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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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.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.
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.
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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…
