Pastoral Council Meeting Minutes: September 2016
St. Francis de Sales Pastoral Council
Meeting Minutes
September 26, 2016
Attendees: Kathy Glover, Iris Hernandez, Ray Traube, Sylvia Brokos, Sally Raphel, Rob Hardy, Erin Perkins, Carolyn Webster, Alice Long, William Bankert and Fr. Jack Ward. Kathy Robinsons attended as a guest.
Absent: Susan Gallagher, John Fisher, Viviana Cajgas, Mary Ann Palmer, Julie Lindner, Deacon Jim Sullivan and Fr. Jaime Garcia.
Order: Ray Traube brought the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
Opening Prayer: The Embracing Our Mission – Shaping our Future prayer was said by all.
Approval of Minutes: The June and July minutes were approved by separate votes.
PARISH UPDATE
There was no formal parish update by Fr. Jack but Ray Traube used this time to discuss the letter which was sent to all current Council members asking whether they wished to continue to serve on the Council until the end of their terms. Ray requested that everyone notify him by email, within the next week, of their decision. If they choose not to continue, Ray asked that they suggest a replacement.
Ray also informed the Council that Susan Gallagher wished to resign and that she nominated her brother Patrick Perkins to replace her. This suggestion was put forth by motion, seconded and approved by the Council.
As there was a quorum at this month’s meeting, the Council voted to change the by-laws as follows:
Article VI, OFFICERS, Section 7. Should any Officer position become vacant and succession of the other Officers cannot take place – then the Pastor(s) can appoint someone which then needs to be voted upon by the remaining council members. Although it is preferred that the appointee be a current member of the Council, This appointee need not be a current member of the Council.
MINISTRY REPORTS:
Connections: Mary Anne Palmer provided her report by email:
The September 11th meeting was the last meeting for this committee. Fr. Jack requested Larry Shannahan to spearhead an evangelization committee to replace Connections. Two projects from the Connections committee will continue under Angie Rebbert as Director of Religious Education: the Baptism Program and Parish Retreats. Mary Anne Palmer will continue to mail the envelopes for the Baptism Program. Fr. Jack will present a course on Catholocism in place of the fall retreat but there will be a Lenten retreat.
Faith Formation: No report.
Latino Community: Iris Hernandez presented her report:
Beginning October 2nd, Marian hymns/songs from each of the Spanish communities will be sung 15 minutes before the start of the 1:00 pm Mass. Fr. Garcia and the community are hoping that this will encourage people to arrive early for Mass, increase participation and showcase they different musical styles and culture of each country.
On November 9th, there will be night praise and worship to encourage people to get back to church and to encourage leadership in the Hispanic ministry in the parish.
Liturgy: Sylvia Brokos presented her report:
The revised committee met for the first time on September 26th. Attendance was good. Fr. Garcia led the committee at Fr. Jack’s request. He wants to set out mission statements for the various ministries which fall under the committee and wants to provide more instruction and training for the altar servers, extraordinary ministers, lectors, ushers and greeters. Everyone who attended was given the opportunity to express changes they would like to see or issues which they feel need to be addressed. Among the issues discussed were use of the bells during Mass and several issues involving the Eucharistic ministers.
Parish Life: No report.
Service: Carolyn Webster presented her report:
August September
Our Daily Bread 83 96
Outreach July August
Clients 177 133
Food Bags 173 133
Families Assisted Financially 81 34
Always looking for volunteers for Let’s Do Lunch which serves about 40 families along the Rt. 40 corridor. The Sharing Table had a nice turnout; they had 120 casseroles and served 97 clients. The Homeless Shelter can use more volunteers to pack lunches and to spend time with residents in the evening.
A special thanks to Danny, Liz and Cynthia for organizing the food pantry and grouping the items by date so that all food is distributed before its expiration date. This was a huge task but is working very well.
Mike and Marcia Hickey will be working with confirmation students who are helping with Outreach.
