Parish Pastoral Council Meeting Minutes

January 8, 2009

1. Opening with Evening Prayer

2. Attendance

Members Present: Fr. Dave, Deacon Charlie Cornell, Charlie Corley, Dave Goulet, Marcia Melone, Brian Perreault, Cara Schomp, Bill Sullivan, Jack Waldie

Members Absent: Deacon Bob Brady, Nancy Buck, Jason Crotty, Jennifer Cunningham, Sue Ormand

PFC Liaison: Rosario Rizzo (present)

3. Approval of minutes (see website for minutes)

4. Mission Statement

• Final review
• Discussion of bullet format vs. paragraph format
• Decided to go with bullets

5. Mission goals

• Development of goals
• Need to create measurable goals(?)
• Goals should be derived from cornerstones in mission statement
• Will discuss specific goals at future meeting(s), pick one or two to focus on
• Tonight is just brainstorming
  • ADULTS
    • Offer and encourage participation in religious experiences
    • Educational
    • Liturgical
    • Increasing participation in the Eucharist
    • Eucharistic adoration on Jan. 22nd
    • More adult experiences/activities
    • Suggested – schedule one combined parish activity
    • Encourage more adult volunteers
    • Increase adult involvement in GoF
    • Average GoF attendance about 200 (adults and children)
    • More focused sessions geared towards adults
    • Conscious decision to increase adult-level GoF content
  • MIDDLE SCHOOL AGE
    • Youth group, other ideas have been discussed before
    • Not enough critical mass
    • Something to consider for future?
  • SMALL CHILDREN
    • CLOW (Children’s Liturgy of the Word)
    • Currently once a month
    • Increase frequency of offering
    • Untapped resource
    • Kids interest might spark adult involvement
    • Coordinating 2009 VBS (Vacation Bible School) w/St. Bridget’s
  • RELIGIOUS EVENTS
    • Open church to religious events/activities
    • Office of Worship looking for host sites
    • schedule set through end of school year
    • maybe look at next year
    • schedule of upcoming events on Office of Worship website
    • http://www.rcab.org/OfficeForWorship/HomePage.html
  • MISSION SERVICE
    • 1996-2002 we held 4 day missions
    • involvement/interest faded over time
    • Consider doing something like theology for a summer’s eve from a few years back
  • FAITH STORIES
    • Opportunities for people to share faith stories
    • Sense of community through sharing stories
    • More than just sitting down and having dinner
    • Sharing faith story
    • People searching for connection

6. Finance Council Report

• Mixed review
• Next Thursday meeting to discuss hard numbers
• Grand annual doing better than expected
• Offertory is down
• GoF subsidized by church, but a necessary expense
• Bottom line – still behind numbers, sliding even further behind

7. Committee updates

• Social
  • Did not go to La Salette shrine
  • Ice cream social
  • Game night
  • St. Patrick’s night
  • Cara suggested Wii tournament
• Building and grounds
  • Heating problems resolved
  • Waiting to do full service until spring
  • should save parish money in long term
  • new hot water heater waiting to be installed
  • rectory heat is fixed
  • bulletin sponsorships have worked very well
  • new rug for rectory
  • fix drain pipes
• Faith formation (GoF)
  • Nothing new
• Eucharistic ministers
  • New ministers
  • Retraining of current ministers
  • Could always use more
• Other committees

8. Other issues

Talk to potential new PPC members

This is the mission statement we approved in November.