The Pastoral Council is meeting regularly again, generally on the first Thursday of the month. Important information will be included in the bulletin (usually as in insert) and on the website. Detailed meeting minutes are available on request.
Organization The Pastoral Council has a membership of twelve parishioners. Additionally, the two parish trustees (Al Tinger, Ray McGoldrick), the faith formation coordinator (Chrissy Blanck) and the pastor (Fr. Michael) serve as ex-officio members. Here are the current members:
Maureen Murray, Chair (coopmurray@msn.com) Alice Perkins, Secretary (perkinsam62@gmail.com)
Austin Partridge (austinleepartridge@gmail.com) Jeff Woeppel (jeffrey.woeppel@gmail.com)
Diane Butz (dmbutz@twc.com) Walt Heinrich (westwall@peoplepc.com)
Diane Grigoli (dcgrigoli@yahoo.com) Cathy and Joe Parisi (joecatpar@gmail.com)
Alma Curtis (accurtis100@gmail.com) Vince Solomon (solomonvs@gmail.com)
Owen Kennedy (thekennedyfamily8@gmail.com)
Please communicate with them or the ex-officio members regarding any concerns, questions or suggestions.
The pastor presides over and guides final decisions and their implementation. Formal guidelines for how the council functions are available upon request.
December 7, 2023 Meeting Minutes
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Attendees: Father Michael, Maureen Murray, Cathy Parisi, Joe Parisi, Walt Heinrich, Diane Grigoli, Alice Perkins, Ray McGoldrick, Diane Butz, Owen Kennedy, Vince Solomon
Absent: Al Tinger, Alma Curtis, Jeff Woeppel, Chrissy Blanck, Austin Partridge
1. Maureen opened the meeting at 7:05 pm with the opening prayer by Alice.
2. The November meeting minutes were approved.
Maureen and Vince expressed thanks and appreciation to Alice for a job well done on the minutes.
3. Strategic Plan Update
a) Adult Faith Formation (Fr. Michael)
i) Nov 6th a new scriptural and extra-scriptural study began entitled The Case for Jesus – Why Do You Believe? The first session was well received. There are 9 sessions in total for this study which will conclude Feb 28th.
ii) The autumn women’s Bible study has wrapped up and Mary Reitz will lead another women’s Bible study in January. Information will be published in the bulletin.
iii) Stephanie Nolan is leading a study on Sundays 10:30-11:45am entitled The Eucharist in Scripture. It is open to parents and all parishioners.
iv) Fr. Michael has a request out to a priest to visit and hold a mission as St. Mary’s during Lent.
b) Liturgical (Fr. Michael)
i) Two 24 hr. Adoration sessions have been held this Fall. Another 24 hr. Adoration will be held during Lent. First Friday in January will be the typical hour-long Adoration.
ii) A Living Rosary followed by pizza will be held Dec 21st.
iii) A Teaching Mass has been investigated. A full teaching Mass during actual Mass celebration is prohibited universally. At most during an actual Mass, there could be a brief explanation at the Introduction, before the Liturgy of the Word, before the Eucharistic Prayer, and at the conclusion of Mass. Another option is to walk through the Mass without truly celebrating Mass, and then explanations could be given throughout. This option was agreed to be a great opportunity for the Faith Formation classes as well as any parishioner who would like to attend. It could be done on a Sunday afternoon; morning Faith Formation classes could be cancelled for that day, and all Faith Formation students could come to the church in the afternoon for this teaching session. Maureen asked Father to also consider the approach of the brief explanations during an actual Mass.
iv) A community Anointing Mass will be scheduled for May or June.
c) All Strategic Plan leads are asked to evaluate their plans for 2024 and 2025 for the next updates and be ready to suggest any revisions, if needed.
4) Review of Issues and Actions from Previous Meetings
Issues/Actions Update
Send letter just after Thanksgiving inviting ministry leads to Pastoral Council meetings for once yearly update. Letters were sent out to the ministry leads Dec 3rd with a suggested schedule. Those ministry leads with schedule conflicts will contact Alice to make changes. Alice will confirm dates and include the scheduled updates in the PC meeting agendas.