Deacon Jim will be giving a retreat on St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare on Saturday, October 15th from 9:00 AM until Noon with a continental breakfast. If interested in attending, ca;; Patti Smith at 410-960-0322 or Carolyn Webster at 443-421-2652.
Stewardship: No report.
Youth: No report.
Jubilee Committee: Sally Raphel reported:
There was a good turnout for the 5:00 pm Mass on September 24th and interest in the time capsule and the artifacts in it. Sally thought it was a good fit with the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and that everything went well. She stated that the next event will be the closing Mass but that the committee will be selling Christmas cards.
NEW BUSINESS:
Ray Traube announced that he would be collecting email addresses from as many parishioners as possible for the National Catholic Conference. The emails would be used to generate support for or against legislation of particular importance for Catholics. After some discussion of the best way to accomplish this task, Fr, Jack offered to do it in pew and collect the responses. This way the parish also could update its records.
OLD BUSINESS:
Parish Picnic—Kathy Robinson attended the meeting to present her report and observations. The picnic was moved to Kilduff due to heavy rain but there was some confusion earlier in the day because first the picnic was canceled but then it was decided to use Kilduff. For the future, the Council decided to use Kilduff as a backup and to announce that when promoting the picnic.
Kathy also discussed the change in name from “picnic” to “summer gathering.” To avoid confusion, Fr. Jack stated that going forward the parish would provide the hot dogs, hamburgers, buns and condiments. We also discussed having people call the office to participate.
Kathy further reported that about 100 people attended. Diane Lewis and Patrick Perkins provided games for the children. Everyone pitched in to clean and the event was over by 2:00 pm with clean up finished by 2:30 pm.
Ray asked Kathy if she would spearhead next year’s picnic and she agreed to do so
From Fr. Jack:
He will be inviting the adults to attend the classes he will be giving to the Confirmation candidates in March. He believes that it will be valuable for the candidates to see that adults also take the opportunity to grow in knowledge of their faith.
On Saturday, October 1st, Patrick Perkins will be doing a vocations presentation for the youth. He is going to interview various clergy and staff members in a format similar to a late night talk show. The program will be held from 7:00 to 8:30 pm and all are in invited to attend.
Stewardship—Fr. Jack will be speaking this October 15-16 about the monies raised by “Embracing Our Mission” and how they will be used at the parish. He wants people to understand that we will not be using the money to build as originally planned because we have only about $100,000. We will be using the money to update and repair the A/C, the parking lot and maybe work on the roof of the worship center. The following weekend he will speak about increasing donations to the parish and will lay out for the parishioners all of the staff cuts and sacrifices made to continue the work of the parish.
Bingo—Ray Traube and Iris Hernandez volunteered when Larry Shannahan made his request to the Council. Iris enjoyed the experience and both Iris and Ray encouraged the Council to volunteer to keep Bingo going.
The Archbishop has called all of the priests to a meeting on September 30th on “Pastoring.” Fr. Jack is not sure of the details but thinks this means that they will be discussing one pastor overseeing more than one parish.
GOOD OF THE COUNSEL: Ray said that there were three items in the Suggestion Box:
- Someone asked why there were not elections for the Council.
- Someone suggested bringing back the bell for Mass.
- Someone complained that the same people are always asked to carry the gifts.
COUNCIL’S CORNER:
For the month of July, Outreach saw 177 clients, distributed 173 bags, and provided financial assistance to 81 families. In August they saw 133 clients, distributed 133 bags and provided financial assistance to 34 families. The Pastoral Council would like to thank Steve Hughes and the McComas family for their kindness and support in helping us to extract and insert our time capsule. Father Jack says, “they’ll make you look better dead than you did alive.” The Pastoral Council would also like to thank Sally Raphel for all of her efforts in heading up the Jubilee Committee that was created to celebrate the Parish’s jubilee year. If you are interested in bringing up the gifts during Mass please contact an usher to indicate your interest.
Closing Prayer: Ray Traube led us in the closing prayer.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:12 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Sylvia Brokos