Local church hosts ‘Family Summer Movie Series’

JACKSON, Tenn —  One local church hosted a summer movie series for families to enjoy. This summer you can bring family and friends out to St. Mary’s Catholic church for the event. Organizers said you’ll get to watch some of the greatest films of all time.

Director of Evangelization and Discipleship, Derek Rotty said “It was something kind of successful that I did with some teens at a previous parish where I worked in Memphis, and I thought why not just bring it here to St. Mary’s and try to attract some families and give them something fun to do on a Sunday night before the kids go to bed.”

Rotty said it’s a brand new initiative started by the faith and family ministry. “I love films and I’ve happened to have been blessed to see bunch of them and I said well why don’t I show those to catholic families.”

There will be three movies shown throughout the summer, organizers kicked off the series with “The Song of Bernadette.”

“The Bells of St. Mary in July, which is about Christmas so I figured like Christmas in July.” Rotty said. “And then another one is in August about a miracle that happened at a monastery with a little boy.”

Some church members said bringing their families out allows them to build in their faith.

“My kids enjoy watching movies so I thought this seemed like something fun to do, but something that’s also connecting with our faith.” Church member, Jon Jones said.

St. Mary’s vision is to encourage families to get active within the parish. “That’s one of the big things that I want to make sure that we provide here at St. Mary’s is just great experiences for parents and children to enjoy being at the church.” Rotty said.

It’s a free event, but proceeds from concession sells will go the faith and family ministry. A fun fact about Sunday’s film, The Song of Bernadette won four Oscars in 1943. Organizers say the summer movie series is open to the community and will feature food concessions each time.

The next film will be July 9th at 6 p.m.