Parish Council Meeting ( Notes )

Date: Dec. 11, 2007

Presider: Fr. Ray Goodwin

Council Members present: John Gill, Keith Coveny, Jo Dascanio, Mary Belmore, Tom Tellier, Sue Robertson, Janice Mead, and Debra Milkman.

Carol Fiorvanti represented Sr. Yvonne on Religious Ed

Ex-Officio members present-Deacon Nick CaraDonna

 Ex-Officio members absent Sister Yvonne Millman

. Absent: Liz Pearson and Robin Christo

 Opening Prayer: Janice Mead led the opening prayer.

 The Nov. minutes were amended to note Liz Pearson’s attendance and the council approved them.

 OLD BUSINESS

Photos

+Deacon Nick did take photos. Please submit your bios. This information is needed to update our web page.

+Our Jan. meeting will be spent on the by-laws revision, Mary & Robin have been working on.

+A draft letter for Safe Environment was presented to the Parish Council for comment.  It will be revised and presented again, before sending it to the ministries.

 NEW BUSINESS

See Fr. Ray’s reflections at end of minutes.

 MINISTRY UPDATES

+Religious Education-Enrollment is over 300 families. Sr. Yvonne is excited about the expanded role of the youth group-caroling walk for cancer etc. The ministry continues to revise and update their program. The new text covers the basics and all teachers are on the same page. They strive to involve “Mom & Dad”. They have decided against an “MCAS”  approach to testing and are leaning toward a no pressure type of testing i.e., Jeopardy, crosswords, fun activities.

+Finance-Oct. and Nov. are on target. Income is in line; projections are going forward on fixing or replacing the roof over the cry room. There is no major structural work foreseen among the cluster churches.

+Stewardship Ministry-The date of the parish assembly has been changed to Feb. 9^th-10^th. Members are actively working on bringing the time, talent, & treasure concept together in one area. A booklet with all ministries and a commitment sheet will be placed on the altar after a couple speak as witnesses for the parish.   .

 REFLECTIONS-Fr. Ray

+Fr. Ray would like to bring the church to the neighborhood by having home masses. He outlined the following plan;

1.Choose five Wed. in lent.

2.Divide the parish into five geographic areas.

3.Have host families provide a simple meal and invite their friends & neighbors to their home for; readings, reflections & the Eucharist. He suggested the parish council members could be the first to institute the practice.

It was suggested that the council get together to discuss this before the January council meeting.

 We closed the meeting with our Christmas party.

 YIS,

Jo Dascanio