|
|
|
Common Leadership Night Council and Commission Reports November 4, 2008 Pastoral Council All expressed frustration over the failure of the commissions (with the exception of worship) to provide members for the Pastoral Council. It is difficult for the council to fulfill its duties when reduced to one-fifth its size. In this regard, the PAR process has broken down. Nevertheless, the council has decided to push forward with two tasks to be accomplished in the short term: (a) Establishment of a yearly planning cycle (December 2nd meeting); choice of a coordinating theme for all parish activities (January 6th meeting). Worship Commission The Liturgy & Worship Commission has shown progress in achievement of their 6 month goals. The first goal to establish a Liturgy Planning Committee has been met. The group worked on the All Soul’s Liturgy. Future plans are focused on Advent. On Sunday, Nov. 23rd, they will host an Advent Wreath workshop after the 8:30 and 10:30 masses. These wreaths will be blessed on the 1st Sunday of Advent. The group will also arrange for finding individuals/families to light the Advent Wreath during Mass. C.J. Gillig and Barbara Joseph will plan to meet with the group to coordinate music for Advent and Christmas. Creating a role of Liturgy Coordinator at all of the masses was another of our 6 month goals. We are still shaping this process but we have Mary Rivera working in that capacity at the 10:30 Mass. David Primmer has volunteered to do the 8:30, but has not yet begun. The 4:30 is still in need and we really should have a pair of individuals so that we have a backup. A third goal of the Commission is to organize our Liturgical ministries to find out who are the individuals who are performing the various ministries and to create a job description of these. We are creating a binder to pull together al of this information. Several members of the commission met with representatives from the various ministries to gather information. We still need to identify a ‘head’ for all of the ministries. We feel strongly that a parish ministry fair would be a good way to inform the parish of the duties and responsibilities and to recruit new members. As well, it was suggested that new parishioners receive a packet with lists of ministries when they arrive. The Liturgy and Worship Commission will be part of the selection process for the new music minister since the hope is that this individual will be an important member of our team. C.J. Gillig and Karyn O’Toole will be part of the interview process. We discussed preliminary budgets for our group and immediately will be looking into the cost of an Advent devotional booklet. Administration Commission The parish census letters are done and due to be mailed on November 7th. We ask that all parishioners complete and return the census form as soon as possible. Thank you for your attention to this. The Building and Grounds Committee will be advising a plan to dispose of the stained glass windows and pews in St. Raphael. When the plan is completed our parishioners will be advised. A discussion was held regarding the creation of job descriptions for parish employees. We are sure the Building and Grounds commission members would appreciate your thanks for the new walkways and steps at St. Patrick Church. They worked very hard to plan and complete these projects. The Administration Commission started discussion on a Call to Discipleship Program. Community After review of our goals, we realized we did not fully meet one of our major goals, and that was to have a special group of seniors meet to help organize events specifically for seniors. Our recruiting efforts fell flat. On the bright side, we held 3 events this past month. We did one coffee hour after the 8:30 mass to try to bring all of our parish community together. 15 folks attended. Also, we tried a film and fellowship event – we showed “Singing in the Rain”. 6 folks showed. Also, the All Souls Reception, sponsored by this commission, was well attended and appreciated by all. Going forward, this commission is trying another approach to recruit more volunteers. To date, these events have been run by the current commission. Lastly, we are in the process of planning holiday entertainment – date to be announced – It will be excerpts form “A Christmas Carol” under the direction of Jeff Welch performed by High School students. Outreach Commission The Post Office food drive on Saturday netted 3,443 pounds of food for the Food Pantry. Tonight we began work on the Christmas Gift Mission. The plan is to have the tags available after mass beginning November 29/30. We also discussed the request from the local clergy association as to the possibility of opening the parish center as a ‘warming center’. Formation We have received a limited number of responses to our Formation Survey. Please submit your surveys as soon as possible. The next event is a children’s Christmas “Make It & Take It” which will allow parish families to make Christmas ornaments. The next Leadership Night meeting will be on Tuesday, November 2nd at 7:00pm. Important: A reminder that Fr. Tom and Sr. Peg will be here for the PAR meeting with all of us on Saturday, November 22 from 9am until 3pm. Lunch will be provided. Contact Carol DeMayo if you have any questions. *****
PAR Point
Person
(liaison
between groups
Commission Co-Chairs:
Community:
Kristen McCormack 458-0012 kmccorma@williams.edu
Formation:
Richard Reynolds 884-2864 Richard@berkshirereynolds.com
Worship:
Barbara Joseph 458-5809 bjoseph72@yahoo.com
Administration:
Karen Whalen 458-2771 kwhalen@williams.edu
Outreach: Fran Flaherty 458-5027 jflah@adelphia.net |