Preliminary Parish Pastoral Council Minutes
September 11, 2006

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

Children's Religious Education-submitted by Joan Parker
Social Action Committee-submitted by Ed Walls 
Vocations Committee-submitted by Bill & Connie Peters
Youth Ministry- submitted by Pat Bentley
Publicity & Community Events-submitted Carol Johnson
Parish Outreach Committee -submitted by Frank Blee 
Liturgical Committee-submitted by Fran Fietkiewicz
Family Life-submitted by Joanne Malecki

These reports can also be viewed at (click here)

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

Building & Grounds Report

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Pastoral Parish Council

MINUTES
September 11, 2006

The Meeting:

·        Meeting called to order at 7:00pm

·        Opening prayer Father Perry

·        Attending:  Margaret Quigley, Kevin Walls , Bob Senese , Ray Ring, Joan Parker , Carol Johnson, Laura Eger , Joann Malecki, Ed Walls, Rev. Mr. Bill Peters, Connie Peters, Pat Bentley, Paul Bishop, Fr. Perry, Fr. Cosme

·        Absent:  Matt Macready, Frank Blee , Addie Blee, &  Rev Mr. Joe Becker

·        No correspondence was reported

Last Month’s Minutes:

            No Changes were requested
            Carol motioned to approve minutes and Connie seconded
            The minutes were approved

Special Guest Speaker

Council welcomed John & Theresa Garrity and their talk on Marriage Encounters.   At a later weekend, John and Theresa will encourage our parishioners to consider participating in a marriage encounter.   A marriage encounter is a weekend event.  Beginning late Friday and ending sometime Sunday afternoon.   It is a time for married couple to discuss topics in a group, reflect on them individually, and then share their thoughts and feelings with their spouse.  A marriage encounter is not counseling; rather it makes a good marriage better.  In a day and age where people are looking to make the world change for the better, the Garrity’ s would like to encourage us to consider this option.  A better marriage means a stronger family, more loving parents and eventually, a better community.

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

Publicity & Community Events Committee
Children’s Religious Education 
Evangelization / Adult Education Committee
Family Life
Liturgical Committee 
Social Action Committee
Vocations Committee
Youth Ministry

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

Building & Grounds Report

 Discussion of Committee/Group Reports:

There was no further discussion of the reports

Old Business: 

1. Chicken BBQ - Carol stated that every year she looks forward to and enjoys this event; and furthermore, that this year might have been the best yet.  She praised the volunteers, the children, the cooks; especially Fr. Perry and George Muller,  Next year’s BBQ is scheduled for July 22, 2007
2. Playgroup- Although it appeared to get off to a very successful start in July, it was just brought to Father’s attention that participation has dwindled.  Father is still convinced that this is a great program and worth saving.  He will meet later this month with Susan Lorge to get her input (and the input of other mom’s who had attended) to find out what might have caused the turn of events.
3. Assumption Regional School Update- the trees have been cleared and the two contractors involved with the project are promising completion next year.  The church will be ready by next summer and the school will open for next fall.   As we are already well aware, our parish will be participating in the capital campaign for the new school (note: just the school, not the church).  Although there is no word yet on when or how much, Fr. Perry has assured us that it will be a sizable amount.  As far as what the new school would be called, currently, it is believed that the school will remain being called Assumption Regional School and that each wing of the school will be named in honor of each of the sending parishes.
4. Bishop’s Vision-it appears that we have just scratched the surface of a two year program that is scheduled to end in September of 2008.   The first part of the Bishop’s Vision was his speak up sessions through which he has identified six priorities¹.   Now that this has been completed, he has outlined his next steps into five phases.  Currently, we are in phase one, which will last from September to December 2006.   One of the tasks of phase one is to have our parish facilitators, Ray Ring and Ted Karmilovich present the Bishop’s vision to our parishioners.  This will take place on Thursday October 5 from 7:00-8:30pm .   Besides educating our parish, Ray and Ted will also collect feedback, which will then be given to the Bishop.  Simultaneously, a Pastoral Planning Process (PPP) will begin.  This process will involve our clergy, the parish council, the finance committee, our trustees, and anyone else that Father thinks appropriate.  This PPP committee will meet three times over the next three months and follow a  detailed procedural manual that Father promises to hand out at our first meeting (October 12 @ 7pm).   To prepare for this meeting, we were all given a demographics pamphlet of the diocese and asked to study it.   We are scheduled to meet 3 times during phase one.  During that time, we will put together a snap shot of what our parish is all about including our strengths and weaknesses for the bishop to review.   On December 9, two representatives from this group will go to Camden and join representatives from other parishes.  Finally, the entire committee will go to Camden for an in-service day on Saturday January 6, 2007
5. Family LifeCommitte/PreCana Teams- Father Perry would like to bring back PreCana.  While stationed at the parish level, he was always involved with PreCana and he has always enjoyed that ministry.  Joanne stated that some of the lead couples would like to come back; although she noted that some of them were never trained by the dioceses, and she felt that retraining these couples would be a good idea.  Father also mentioned that our PreCana would be opened to the diocese with the couples of our parish always having priority.  The discussion then went on to question what is Family Life?  Is this the correct or best title for this ministry?  Or is it too broad of a title?  And how about some of the other ministries on council?  Are we really addressing the needs of the parish with the ministries that we currently have?  For that reason, Father would like to reassess our committees.  He had hoped to do it this year, but now with work load put on with the bishop’s vision; it may take longer than he had hoped.   However, to start things going, he plans on meeting with the elected members of council and go from there.

New Business: 

1. Steeple repairs- the steeple tower leaks and plans are in the process to fix it properly instead of patching it with some caulk.
2. Fr. Perry’s Installation Celebration- It was noted that it was GREAT, and judging from the smiles on everyone’s faces, they meant it. Also special commendations went out to the music ministry on an effort above and beyond.

 Open Forum

Nothing mentioned

Summary of topics discussed:

Those Pending: 

Those Closed:  nothing noted

Those Tabled:  nothing noted

Next meeting

Thursday October 12 at 6pm followed by a Pastoral Planning Process meeting at 7pm .  
Carol will lead us in prayer

Respectfully submitted by:
Bob Senese ,
Secretary

¹The  bishops list of 6 priorities

1. LITURGY
2. YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS
3. LAY MINISTRY
4. PRIESTLY VOCATIONS
5. COMPASSIONATE OUTREACH
6. LIFE LONG FORMATION

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