January 3, 2006 Meeting Minutes

From Joe Doetzl:

Brad Grill and I discussed re-forming the Youth Advisory Board. We discussed making the YAB representative in nature, having members including:

1. Pastor
2. Youth Director
3. Liturgy Committee Rep
4. Scoutmaster
5. RE Rep
6. Parkhill School Board Rep
7. St. Pius School Board Rep
8. St. Therese Education Committee Rep
9. Youth Reps from PH, PHS and SPX
10. Pastoral Council Rep

We discussed the current programs we already have in place for our youth: Scouts, School, PH, PHS, SPX, Youth Groups, Vacation Bible School, Confirmation Program, RE, Faith+1.

We identified a current calendar and communication of youth events as a key
need.

We discussed re-forming the YAB and asking its members to develop a vision
and an action plan.


From Damian:

First a note about our next meeting, January 18, 2006 @ 6:45 PM. Wayne has agreed to do Prayer for the evening. The main purpose of the meeting will be to discuss schedule and succession planning for the Pastoral Council. If there is time, we will then work in our groups again. Of course, nothing prevents us from working in our groups between now and the next meeting…

Dennis Meier, Ginny Feeney and I discussed the following objective: “Establish a plan to facilitate, encourage, and coordinate the activities of ministry, lay involvement, and hospitality.”

We still concur that the model previous presented by Ginny is valid. This model would divide our parish’s ministries into seven Communities:

1. Communications / Operations / Finance Community (Leadership?)
2. Faith Formation Community (Faith Formation)
3. Parish & Family Life Community (Community?)
4. Stewardship Community (Stewardship)
5. Pastoral Care Community (Pastoral / Social Ministry?)
6. Hospitality and Welcoming Community (Community?)
7. Worship Community (Liturgy)

We reserve the right to redesign these communities slightly, perhaps to more closely align them with the Seven Essential Elements. The words in parentheses after each Community is one of our essential elements. If there is a question mark after it, it isn’t clear whether that Element fits exactly with the Community. You will note also that Spirituality is not listed. Anyway, we like the ideas of Communities, but still have to decide whether to reconcile it with the Essential Elements.

We think it is appropriate to further the conversation with Mike Birkel and/or Fr. Mike about how staff members could be aligned with these communities. It is felt that we should have one staff member and one Pastoral Council member assigned to each Community so that communication is effective. It is felt that the Community Leaders must be brought together periodically to form as its own community and share their experiences and needs.

Along with this effort, we feel that we need to have a way to express how “mature” or “well developed” a particular Community might be. Thus, it makes sense to have a development path defined to measure this “maturity”. It might look like this:

1. The Community must be defined and have Staff & Pastoral Council leaders.
2. The Community has defined its vision, purpose, or goal.
3. The Community has conducted a needs assessment to understand the needs that are within the Parish within the umbrella of the Community vision, purpose, or goal. The Community leaders would use this information to determine what needs their ministries can address and which one will not be addressed at this time.
4. Ministries are defined to address parish needs within the Community umbrella. These Ministries have an established vision, purpose, or goal.
5. Ministry leaders have successfully participate in Faith and Leadership Formation.
6. Volunteers within the Ministry have received appropriate Faith and Leadership Formation.
7. The Ministry can measure its effectiveness towards meeting the established vision, purpose, or goal.

So, in English now…

Let’s assume we generally feel that St. Therese’s Pastoral Care Community is a relatively “mature” organization, while Faith Formation is in an early developmental stage. (This is not a statement about the efforts anyone has made, but the assumption is made to illustrate a point.) Perhaps the reason we may feel this way about Pastoral Care is because the Community (1) has a defined leader from the Staff, (2) has defined its vision, (4) some Ministries have defined a vision or purpose, (5) many leaders are well-formed as Leaders, but also in the elements of Faith Formation related to their ministry, (6) some volunteers are equally trained, and (7) perhaps some ministries can measure their ability to achieve their vision. You will notice that #3 was not addressed, which indicates that there is an opportunity that Pastoral Care has a gap in its ministry that it may not be aware of.

In contrast, we may feel that Faith Formation is in an early developmental stage because: (1) we’re not quite sure who on the Staff will lead it, (2) our goal is somewhat defined, (3) we have some sense of our needs but it may be incomplete, and (4) through (7) may lack clarity at this stage of development.

I think Ginny might tell you that the Hospitality and Welcoming Community is in a similar or farther back stage of development.

