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Sts. Joseph & Paul Catholic Church |
Parish Council Minutes | |
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Parish Council Minutes
Meeting began at 6:35 p.m. in the Parish Office building. M embers present: Pete
Johnson, Ron Greene, John Wells, Tony Kraus, John Little, Pete Johnson,
Debbie Luedke, Laura Baker, Mike Hagan, Carol
Alvey, Connie Caceres, Tom Hayden 1. Opening prayer led by Fr. Carl 2. Minutes from February 4, 2008 meeting approved. 3. Continuing Education – Fr. Carl spoke about vocation. We are all called to a vocation by God. All Christians need to recognize this fact, and then determine how they will live out the vocation in their daily life. 4. Old Business A) The council welcomed Kay Beth Riney, our new Minister of Music and Liturgy. B) Alan gave us an update of the door-to-door visits. There was a smaller group of volunteers to make these visits than what was originally anticipated. Because of this, the entire process was not completed by the end of March. There are still approximately 250 households left to visit. Alan said these will be completed at soon as possible. As expected, there were compliments, complaints and suggestions that came from the process. Alan provided a listing of these comments to each council member. It was suggested that we begin to quickly address the comments through the bulletin, both positive and negative, so that people will know their voice is being heard. C) The Open Parish Council Meeting (a.k.a. State of the Parish address) will be held on April 27 from 5-7:30 p.m. in the parish hall. The evening will consist of a potluck dinner, committee reports (2-3 minutes each), and a question/answer session. An invitation letter will go out this week to committee chairs, and a flyer will be in this week’s bulletin inviting everyone in the parish to attend. 5. New Business A) Bishop McRaith as approached Fr. Carl regarding the possibility of having an Associate Pastor join the staff. This is still in the discussion period. Nothing has been decided at this point. B) We will have a second Joint Committee Meeting on August 11 (this is a change from the original date of August 21). Fr. Ron Knott, a staff member at St. Meinrad and Director of the Continuing Education for Priests program, will lead the discussion. Fr. Ron is a dynamic speaker and all committee members are urged to attend. C) Technology and Liturgy – as technology advances, there are many more ways to proclaim the Gospel and to reach out to our parishioners. This may include technological ways to provide an outreach for our homebound or other groups. Ken will gather people together to brainstorm on the practicalities of how we can use what is available. We will also meet with our shut-ins to see what they would like to see in this regard. D) Engaged couples and wedding policy – Fr. Carl brought to our attention a need to make couples preparing for marriage better understand the sacrament, and also how we can make them be an active part of the parish. It seems that too many are just interested in using the church because it would make a good wedding photo or would please someone in their family. Several suggestions were brought forward. It was a general consensus that we need to have other young, married couples to be a part of this process. Those preparing for marriage will more likely listen to people their own age. We will continue to discuss this topic in the future. Fr. Carl is looking to put a team of people together to “flesh out” practical ideas to make this work. E) Stewardship of the Environment – the United States Catholic bishops is calling stewardship of the environment a moral issue of our time. We will ask the Social Justice committee to devote part of their meeting time each month to discuss this issue and to bring forth to the parish practical ideas of how we can help protect what God has given to us. This can be done on a parish level, family level, and individual level. F) Ken gave an update on the youth program. The main focus now is helping to provide opportunities for our youth to get out of their comfort zones and to take ownership of their faith and their parish. Many exciting programs have already occurred and many more are planned. The youth program has previously been focused on building relationships, and now we are seeing the planted seeds of faith begin to grow. The future is very exciting. G) Chris gave an update on Hispanic ministry. He said that on the national level, it seems to be going backwards. The once separate Secretariat for Hispanic Ministry has been reduced to a subcommittee in a new office called “Office for Cultural Diversity.” There is a fear that change from “the top” will affect dioceses and local parishes. On a positive note, there has been a great deal of activity with our local Hispanics, including a celebration on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Way of the Cross during Holy Week, home visits, and English as a Second Language classes. Chris continues to find new ways to reach out to area Hispanics. There will be a potluck for Anglos and Hispanics in the parish to come together on June 29 (Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul). H) The Spiritual Life Committee is currently promoting a program where everyone will read the entire Bible in a year. Beginning this weekend, sign-up sheets will be available at Masses where people can order a One Year Bible for $19.95. These will arrive on Pentecost Sunday. Also beginning that weekend, the readings will be listed in the bulletin for those who do not wish to purchase this Bible. 6. Tony summarized the Council meeting by saying “we will perish as a parish if we do what other parishes do.” 7. Tony will lead the continuing education discussion at the next meeting. Pete will lead the opening prayer. 8. Closing prayer – offered by Fr. Carl 9. Meeting adjourned at 8:52 p.m. 10. Next meeting – Monday, May 5, 2008
Respectfully submitted,
sdrose@bellsouth.net |