St. Stanislaus Pastoral Council November 2007 Meeting Highlights

Minutes of Pastoral Council Meetings can be found at http://www.saintstans.net/PastoralCouncil.html


·         Opening prayer led Lee Falkavage

·         As part of the spiritual development of our meeting Mary Ann Powell, as leader, asked how we could be a more welcoming community and suggested that the time between the end of 8:00am Mass and the beginning of the 10:30 Mass be used for a community event like a pancake breakfast or a special speaker.  We will solicit suggestions from our Committees and offer our own suggestions at our January meeting.  Anyone having suggestions they want to share can forward to Bob Rogers at brogers@g2a.net .

·         Family Life – Penny Wachowiak updated us about the possibility of establishing a nursery.  Messages ran in two weeks of the bulletin, there were no responses.  Since only three people expressed an interest at the Ministry Fair and no responses to our bulletin request the idea of a nursery will not be pursued at this time.

·         Gene VanRyzin reported that the Justice and Peace Committee designated who the food baskets will go to and who will pick up/deliver the baskets.  Also the Committee is responsible for serving the meal at the House of Peace on January 24th.

·         Mary Owens, Barb Reed and Pat Bohanski joined the Sacred Worship Committee. At their most recent meeting they discussed Mass attendance and Mass counts during October which was mandated by the diocese for long-range planning. Bob Rogers will assemble a report to compare Mass attendance over the years counts have been taken.  Preliminary results suggest that attendance is down slightly from previous years. Collection boxes have been recycled to the Art and Environment Committee for plant stands. Committee also discussed the Mission provided during Lent.

·         Catholic Education Committee is suggested offering the opportunity for people to give a money donation that would be used to purchase a flower/s in memory of a loved one. Each flower would have a marker on it indicating who the memorial is for.  Gary Tanko will talk to Rita Brilowski or Barb Rogers about this.

·         Gene LaRose and Dave Fletcher gave us a report from the Finance Council.  Currently the Bishop’s Annual Appeal is $16,000 to $17,000 short of our goal.  They also highlight the goals that the Finance Council set for itself which includes informing our community about wills and memorials, establishing a Building and Grounds Committee and establishing endowments.  They also discussed sending a letter to people who haven’t responded to our Renewal Program to invite them to update their Parish information and encourage them to become more engaged with our community.

·         Stevens Point Deanery:  The Coordinator Position will be revised so that it will be reduced to about half the expense of the current position. The Deanery Library is offering books to interested people.  The Deanery continues to organize a “Catholic Journey”, with Fr. Marty Pable as guest speaker and Smokey Express providing music.  Youth contests will be organized along with other events.

·         Fr. Al is home, but very weak and recovery will be 3-4 months.  It is not likely he will return until May.

·         Dave will attend a Mission Trip to the West Indies area through Works of Charity.  He will be gone from Jan 11-Feb 10.  Dave will present the idea in the future of creating a mission group from St. Stan’s that would possibly go annually to help with construction, painting etc.  The idea of providing scholarships for those unable to fund the trip will possibly be proposed.  Dave will gather further information when he returns.

·         Ministry Fair—Received about 75 replies for volunteers in different areas of the parish.  Linda is creating a spreadsheet.  This will be passed to committees and it is encouraged that they contact these new volunteers as soon as possible.

·         UWSP  and Parish representatives will meet Monday, Dec.3  to review the UWSP campus master plan and how it will affect us.

·         Interim Bulletin Policy was approved:

The parish secretary is responsible for reviewing submitted bulletin inserts to make sure they are appropriate.  Any questionable inserts will be reviewed by the Pastoral Minister and the Pastor for approval.”

This policy will remain in effect until Fr. Al’s return at which time it will be reviewed.

·         A proposal to change the Bylaws of Pastoral Council Meeting Dates to the Second Tuesday of the month will be voted on at January’s meeting.

·         A Survey will be conducted in January to find out if there is interest in establishing a Parish Nurse Program

·         Dave Fletcher continues to work on further developing our Welcoming Ministry

·         NEXT MEETING DATE: January 8, 2008