If we agree with the above developmental path, it gives us some sense of what work we may need to do first, within each Community. Perhaps we most need to focus on #3 (to identify gaps), #6 (to form more volunteers) and #7 (to measure our effectiveness) for Pastoral Care. The Worship Community might have similar areas of focus. Meanwhile, Faith Formation and Hospitality Communities might need to focus on higher level by identifying the leaders (#1) and a core purpose or vision (#2) and perhaps a needs assessment (#3). Hopefully this paints the picture well enough.

As far as action items are concerned, Ginny will approach Mike Birkel about how the staff might be organized to support the Community approach. Dennis and I didn’t have assignments, but in writing this, I want to spend some time looking at whether there is a good match between Communities and Essential Elements.

If you have any questions, feel free to call or e-mail. Have a great weekend!


From Linda Winter:

Good Morning:

With Nancy and Pris indisposed, Fr. Mike and I discussed Charge A: to review the traits and characteristics of SCC and Guess who's coming to dinner to evaluate how these groups make St. Therese parish more welcoming, and develop an action plan for integrating these traits into a majority of ministries at St. Therese.

We discussed the nature of different communities to identify what traits make them welcoming and also sustainable. We listed these traits: trust, committment, mutual goals, service, purpose, acceptance of different time committments, humor, vulnerability.

Then we attempted to identify a structure to be implemented by all organizations or ministries at St. Therese to foster a sense of Christ centered community in each of them as follows:

1. Initiate all gatherings with gospel prayer;
2. Develop a written statement of mission;
3. Develop and abide by a written leadership transition plan;
4. Participate as a group in an annual retreat experience;
5. Welcome new members intentionally by:

• Regular invitation;
• Immediate oppurtunites for participation
• Working with greeting and welcoming ministries w/in the parish, such as coffee and donuts.

All comments are welcome. Peace, Linda Winter

From Wayne Snyder:

Good Afternoon,

Tom, Linda A. and I addressed the Faith Formation issues element. We focused on the Faith Formation committee and its roles, possible membership profile and leadership within the committee. We submit these to you for comments and additions.

Role of the faith formation committee:
I. Coordination
a. This would be a process function that would suggest process or approaches to faith formation within the many communities within St. Therese.
b. A communication channel to those communities and the broader St. Therese community. For instance to address the questions about some of the faith communities, Who they are, How to join,
c. Operations suggestions
d. Provide strong resources

II. A “Scope and Sequence” role, a Theme or Rational for the broad process of faith formation in the parish. We have access to and support the”Generations of Faith” type program.
III. Evangelization – To provide leadership and structure to this basic and parish wide catalyst for community faith formation.
IV. Broad Planning function – to be responsive to and integrate into the pastoral board planning process and the Diocesan process.

Membership in the Faith Formation Committee (Possible rotating terms with permanent Religious, Staff and Pastoral Council positions)
I. St. Therese School (Can be an advisory board member)
II. School of Religion
III. RCIA
IV. Prayer Groups (2+)
V. At large
VI. Liturgy
VII. Youth
VIII. Religious Staff member
IX. Staff
X. Pastoral Council

Leadership
We felt that the faith formation role on the parish staff required a full time position or positions. We did discuss that the leadership on the Faith Formation Committee could be structured like the school advisory board (Roberts Rule of Order) where the leadership was a non-staff position supported by the staff. We assume the committee has an advisory capacity in all the roles expressed above.

The additional bullet points indicated were areas we felt the Faith Formation Committee would address but we recognize you may want to add thoughts to these elemens.

Peace,

Wayne

December 14, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Present: Damian Gerstner, Wayne Snyder, Dennis Meier, Nancy Fahey, Tom Skorupa, Linda Albani, Linda Winter, Fr. Mike Roach
Absent: Joe Doetzl, Pris Pawlikowski, Brad Grill

Tom provided prayer for the evening, a reflection on the readings for the upcoming weekend.

Wayne & Tom provided an overview of how they viewed the discussion on their Goal Area, and how the view who is responsible for each objective. See below:

Goal Area: To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ.

Related Objectives:

1. Establish and support a Faith Formation Committee to develop strategic direction for and integrate parish-wide faith formation initiatives -- based on the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Pastoral Plan "Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us." Questions as to who would make up this group, with suggestions that represent the Age demographic and represent existing ongoing programs. This committee would be selected and would make recommendations to the Pastoral Council as to various “Total Parish Initiatives”. The process of supporting continuity and consistency among the various faith activity groups would rest with the Fait Formation Committee.
   
