The unique ministry collecting used religious objects

[Michie]

A box of religious items destined for recycling by St. Mary Recycle Mission Group is seen July 27, 2024, at Immaculate Conception Church in Ithaca, NY. Based in Lancaster, Pa., the mission group picks up unwanted items belonging to the parishes and parishioners all over the northeastern United States, repurposing them for use elsewhere. (OSV News photo/Mike Latona, Catholic Courier)

ITHACA, N.Y. (OSV News) — While cleaning out your house or a loved one’s, you come across a batch of rosaries, crucifixes and other religious artifacts. You hesitate to throw them out, recoiling at the thought of treating such spiritually significant items as mere garbage.

Yet you may not wish to keep them for yourself.

What to do?

Disposing sacred items​

One popular option — as Erika Lindsell knows from experience — is to leave the goods at the local parish. Lindsell, the administrative assistant at Immaculate Conception in Ithaca, has often found boxes full of religious objects on the office doorstep upon arriving for work.

“People leave stuff there figuring the church will know what to do with it,” Lindsell remarked. The rub, she said, is that it’s not so simple for parishes to place the objects, especially if there are large quantities.

Earlier this year, Lindsell received an email from a ministry in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, addressing that very dilemma. The organization, St. Mary Recycle Mission Group, offered to come to Immaculate Conception to pick up unwanted items belonging to the parish and parishioners, repurposing them for use elsewhere.


“I thought, ‘Hey, now this makes a lot of sense,'” Lindsell told the Catholic Courier, newspaper of the Diocese of Rochester.

A drop-off took place at Immaculate Conception’s weekend Masses July 27-28. On July 29, the recycling ministry — essentially a two-person operation — took away many containers full of religious items, as well as a Stations of the Cross set the parish no longer needed.

St. Mary Recycle Mission Group​

Continued below.

The unique ministry collecting used religious objects

St. Mary Recycle Mission Group is operated by Kimberly Walters, a Catholic who formerly lived in the Diocese of Rochester and attended church at Rochester's Our Lady of Victory Parish. She travels with her husband, Mike, all over the northeastern United States, letting parishes know in advance...

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[Michie]

This is so cool. I can really relate to this article. I have been basically doing the same thing for years. I always take the religious items and either use them myself or give them to others that may need or want them. I loved reading this.

 

[RileyG]

This is so cool. I can really relate to this article. I have been basically doing the same thing for years. I always take the religious items and either use them myself or give them to others that may need or want them. I loved reading this.

I love this idea! I also have a huge collection of religious objects, some have been used and are really old.

 

[Michie]

I love this idea! I also have a huge collection of religious objects, some have been used and are really old.

I go to a lot of estate sales, etc. I find a lot of it in places like that.