Send letter to ministry leads inviting them or their rep to talk to older Faith Formation classes about what called them to their ministry and how youth can participate. These letters were also sent out Dec 3rd. Ministry leads will contact Chrissy directly to make arrangement for visits to Faith Formation classes.
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Contact Vince and Chrissy to discuss and recommend 2 students for participation on the Pastoral Council. Vince and Chrissy have discussed and a couple of potential candidates have been identified. Further review is necessary before sharing the final choices. The students will be full Council members with their term ending when they graduate from high school.
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Chrissy Blanck spoke with Ann Marie Carswell at the Albany diocese regarding safe environment regulations for having youth members on the pastoral council. Ann Marie stated, “there should be at least one safe environment trained member present at meetings where there will be a youth member present. Also, a youth member may not be alone with or receive transportation from any members (excluding parents).” Chrissy prefers no less than 2 safe environment trained members to be present when any youth is present at meetings. Fr. Michael suggested some candidates who have finished Faith Formation classes may also be available to serve.
Provide an update on the Folk Mass effort Discussion and planning for a Folk Mass is underway. It would be a single Mass likely at 8am either before lent (Feb 11) or after Easter.
Communicate to Greeters – stop the practice of handing out bulletins before Mass Cathy sent an email out to all greeters after the Nov 9th meeting. The practice has been stopped.
Add Prayer Group to Ministry Brochure and to ministry participation tracking once the Prayer Group begins. Help will be needed to update the Ministry Brochure as the file and the publication tool are tricky to use. Fr. Michael will discuss with Al Tinger. Also, Alice suggested adding the First Saturday Devotions as an option under the Prayer Ministry along with the Tuesday Evening Prayer Group. Another update will be provided at the Feb 1st meeting.
Monthly Grade Mass, Youth Choir feedback Update pushed out to Feb 1st.
Add an annual lunch for the Social & Hospitality Committee to the calendar for Dec/Jan Fr. Michael will schedule.
5) Round Robin
Ray: Suggested a Knights of Columbus group could be an opportunity to collaborate w/ St Thomas. Fr. Michael supported the idea, and it could be started here, if 12 men are interested.
Alice: Invited any women interested to join the 6 women attending the Women’s Conference in Albany Saturday Dec 9th.
Diane G.: pass
Owen: pass
Father Michael: Requested help for concession or check out at the St. Nicholas Festival 2pm-4pm or 4pm-7pm Sat Dec 16th. Informed the Council about water damaged from a leak around the stained, glass window behind the altar. A reputable provider experienced in stained glass window repair, which Fr. Michael used in Stamford, has been contacted. Photos have been sent and significant repair will be needed. The provider will provide a quote based on the pictures, and the repairs will be done some time after Christmas. A grant could be written to help offset the cost of the repair. Father also met with the designer chosen to improve parking lot lighting. New lights will be installed on the face of the Parish Center to light the parking lot. Existing lights will be replaced with LED. Maureen suggested asking the designer if the handicap parking sign could be lit up.
Cathy: Asked if the parking lot lighting designer could incorporate a motion light on the front steps of the church.
Joe: pass
Walt: With so many churches locked up these days, Walt thanked Fr. Michael for leaving St. Mary’s unlocked and accessible 24×7.
Vince: Will be out of town to visit Trinidad from Dec 22nd through Jan 5th.
Maureen: Asked if receiving the blood of Christ during communion is coming back. Fr. Michael indicated it is permitted. To offer to everyone 3 Eucharistic ministers would be needed for each mass. This would be a challenge due to the number and availability of Eucharistic ministers we currently have.
Diane B.: Asked about intinction as an approach to receiving the blood of Christ. This presents the same challenges as above.
6) February Prayer Leader is Diane Butz.
7) Father Michael led the closing prayer and meeting was adjourned at 8:05pm.