Preliminary Parish Pastoral Council Minutes
October 12, 206 

Prior to our meeting, the following committees emailed their reports to me.  I collected the reports and distributed them to everyone on council one week prior to our meeting.   

Social Action Committee-submitted by Ed Walls 
Vocations Committee-submitted by Bill & Connie Peters
Youth Ministry- submitted by Pat Bentley
Parish Outreach Committee -submitted by Frank Blee 
Family Life- Submitted by Ted & Joann Malecki
Liturgical Committee-submitted by Fran Fietkiewicz
Publicity & Community Events-submitted by Carol Johnson

These reports can also be viewed at (click here)

The following committees did not submit a report for this month:

Children's Religious Education
Building & Grounds Report

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Pastoral Parish Council

MINUTES
October 5, 2006

 The Meeting:

·        Meeting called to order at 6:05pm

·        Opening prayer Carol Johnson

·        Attending:  Kevin Walls , Bob Senese , Ray Ring, Joan Parker , Carol Johnson, Laura Eger , Frank Blee , Addie Blee, , Ed Walls, , Pat Bentley, Paul Bishop, Margaret Quigley, Fr. Perry, Fr. Cosme , & Rev. Mr. Joe Becker

·        Absent:  Matt Macready, Joann Malecki, Rev. Mr. Bill Peters, & Connie Peters

·        No correspondence was reported

Last Month’s Minutes:

            No Changes
            Motion to approve minutes:  by Carol, Laura seconded.
            Motion was accepted & minutes were approved

 Committee/Group Reports:

Prior to our meeting, the following reports were submitted and distributed to council.  As always they can be viewed at our website www.stelizabethannseton.com

The following committees did not submit a report for this month:

Discussion of Committee/Group Reports:

There was no further discussion of the reports

Old Business: 

1. Playgroup update- At our last meeting there was some concern that participation in the playgroup was waning.  At this point in time, however, it appears that the downward fluctuation was just temporary and that there is a consistent core group attending.  
2. Assumption Regional School update- The project schedule remains unchanged.  The school will open for the 2007-08 school year and the church will open shortly after the school.  There is still no request for a capital campaign.  Council also thought it would be a good idea if a site plan of our new school could be placed on display somewhere.  We were confident that many of our parishioners would like to see what our new school would look like.
3. Bishop’s Vision-October 5^th Meeting- the general feeling was that we had a decent turnout and the presentation went well.  I made the comment that the cross-section of parishioners attending was pretty skewed.  It would have been nice to have also heard from the non-active parishioners. 
4. Family Life Committee/Pre Cana Teams- Fr. Perry is still interested in redefining the Family Life Committee and restarting the Pre Cana teams; however, with everything else happening, this will have to wait until after Christmas.
5. Marriage Encounter Feedback-everyone thought the talks were good.  Fr. Perry asked how we felt about having similar talks during mass.  Should we have them in lieu of the homily, after the homily, or after Communion?  It was felt that a homily reflecting on the readings was important and should not be replaced with another talk.  Father stated that if there were to be other talks, he would always first clear them through council and always try to abbreviate the homily to make room for any additional talk.
6. Steeple repairs- have turned into a Pandora’s Box.  The first step in repairing the steeple would be to repair the louvers, which seem to be at the root of the problem.  Once that is done, the question of painting the church, moving the bells or even buying new bells seems to create a never ending to-do list.  Exactly how far on the list the parish will go has yet to be decided.

 New Business: 

1. Summer Spiritual Series 2007- is already being planned.  Fr. Sean, Jo-elle and Frank Blee have considered the topic of “The Role of Women in the Church”.  There was some concern that this narrow topic would not be as attractive as a broader topic.  Fr. Cosme suggested that the topic be changed to “Empowering Laity for the Future of the Church”.  Everyone agreed that this topic would have broader appeal, fit into the Bishop’s list of priorities, and also be capable of handling anything concerning the role of women in the Church that they might have wanted to do in the first place.
2. An automatic phone system- Carol presented and is pushing the idea that the parish purchases an automatic phone system.  Such a system would enable mass dialing.  She stated that there are several times a year that hundreds of parishioners have to be called.  An automated system, with Father giving the message would have more of an impact than letters, which may not be read.  Parishioners are more likely to take the time to listen to a phone message.  Other advantages of an automated phone system would include uses for evangelization, a capital campaign, or even improving the parish’s census.  Some of the concerns of the system were its cost and if there were any hidden costs (i.e. extra phone lines, yearly maintenance fees, etc.).  Carol will research this further and report back to council.
3. A parish census- there was some talk again regarding how many parishioners do belong to our parish.  This much we do know, there were 1167 people in church over the October 5 weekend and about 400 envelops were used that weekend

Open Forum

Nothing

 Summary of topics discussed:

Those Pending: 

Those Closed:  The status of the playgroup.

Those Tabled:  nothing noted

Next meeting
Monday  November 13    
Time 6:00 pm  
Laura will lead us in prayer

Respectfully submitted by:
Bob Senese ,
Secretary

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