2. Establish and maintain a "Catechism Corner" in the parish bulletin, which can serve as a basis for possible parish-wide Catechism Classes. This program has begun and the feedback was very positive. Discussions that this are of the bulletin could lead the various individual faith initiatives throughout the parish and that the Generations of Faith process could carry the content and direct a consistent approach to all the various faith groups within St. Therese.
   
3. Establish lines of communication and coordinate closely with the Diocesan Commission on Faith Formation. The Diocesan effort is under renewal and reorganization and our Faith Formation Committee is pledged to coordinate with the ultimate directions provided at the Diocesan level.
   
4. Begin planning for an ongoing schedule for Faith Formation of various parish ministers, particularly those in Faith Formation, Liturgy and Pastoral Care. The Generations of Faith program was presented and the idea seemed logical to the group.
   
5. Begin to explore and select a parish-wide evangelization/retreat/catechesis opportunity (e.g. Renew, Christ Renews His Parish) that might spark a resurgence & deepening of faith, serve as a basis for inspiring interest in learning more about the faith, and support our parish vision. The various programs used in the past were presented. It was recommended that this effort be studied. The initiative to involve the total parish community requires first the Pastor’s approval and the Pastoral Council to the Faith Formation Committee. The Faith Formation Committee is to evaluate the various processes and make recommendations to the Pastor and the Pastoral Council.

Then, Damian, Linda Winter, and Fr. Mike provided an update on our previous discussions on Youth Ministry. Here is an excerpt summary I wrote in another e-mail:

Linda Winter and I met with Fr. Mike last Thursday to give him a sense of our discussion on Youth Ministry at the last Pastoral Council meeting. We also wanted to find out what he had in his mind with regards to Youth Ministry. We all had a nice discussion. I’ll summarize what I remember, and since some of it involves a request of you, I’ll pose that question as well.

If we think in terms of a Director of Youth Ministry, Fr. Mike is envisioning that this person would begin working with the Youth in middle school, as a support to the existing RE programs. The Director’s involvement would increase as the Youth entered high school, and would be very supporting of the Confirmation program. However, the main focus of the Director’s work would be on social and spiritual development of Youth. Fr. Mike indicated that they have a good bead on two potential candidates for the Director position – people that have experience and are well formed. The staff also recognizes the need to dedicate some space for teens.

So, part of our discussion came back to our goal to “Establish and support a Youth Advisory Board to develop strategic direction for and integrate parish activities with Youth Ministry.” What did we expect the board to do? Why have one? We agreed that the purpose of the board is to establish a vision and strategic direction for Youth Ministry, modeled after the Pastoral Council. We also felt it would help add continuity to Youth Ministry, less subject to changes in Directors or interested parents.

To help the YAB start up and be successful, it needs someone to help lead it. If the Pastoral Council is any kind of guide, it may take a year or more for the YAB to fully form and understand its vision / strategic direction. Therefore, the person who helps lead this effort needs some understanding of the formation effort.

This excerpt comes from an e-mail written to Joe Doetzl, asking him if he is open to being the primary link to the YAB from the Pastoral Council. Because Joe is out of town, this issue is still open.

Discussion then shifted to addressing the Objectives that are assigned to the Pastoral Council. As written, the following ones are the responsibility of the Council:

1. Review existing small group ministries such as Small Christian Communities and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, evaluate how these ministries make St. Therese a more caring and personal parish community, and develop an action plan for integrating these traits into a majority of St. Therese ministries. The Welcoming Committee is not prepared to take this particular objective on. It is felt that the Pastoral Council needs to manage this objective.
2. Request and encourage the existing formation ministries in the parish to develop opportunities to facilitate a better understanding of the Catholic tradition of giftedness and stewardship. The Pastoral Council needs to identify the ministries and associated leaders, and begin working with them to develop said opportunities.
3. Establish a plan to facilitate, encourage, and coordinate the activities of ministry, lay involvement, and hospitality. Damian provided a handout developed by Ginny & Pat. It is a complete listing of Leadership & Ministering Communities. As it turns out, Ginny’s list has seven communities that more or less line up with the 7 elements we have developed. It is proposed that this document be the “plan” that is required to meet the intent of this objective. Now we must figure out how to take it forward to the next level. This is the responsibility of the Pastoral Council.

