Idea Transcript
Pastoral Council Meeting July 15, 2014 Pastoral Leader: Deacon Fred Passauer Facilitator: Marie Vogelei
Attendance: Council Members: Christine Nelson, Fred Passauer, Ron Hassan, Marie Vogelei, Melinda Deras, Linda Neal, Marcia Price, Stephanie Fromm, Susan Yost, Carl Massarini Absent: Dan Bell
I. Opening Prayer: Christine led the Council in the opening prayer.
II. Pastoral Leader’s Report: Deacon Fred 1. The sewer line is finished and we have officially begun reclaiming the environment. It is being addressed that the work encroached upon more of our property than planned and we should be provided with the materials to fix it. Al Lambert and Mike M. took a lot of pictures and recorded information that should help with this process, and the work could possibly become an Eagle Scout project. 2. Archbishop Lori will be coming here to say mass on Sunday, August 24 at 9:00am. Geoff will arrange for the choir to be there and any special requests on the part of the archbishop will be handled by Deacon Fred and Susan Yost. 3. We have two new employees: Susan Yost, our new Pastoral Associate, and Chris Schwaab, the new secretary. We have not yet been assigned a priest, but we have masses covered through September. 4. Sunday, July 17 will be a clean-up of the Mother’s Garden and the picnic area for VBS. If weather permits, the outside doors will also be painted. 5. We have undertaken repairs to the dehumidifier and the hot water heater in the parish house. 6. As for security issues, our visitor seems to have moved on, but the push is underway to increase security. Fred is looking into motion sensors and panic button pendants to be worn by office staff. Questions remain as to how the buttons will work since the system
will be based in the house and we want the response to be immediate, not a check-up call. Also, we are investigating the feasibility of monitors for the exit doors and groups will be encouraged to lock doors once members have arrived.
III. New Member Nomination Our new Pastoral Council member is Kathy Lyon and she will be invited to join us at the August meeting. Next year, there will be two openings (Christine and Marcia), and we will need to look at demographics in order to ensure representation from more groups within the parish. We need to make the nomination process an agenda item earlier in the year so that we can begin the procedure sooner.
IV. Advisory Council Report: Christine Nelson Our last meeting was in May. We are waiting to be given a task by the Pastoral Leaders.
V. Old Business: Leadership Forum and Action Points Improving communication: Each PC liaison is asked to contact their committee chair 7-10 days prior to each PC meeting to touch base, see if there are any questions or concerns, and give them information about our discussions. The chairs will be encouraged to read the PC minutes. Methods of increasing communication include a Google Calendar on the new website, which should be activated some time in the next two months, an email distribution list for committee chairs to use for sending information and looking for help, and a possible forum or blog on the new website. Committee chairs need to communicate with their various subcommittees. We will continue to do a Leadership Forum each year. Parish identity: Deacon Fred presented the 6 models of church according to Avery Dulles. We immediately identified with the community of service to others, and our activities as a parish seem to support that identity, but we wondered whether the average parishioner would also feel that way. We considered that communication of this identity is already included in our priests’ homilies, but that perhaps we could do more to recognize our own efforts. We may put more “thank you” style
announcements in the bulletin, do more acknowledgment at mass, and post pictures and comments to our Facebook page. (Susan offered to assist Joy Hutter with this.) Hospitality: Creating Community is making themselves available for all Hospitality weekends so that the actual committee members are free to talk with parishioners about their activities and possibly recruit volunteers. We need to make our liaison committees aware of this opportunity. Community feedback: It has been announced and is in the bulletin that any parishioner is welcome to come to any committee meetings including the PC, but with the exception of Finance Committee. The new website will also have survey capability which we will be able to use to collect feedback. Marie is going to draft a response to the committee chairs, and we will each forward it to our liaison committee chair.
VI. For the Good of the Parish It was noted that there are two links to the PC on the old website, but only one of them works. It was agreed upon that while we wait for the new site to be created, we should address problems with the old one. CCoGB and SPN are implementing a program called Christ Life. As part of the New Evangelization, the goal of this program is to re-invigorate our relationship to the church by improving our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a small-group format which will help generate more communication within the parish by creating better connections between members. Deacon Fred will send a link to the PC so that we can read about the program before our next meeting and discuss possible implementation during Advent or Lent.
VIII. Next Meeting for Pastoral Council: Tuesday, August 19 at 7:30 pm August prayer is Marcia.