At St. Anselm Church, Shandra Anderson Murray and Tammy Barren share much more than their role as confirmation leaders. Both are longtime parishioners deeply devoted to their small but community-minded parish on West 70th Street in South Los Angeles.

In fact Murray, 40, who has taught confirmation classes for 13 years, has spent "all of my life" in the parish. It is where she developed "my sense of giving back to my own community."

And Barren, 38, a parishioner for 25 years, says that teaching in the Confirmation program for the last eight years "has helped me grow spiritually. It has helped me question my own faith and how I can be a better Catholic. I have learned from the kids, too. I want to set an example."

This year 32 young people were confirmed at St. Anselm. As a mother of two and leader of the parish's Boy Scout troop, Murray sees the importance of the parish as the center of a person's life.

"It keeps me grounded in my own faith journey. It makes me accountable, to practice what I preach," she says. "In order to reach youth you have to be able to integrate what you are teaching into your own life. A lot of the youth don't have traditional homes or families, so it's always my goal that they leave knowing --- that is, about their faith, and how important it is to have a relationship with God --- and knowing and understanding how to make choices.

"Confirmation is the first sacrament that they make of their own choice. And it comes with some responsibility." Which is why Murray tells her students: "When you leave, you won't be able to say you didn't know."

St. Anselm is growing and undergoing change that those ministering in the parish see as very positive. This predominantly African-American and Hispanic parish of 700 families has worked at community building.

Parish Council chair Miguel Angel Guillen is proud of efforts made by his fellow parishioners and he --- like vice-chair Sylvia Zanders and veteran pastor Father Lawrence Shelton --- wants to do more for parish youth. "We are working very hard," says Guillen. "It is amazing when you commit yourself, and see what the people are capable of doing for the community. It is very important to participate and unify. No one is left out."

"I love my parish; I love my pastor," says Zanders, who is in charge of altar servers. "It is a beautiful parish, very warm and caring parishioners, and wonderful children and our children's ministry is growing. My parish is my life. Without St. Anselm, I don't know what I would do."

Father Shelton concurs.

"After 25 years, this is my life; this is my family," he says. "Even though there has been a great transition and changeover in the parish --- tremendous, really --- there has always been a certain stability about generosity and goodness. These are salt-of-the-earth people."

And over the years the people of St. Anselm Parish keep coming back. "That same cohesiveness has spanned the generations," says the pastor. "It is the same with the Creoles, with the Hispanics, and with the Nigerians that have come after."