Spotlight on St. James the Less

Precious Blood Peace and Justice Grant winner provides educational programs 

Brother Tom Bohman, C.PP.S., serves as director of religious education at St. James the Less parish in the Oakland Park neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. He says that approximately 95-97% of households fall beneath the poverty line in this mostly Hispanic community.   

“The Peace and Justice Grants will be used to purchase supplies and to advance spiritual education through the school for adult and youth programs,” he says.  

Education is an important part of how St. James the Less and the adjoining K-8 school serve the community. Br. Tom oversees the traditional PSR program and Vacation Bible School, with about 180 kids participating in PSR and over 50 attending Vacation Bible School each summer, including teenage leaders.   

Br. Tom also heads up a less-traditional educational offering called Urban Retreat. Each year, he takes a group of inner-city adults from Columbus, Cleveland, and Dayton and Precious Blood Companions into the northwest Ohio countryside for a weekend to sample rural life. For the city-dwellers, it’s a culture shift and a foreign experience only a few hours away. The guests have the opportunity to mingle with folks whose paths they may not otherwise have crossed.   

Br. Tom plans his trip to coincide with the Maria Stein Country Fest, a weekend of carnival rides, fair food, music, activities, and shows. A perennial fan favorite is the tractor square dancing, which is unlike anything his guests have experienced at home.   

Now in its 20th year, the trip is an opportunity for the local farming community to meet and interact with urban people of color. Br. Tom brings the Precious Blood spirituality of reconciliation and healing with his program by building bridges between these groups of Ohioans who live very different lifestyles only hours apart. 

Learn more about St. James the Less Catholic Church and school.