Given the issues with Youth Ministry and the discussion above, it is hoped that Joe will accept this challenge, thereby allowing the Pastoral Council to address:

1. Establish and support a Youth Advisory Board to develop strategic direction for and integrate parish activities with Youth Ministry. This objective has become harder to implement because of the recent departure of Jess. We tossed around several ideas at length, including several we have discussed before. We feel it is important to model our future around successful programs in other faiths or youth programs. We feel it is important to have a “mature” individual as Director of the youth program, perhaps paired with a youthful assistant. One thought was that perhaps a former principal or vice-principal may make a good Director. We also discussed the merits of partnering with a religious order to find someone to be this Director. Based on the Spirit of the moment, we prayed around this specific issue to close our meeting.

Tom Skorupa then indicated that he believed the Pastoral Council needed to bear responsibility for all objectives related to Faith Formation. He indicated that given the scope of his current responsibilities, and the responsibilities of others on the Parish Staff, there is no one left to focus on this area. Although what they presented on these objectives mentioned often the “Faith Formation Committee”, in essence he felt the words “Pastoral Council” should be substituted. This precipitated quite a conversation. One observation is that this lack of dedication to Faith Formation has been around for many years. The uncertainty of having adequate resources to properly implement Renew (or programs like it) precipitated the formation of the Vision Group. The Vision Group found Faith Formation to be 1 of 3 main priorities, yet little development occurred in that area. Once again, the Pastoral Council has determined this is a priority, yet it appears resources are still an issue. Another observation was that although our school and religious education programs represent a large commitment to Faith Formation, there are no full time staff members dedicated to Faith Formation. A main task of the Pastoral Council therefore must be to convince the appropriate people that resources MUST be allocated to Faith Formation.

Tom, Linda Albani, and Wayne will focus on the issue of Faith Formation, with a focus on 3 areas:

• Development of the Faith Formation Committee
  
• Develop concept of how to coordinate between staff and volunteers for Faith Formation. The areas of Liturgy and Pastoral Care may be considered useful models in developing this concept.
  
• Focus on #2 above.

Linda Winter, Nancy, and Pris will focus on #1 (the first one) above.

Damian & Dennis will focus on #3 above.

Joe and Brad will focus on #1 (the second one) above.

A brief discussion what constitutes a “quorum” ensued. We agreed that if we have less than a full Council at the meeting, the output of those meetings should be considered more of a “recommendation” than a “decision”. We still require that our Council makes decisions by discernment.

We decided that future meetings will start at 6:45 and last for 2 hours. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 4 and of course Fr. Mike WILL be responsible for prayer this time. At this meeting, we will break into subcommittee as noted above to discuss our objectives. If you need to bring in guests to help you discuss your objective, feel free to invite them to this meeting. Tom has reserved the meeting space on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays in January and February.

As a side note, I will attempt to work out a schedule for the next year during Christmas so that we can understand how and when activities are targeted for. I’ll also work on procedures for how we rotate people on and off the Council.

Finally, I have attached the document that Ginny provided at our previous meeting. The diagram doesn’t necessarily match all the verbiage that goes with it, but it is useful understanding a different approach to showing how we are organized (rather than an organizational chart).

Have a great weekend & holiday! Please correct me if I got any of the above wrong or is incomplete…

October 19, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
October 19, 2005

The Pastoral Council met October 19, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Wayne Snyder, Tom Skorupa, Nancy Fahey, Damian Gerstner, Linda Winter, Joe Doetzl and Linda Albani were present

Facilitator: Damian Gerstner
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

We opened with a prayer from the Leader’s Guide to “Our Hearts are Burning Within Us.”

Damian recapped the meeting he, Linda Winter and Wayne Snyder had with Fr. Mike and Mike Birkel. In this meeting the draft objectives we had developed were discussed with Fr. Mike and Mike Birkel. The reaction was favorable with a few suggested changes to some of the objectives. Fr. Mike recommended that we introduce objectives to the staff and the other leadership committees in the Parish.

This meeting has been scheduled for October 27th 7-9 in the Wooldridge Center. There was a lengthy discussion of the meeting format and objectives. The overall objectives for the meeting are:

• Prayer
  
• Allow parish leaders from varied committees to get to know each other
  
• Present the goals to key parish leaders
  
• If there is a natural fit for an existing committee to work on an objective, obtain their support.

