on the Parish Council and I also belong to the Marian Commission,” Regina added.
Father Ganiel said Regina lives for the church and loves the church.
“She epitomizes stewardship,” he noted. “You can truly see within her a good steward. She inspires others to use their time, talent, and treasures wisely for the church and for all.”
For more information on stewardship contact Russell Davis, Office of Stewardship, at 856-583-6102.