Pastoral Council Minutes

March 30, 2009 

Attendees:  Rose Braun, Matt Bolton, Tate Cooper, Chris Gebhart, Jerry Koehne, Kevin Kohls, Brian Krause, Debbie Meinhardt, Claudia Miller, Cindy Muron, Joan Siebenick, Ray Sousa, Barb Utrata, Frs. Mark Burger and Don West, Mary Ann Lampe (scribe). 

Preliminaries:  The Council Meeting opened with the Pastoral Council Prayer at 7:00 pm.  The reflection was led by Ray Sousa.

1)  Approval of minutes from March 3 meeting – All    The minutes were approved as written.

2)  2009 Council Election and Stations Update – Cindy    Please arrive 10 minutes early for the Stations, and dinner reservation is at 8:15 at Bonefish Grill.  Pastoral Council elections will be held May 9th & 10th.  We hope to have five or more new candidates to run for council in addition to the four current members who are running again.  A total of 42 people were nominated. Hopefully, the nominees will be listed in the bulletin soon.  We will need two members after each Mass to count ballots and one member at each mass to make election announcements.

3)  Holy Week – Holy Thursday foot washing – All   Rose - Council starts the foot washing at Mass.  We just get people started.  Mass starts at 7:30 pm.  We would like to have as many members as possible attend. 

4)  Update from the Finance Committee – Brian   Rose – why do we do “Split the Pot” raffle now, during Lent and during Archbishop’s Appeal?  Brian – we usually do it now, because those who run the raffle are in town at this time of year.  The Finance Committee decided to put the proceeds toward debt reduction because collections have been down the last seven months.  Joan – I think you would make more money with a $5 or $10 ticket.  Fr. Don – Not giving to the Archbishop’s Fund does not punish the Archbishop, as some people feel; it punishes the agencies which rely on it.  If people are disgruntled, they should write a letter, don’t stop giving.  Brian – our big months for income are August (festival) and December (Christmas).  Yes, we did receive the $100,000 for the easement to Duke Power.

5)  First Quarter, 2009 Bread Delivery – All    Rose – We had 29 families that joined in the first quarter of 2009.  The last time, everyone took two or three names and it worked very well.  Chris – the last one I took was a 40-minute drive and no one was home.  How about sending certificates?  Rose – council discussed other options at an earlier meeting, at that time it was decided to continue the bread delivery as the best option for welcoming new families into the Parish.  Many times, we have a very rewarding experience.  We include with the bread a letter, a postcard, a poem about the Eucharist, and sometimes we include something about what’s currently happening in the Parish.  Matt – I like the symbolism of sharing the bread.  On the day that there’s a bread delivery, everyone will come and take a few loaves to deliver.  You need to deliver by Monday evening, because it is fresh bread.  The next one will be mid-April.  Barb – I think for the most part, it is very successful.  Ray – How long has Panera Bread been providing the bread?  Rose – Just the last one.  Breadsmith’s provided it prior to closing their West Chester store.

6)  Fr. Mark’s Comments -    New pastors have been appointed for St. Max and St. Susanna.  The pastors of the mega parishes will be meeting with Archbishop Schnurr on March 31 to discuss youth ministries.  I have been receiving a lot of e-mails disapproving of President Obama’s invitation to be commencement speaker at Notre Dame University.

Cindy – One of the nominees asked for an update on the Tanzania Promise.  Joan – will be doing something in the bulletin and Eagles’ Wings.  Tate – went to the men’s catholic conference and Fr. Mark did a wonderful job.  There were about 300 high school boys there.  We are very lucky to have Fr. Mark.  Matt – I realized that with a lot of people out of work, a lot of them are hibernating in their homes.  Fr. Mark – Jerry Barney is working on something for networking.

7)  Adjournment and Closing Prayer of Thanksgiving – Jerry Koehne    Jerry led the closing prayer and we adjourned at 7:45 pm. 

Next Meeting:  Monday, May 4, 2009

            - Reflection by Matt Bolton

            - Prayer of Thanksgiving by Chris Gebhart

            - Pastoral Guest – Jerry Barney