Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Parish

                                                                    

  Pastoral Council Committee Meeting Minutes September 9, 2019

                                      “Being the Living Example of God’s Love to Others”                          

 

Present: Fathers Raj and Vincente, Jim Wren, Henry Cromeek, Mark Matthews, Bud Bevenour, Margarita Arellano, Mike King

Absent:  Phil Stephens, Beth Luce, Judy Carlisi

Guests:  None

Meeting called to Order: The meeting was called to order by Chairperson, Mike King at 5:30 pm.

Opening Prayer: Margarita Arellano led a group prayer

Approval of minutes: The minutes were approved unanimously with the correction of the draft minutes to include Mike King’s name as being absent. Also, the agenda for this meeting should be corrected to change the approval of the August 5 meeting rather than July 1.

New Business: Parish Manager’s Report    Jim Wren

  • The January executive Council meeting has been changed from January 6 to January 13.
  • Music Survey: 130 responses were received, and the responses will be evaluated in the next month.
  • Common Grounds: The topic will be included on next month’s Council agenda; the program will be discussed at that time. Future action item.
  • Safe Environment: The office personnel are helping parishioners with some issues. Clarifications will be coming from the Diocese of Phoenix which will be more specific on some instructions. The entire diocese is having issues with implementing the data entry from parish members. The diocese is working with the contractor to resolve the issues. The Spanish version of Safe Environment has not been released yet.
  • Heritage/ New Parishioners Welcome Festival (October 17-20, 2019): A committee is virtually complete to work with Jim Wren to plan the events for the Festival. Various ministries are included in this festive event. A member from the Pastoral Council is being asked to work on the committee. Currently there were no volunteers and Chairperson Mike King will ask absent members if they can participate. It is anticipated that the planning committee will meet once a week to plan and coordinate all activities. On Thursday, October 17, the New Parishioners Dinner is scheduled. Pastoral Council members are asked to attend. On Friday, a Rosary is planned at 11;00 am on the Church/school grounds and Saturday is the Festival in the Gym with booths for various ministries plus other events.

Pastor’s Report   Father Raj

  • Reception of Communion: The proper way to receive Holy Communion will be reviewed after the homilies on a weekend soon.
  • LOTW: The retreat is scheduled for the weekend of September 21-22. The team is in place, 15 people have signed up so far with others expected to also sign up.
  • Directors meeting: This weekly meeting is in place with attendees from the school, staff, etc. required to attend. The agenda includes addressing challenges, priorities, etc., and results in more communication between the attendees as well as building a “team” environment.
  • Atrium: There are 7 candidates registered for RCIA. CIC has 11 registered. There are also 80 students preparing to receive the sacraments
  • Class on Mary: Muriel Rabideu is leading this educational program with 77 participants.
  • Youth Ministry: A survey was conducted as to desires, content, etc. There are sessions of the ministry on Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesday depending on age groups. Core teams have been created to lead each session.
  • School Board Meeting: Current efforts are selecting members, working on an agenda and Bylaws.
  • Heritage Week: The purpose is to celebrate our parish history, culture and spiritual diversity. Also, see above Parish Manager’s Report.
  • Diocesan Capital Campaign: Martha Gamez from the Diocese of Phoenix is our Parish Liaison for this 5 yearlong diocesan capital campaign. We are currently in our silent phase of recruiting various parish members to be “ambassadors” for this effort. The public phase will commence in November. We hosted our Bishop’s reception Thursday, September 5 to kick off the campaign. Another reception was held without the Bishop on Saturday, September 7. Various diocese personnel assisted the Bishop in explaining the background and progress of this effort which began in 2015. Our parish along with many others are the last to commence our efforts. Target is $1.7mm, 35% of which is returned to the parish gradually as receipts come in.
  • Diocesan Jubilee- December 2nd represents 50 years: a milestone. Every Parish in the diocese is required to participate. Sacred Heart will use (33 Days of Morning Glory)-the book distribution will be weekend of October 12-13 for the Jubilee. There will be a consecration prayer said after the homilies from October 15-24. Homily on the consecration and Mission with be weekends of October 19-20. More information will be forthcoming on this jubilee celebration.

New Ministries: 

  • Single Parent: second Friday of the month continues with Father Ralph leading the dialog.
  • Vocation Committee: There has been a very small group of parish members who have been leading informal dialog sessions that encourage young people and answer question about vocations to priest and sisterhoods. This may surface into a more “public awareness” for our parish community.
  • Outreach to Veterans: Deacon Ernie is initiating an outreach to veterans to increase their spiritual awareness and needs. This is not about their physical, financial or service-related conditions. It focuses on faith.
  • Catholics in Action: Sacred Heart parish recently hosted a Hispanic Ministry, diocesan wide program of sharing their faith, ways to improve program objectives. Various parishes throughout the diocese host these conferences throughout the year. It is a branch of Hispanic Cursillo.

Other Business:

  • Knights of Columbus: There will a recruitment effort after all Masses once a month throughout the year with a table at each Mass outside entrance of the church.
  • Ecological Concerns: Sister Anne is heading up our parish effort in our area with multiple churches to increase awareness for environmental and ecological concerns and how our area can learn and conduct actions. There will be a short article in our parish bulletin every week. A committee is planned in the future.
  • Alpha: This is a retreat format that has been at our parish in the past. Interest is increasing to bring it back. A committee is forming, working with our diocese staff, and the start for Sacred Heart is planned for January-February-2020.
  • New council member: Greg had to withdraw from the council. A new member is needed. Any ideas are appreciated.
  • Discussion about silence in the church- Mass ministers are asked to be good examples of reverence, dignity and silence at our masses. Try to keep conversation about mass logistics outside of the sanctuary or to a quiet minimum. No further actions were identified.
  • October 12- is the formation of Liturgical ministers. All ministers will be asked to attend.

 

Pastoral Council/sub Committee Discussion:  Mike King

  • Currently there are 3 people (Mike, Jim and Judy) on the committee to develop our statues and guidelines for our Council. Mike and Jim Wren will schedule future meetings to draft these ideas and Mike will lead this effort over the next couple months.

 

Pastoral Council:  Hospitality -5 Behaviors

  • Hospitality is one of the 5 values we have for our parish. The work we did at the August meeting (see attachment) which identified behaviors inherent in this value will be added to the overall training program.

 

Council Operations: Mike King

  • Mike discussed some of the components of how the council will operate including action items, being a living example of Mission, Vision and Values. Mike enunciated some examples what members of council need to do to increase Pastoral Council performance. He will send these out in a future message to Council members.

 

Pastoral Plan/Rough Draft: Fr. Raj

  • Components of the Plan were enumerated, Faith Formation, Evangelization, Liturgical, Outreach, Catholic Education, and Parish Facilities. Staff are utilizing a video program that gives ideas of transforming a good parish into an amazing parish. The Council will see some of these at future meetings. There will be more on this subject at future Parish Council meetings
  • Closing prayer was led by Margarita.

 

Meeting adjourned at 7:00PM

 

 

Respectfully and prayerfully submitted by Henry Cromeek and Mike King