Update from the pastor to parish pastoral council 8 September 2005

Reconfiguration

            June 16^th it was announced that the decision of the Meade Eisner committee was accepted and that the archbishop reversed the earlier plan for the suppression of St. Isidore Parish. (A second part of the Meade Eisner report, the Maynard and Stow parishes sharing one pastor, was not included in the Archbishop’s decision.) Bishop Lennon has since noted that this is the final arrangement. (Last month the pastor in Maynard was transferred to Resurrection Parish in Hingham; a temporary administrator is serving there and it is expected a new pastor will be appointed shortly.)

Generations of Faith

            With more than a hundred individuals signed up for the Friday and the Sunday sessions each, we are ready to move forward on another year September 16/18.

Parish Pastoral Council Election

            John Sangermano will be reporting tonight on the progress of the nominating committee. We hope to have the election September 25^th.

St. Isidore Garden

            The garden did well this year. Early to mid August we began distribution of the food to the Stow Food Pantry and others.

Apple Fest 2005

            Ready to move forward. Scheduled for October 9^th 11:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Newsletter

            We sent out an abbreviated letter the end of June announcing the reconfiguration scene. A week ago we sent out a saturation mailing to all in Stow inviting all to Mass and a reception September 18^th.. As we plan for the Fall Newsletter (early October) we might look for a committee of folk who could help out.

State legislation on marriage and family

            Archbishop Seán has arranged for an insert in the bulletin in the next week or two inviting support for a proposed referendum. The following week there will be opportunity outside the entrances of the church, for those interested, to sign petitions.

Liturgy Committee

            This was tabled during the summer and will resume in the coming weeks.

Vocations

            The archdiocese is interested in the formation of parish vocation committees and we will be addressing that in the coming weeks.

Micah

            Now that the reconfiguration issues have past, we hope to bring interested parishioners into the Micah activity (interfaith work of folks 128 to 495 / route 9 to route 2.

St. Vincent de Paul

            They have continued to be quite active addressing a number of situations. At the meeting last night they discussed openness to be of help in the Gulf crisis via the regional and national offices as needed.

Stewardship

            They will be planning a recruitment weekend mid October.

Finances

            The Finance Council hopes to report on the last FY and the budget for the coming FY by the end of September. The scene is challenging. In round numbers the actual reports of the past two years and the tentative budget for the present year are as follows:

                              FY 04 actual          FY 05 actual            FY   06 budgeted

            Offertory               202,000.            150,000.            190,000.

            Relig Ed /GoF            13,000.            21,000.            21,000.

            Other income             28,000.            35,000.            47,000.

            Total Income            243,000.            206,000.            258,000.

            Total Expense           237,000.            245,000.            257,000.

            Net                      6,000.            (39,000.)            1,000.

            The 40,000 deficit of last year is in accounts payable to the archdiocese for insurance etc. We are currently in discussion with them on this.

Outreach to new people moving into Stow.

            All folks in Stow have been invited to a celebration September 18^th.

            The hopes in this regard are the basis for our challenging budget. Are there are thoughts on a strategy to accomplish this?