A draft agenda for the meeting was developed:

• Prayer
  
• Ice Breaker
  
• Presentation of Goals & Objectives. Each goal area needs a different representative to speak.
  
• Personal reflection time
  
• Small group discussion (insert Linda’s sample reflection questions)
  
• Large Group Comments
  
• Closing Prayer

A comment was made that we should emphasize that the pastoral plan is a recommendation to the Pastor. The Pastor will make the final decision about what objectives to pursue and how.

Next General Meeting is November 2 at 6:30. Prayer and facilitation have not been assigned.

September 21, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
September 21, 2005

The Pastoral Council met September 21, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Pris Pawlikowski, Fr. Mike Roach, Linda Winter, Nancy Fahey, Damian Gerstner, Wayne Snyder, Tom Skorupa, Joe Doetzl, Linda Albani and Dennis Meier were present

Facilitator: Damian Gerstner
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Linda Winter led prayer with a reflection on a reading from 2 Philippians.

Linda Discussed results from the giftedness sub-group. Two main themes arose from their discussions “exploring our gifts” and “channeling our gifts”.

Tom shared some resources that could be used to identify spiritual gifts.

Dennis shared results from the “personal and caring” sub group.

Wayne and Tom shared results from the “faith Formation” group. There recommendation was to have a “year of prayer”, to both strengthen our parish’s prayer life and to wait on the results from the diocesan study of faith formation.

Tom provided copies of a letter soliciting feedback regarding diocesan faith formation needs.

Damian summarized results from the leadership sub-group.

Our next meeting is October 5th at 6:30.

Prayer: Pris
Facilitator: Dennis
Scribe: Joe

September 7, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
September 7, 2005

The Pastoral Council met September 7, 2005 in the Wooldridge Center. Wayne Snyder, Damian Gerstner, Fr. Mike Roach, Linda Winter, Joe Doetzl, Tom Skorupa, Pris Pawlikowski, Linda Albani and Brad Grill were present

Facilitator: Damian Gerstner
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

We opened the meeting with a gospel prayer from the idea gathering sessions.

A discussion of the previous idea gathering sessions followed. Joe agreed to type up and distribute objectives from the idea gathering meetings.

We discussed Parish staff members to involve in the process:

• Goal A – To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ: Wayne, Tom, Kathy Teson, Elizabeth Barmann
  
• Goal B – To create a more caring and personal parish community: Dennis, Nancy, Pris, Jane Gallagher, Nancy Borman
  
• Goal C – To explore and channel our giftedness: Linda W., Brad, Fr. Mike, Tracy Torres
  
• Goal D – To enhance and develop leadership structures to support the parish Vision: Damian, Joe, Linda A., Pat Burbach, Ginny Feeney

We decided to involve the Parish staff as soon as possible.

Our next meeting is 9/21. Damian will facilitate, Joe will Scribe, Wayne will prepare prayer.

August 3, 2005 Meeting Minutes

Minutes of the Meeting of the St. Therese Pastoral Council
August 3, 2005

The Pastoral Council met August 3, 2005 in the St. Therese Parish and Education Center. Linda Winter, Brad Grill, Nancy Fahey and Joe Doetzl were present.

Facilitator: Linda Winter
Prayer: Linda Winter
Scribe: Joe Doetzl

Linda opened the meeting with a gospel reflection from Matthew.

We discussed a method and timeline for processing the information gained from the 3 Idea Generation meetings. We formed 4 sub-committees, one for each goal area. We proposed that the ideal size for the committees will be 5. We will need to ask staff members or others interested to help. This help could be solicited at the gathering meetings.

• Goal A – To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ: Wayne, Tom
  
• Goal B – To create a more caring and personal parish community: Dennis, Nancy, Pris
  
• Goal C – To explore and channel our giftedness: Linda W., Brad, Fr. Mike
  
• Goal D – To enhance and develop leadership structures to support the parish Vision: Damian, Joe, Linda A.
  
  

The committees are to personally invite interested respondents from the previous survey.

We proposed a tentative timeline for publishing the results of our objective setting:

• 9/7 Pastoral Council Meeting – Begin to process information already received
  
• 9/8-9/30 Each sub-committee meets at least once, preferably twice to organize the information gained from the objective setting meetings into the committee’s respective goal area
  
• October – Consolidate and work into publishable form the results from the 4 sub committees at the 2 regularly scheduled Pastoral Council meetings.
  Publish in Early November.
  
