MEETING MINUTES

St. Isidore Parish Pastoral Council
October 10, 2002

Members Attending: Rev. Richard Butler, Pastor, Deacon Charles Cornell, Ann DeChristofaro, Will O'Brien, Shirley Ormsby, Rosario Rizzo, John Sangermano,

Members Absent: John Colonna-Romano, Nancy Dome, Kathleen King, Sharon McCann, Domenique Sexton,

Evening Prayer

Minutes: Minutes of September 12th accepted.

Update from the pastor

Deadline for the Winter (Dec-Jan-Feb) issue of the Newsletter is Nov. 5th. The December 2003 Parish Visitation has been postponed a year pending a restructuring of the process. The initial response to the September annual financial report was positive but not as enthusiastic as we had hoped. This will be monitored closely. The pastor will be announcing the Promise For Tomorrow campaign this weekend Oct 12/13. There will be a meeting Oct. 29th to explain the campaign. Nov. 17th has been designated as the time for pledges to be completed. Baptismal reunion will be held Oct. 20. Religious education still has needs for a few catechists. Evening of reflection for ppc and pfc scheduled for Dec. 1st. Ken Meltz will be a presentor. He is a pastoral associate from Burlington who has done much in small base communities. Thanksgiving interfaith service to be hosted by St. Isidore on Nov. 24th. Thanksgiving Day we will have our usual Thanksgiving Mass.

Youth Ministry

Over the next month or two we plan to begin the formation of a core leadership for youth ministry. Questions not yet resolved: Middle School or High School or other orientation; Stow, or Stow/Bolton, or Stow/Bolton/Lancaster focus.

Establishing a priority for this year

We reviewed the listing from the minutes of the last meeting and reviewed the communications received on the idea of a priority (several calling for Youth Ministry and also mention of the interfaith/ecumenical issue. It was noted that at an action level we will be committed to youth ministry. Question at hand is at the level of vision, what can the council consider for the upcoming year.

Brainstorming kept returning to the small base community concept: the parish being a composite of a variety of groups each with an accent or primary focus and together bonded as a parish. (e.g. daily Mass congregants, St Vincent dePaul, catechists, musicians, bible study folk, ecumenical outreach, etc.)

Decided to take this on as the priority for the year: how can small base faith communities strengthen and empower our parish life?

Review of the meeting

"Glad I came," "Youth Ministry better understood," "pessimistic on response of volunteers," "excited," "creative group."

Next meetings

Nov. 14, Dec. 12 2002; Jan. 9, Feb. 13, Mar. 13, Apr. 10, May 8, Jun. 12, 2003
Evening of reflection Sunday Dec. 1, 2002
Archdiocesan Assembly of councils (tentative) Saturday March 8, 2003