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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.

St. Isidore Parish is a Catholic faith community committed to helping people deepen their relationship with Christ. The cornerstones of our mission are:

  • the celebration of the Eucharist,
  • Christian service,
  • evangelization, and
  • religious education for every person.

These are the foundations through which we help people to grow and sustain the excitement of their relationship. We are committed, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to welcoming all to our faith community, seeing Christ in one another and growing in our commitment to be more like Christ, especially in our daily prayer life.