• The take away from the objective setting meeting will be a prayer card with the 4 goals on the back.

Our next meeting is 8/17 at 6:30 the agenda will be to prepare for the objective setting meetings. Damian will facilitate, Joe will Scribe, Pris will prepare prayer.

Action Items:

• Tom – Create prayer and prayer card for meetings.
  
• Joe – Email council, solicit 4 volunteer facilitators for each objective gathering meeting
  
• Joe – Email call list of “interested respondents” to each goal committee
  
• Pris – Prepare prayer for next meeting
  
• Damian – Update Goals summary to reflect 3 objective meetings
  
• Sub Committees – invite interested parties to objective meetings
  
• Tom – produce list of staff to personally invite to objective meetings
  

Letter to Parishioners - Goals

Dear Parishioners,

On April 9 & 10, the Pastoral Council presented to you a Parish Vision statement – “We envision a community where all witness the Real Presence of Christ in every ‘little way’.” – and a summary of its foundation in the Seven Essential Elements of Parish Life – Community, Liturgy, Faith Formation, Stewardship, Leadership, Pastoral / Social Ministry, and Spirituality. At that time, we also asked you to complete a questionnaire to help the parish understand its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This information was to be used to develop Goal areas for the parish, prior to developing specific Objectives.

The answers you provided via the questionnaires provided a broad spectrum of information. There were some that felt St. Therese was the most welcoming parish they had ever been in, while others felt St. Therese was very cold. Some felt that our spiritual leadership and faith formation was our strength, while others felt it was woefully inadequate. While it became challenging to reconcile some of these opinions, four particular themes became quite evident. These themes have become the basis for four goal statements that will guide our parish in the years ahead.

Goal A – To form Catholic faith filled witnesses of Christ. Parishioners overwhelmingly feel that a primary function of the Catholic Church is to educate and form parishioners of all ages in our Catholic faith journey. This goal not only requires us to strengthen and maintain our parish school and School of Religion, it requires us to develop a lifelong habit of continual learning and development of our spirituality, our faith, and as ministers of social outreach.

Goal B – To create a more caring and personal parish community. While some people have felt extremely welcome at St. Therese, there is no doubt that our parish size has become a big barrier in many ways. Because of our size, it is easy to feel anonymous, to feel that “someone else” will volunteer their time or their talents. Because of our size, it is harder for each person to be known by name. Because of our size it is challenging to know that someone who is hurting needs your care. When people feel disconnected from one another within the parish, it becomes challenging to meet the needs of our parish family, especially those needs described in other Goals.

Goal C – To explore and channel our giftedness. St. Therese’s size is often a weakness, but if it can be channeled it can become its greatest strength. With so many people within the parish, there are many skills, talents, and time available to minister in numerous ways. With our resources, we are able to minister to people within our community and still look outward to minister to those parishes or communities that are less fortunate than ours. In addition, parishioners are eager to find ways to explore and share their spirituality. As a large and vibrant Catholic community, there are many ways we can discover, discern, and share our spiritual gifts with one another.

Goal D – To enhance and develop leadership structures to support the parish Vision. As St. Therese parish continues to grow there is a need to assure that parishioners are aware of the ministries and services that are available, and that these ministries are organized to operate effectively. It is also important that ministries and services are coordinated to minimize schedule conflicts, overlapping responsibilities, and duplication. This goal drives our parish to align its ministries and its organization to support the parish Vision, and also to support the above goals.
Goal statements by themselves without action are useless. While these goal statements provide a sense of direction, it is imperative that our parish now focus on developing specific objectives we can achieve in the next 12 months in order to bring us closer to our Goals.

On Wednesday, August 31, two separate Pastoral Planning meetings will be held – one at 8 AM, and a second at 7 PM. Each meeting will last approximately 2 hours. In each meeting, we will spend some time in prayer and then invite all who have attended to spend time in groups generating ideas that can help us achieve our goals.

The Pastoral Council will be contacting those who have previously indicated a desire to participate further in this process. In addition, we invite all parishioners who are interested to attend one of the two sessions. So that we may plan adequate space and refreshments, we ask that you sign up for the Pastoral Planning meeting in the Gathering Space.

The Pastoral Council wishes to thank you for your patience and enthusiasm in this Pastoral Planning process. We look forward to your participation as we move to the final stages of the planning process.

With love and peace,

Fr. Mike Roach