Saint Bede Catholic ChurchMay 28th, 2015
Pastoral Council Meeting
Conference Room
Present: Jeff Lancour, Bill Westerman, Kristy Plourde, Evan Brankin, Todd Ellis, Jeff Lancour, Monsignor Keeney, Heather Clemens
Absent: Pat Toney, Brittney Kinstetter, Earl Anderson, Bill Minich, and Henry Chico
Opening Prayer: Monsignor Keeney
Minutes: Kristy Plourde motioned that the minutes be approved with a second from Bill Westerman. The minutes were unanimously approved.
Pastor Notes/Updates:
- Monsignor Keeney provided the following clergy updates-
- Father Herman has been reassigned as Pastor at Saint Timothy’s in Tappahannock
- Seminarian, Nick Redman, will be introduced at Masses this weekend. He will be at Saint Bede through next summer.
- Finances were approved to move forward with the assignment of two new priests at Saint Bede.
- Monsignor stated that the ceremonial ground breaking for the new buildings will take place on August 9th at the 11:00a.m. Mass.
- The following discussion took place concerning the upcoming Year of Mercy-
- Monsignor Keeney asked if the Council had received notes from the Executive Council meeting. Jeff said no, but he was to meet with Michelle Tomshack once she returned from vacation.
- Monsignor discussed several ideas to implement during the Year of Mercy-
- Evening prayer at the church beginning at 5:45p.m.
- Would like to teach Mental Prayer and meet at 5:30 p.m. for Mental Prayer and then move into Evening Prayer at 5:45 p.m.
- Record a once a month “Spirituality Conference” to put on the website. Topics would be in response to parishioner’s requests/needs.
- A question was asked concerning by-laws changes and Kristy P. confirmed that only the timing of the “election” portion of the by-laws was voted on and changed.
New Business/Planning:
The remainder of the meeting was spent discussing the Pastoral Council’s role in “Best Practices of Pastoral Council’s” as presented by Peter Denio at the Leadership Round Table Retreat. Evan Brankin used the white board as a visual for note taking and discussion. The following are discussion notes that Evan compiled following the discussion. The white board image is attached.
Good morning everyone. I hope this finds you well. Here is the image with the whiteboard notes from the meeting on Thursday. I will attempt to put together another version which goes through each section more clearly over the course of the week for greater clarity.
I will try to give a quick explanation for those who couldn't be there.
The far left hand portion of the image presents information received from Peter Denio regarding the nature of and best practices for a pastoral council.
The far right hand depicts the monthly cycle for processing the parish budget, and the roles played by the various bodies in the budget process.
The central circle depicts the months of the year and the potential meeting cycle, color coded - black for quarterly reviews, blue for prayer meetings, red for pastoral council internal affairs.
Next to this is a triangular diagram depicting the type and flow of information between the administrative bodies of the parish.
In text beneath these diagrams are notes on what needs to appear in the constitution of the pastoral council and the current committees that are supposed to exist according to it.
In the very bottom left is a diagram depicting how the various meetings of the pastoral council would inform each other and the order they would go in. The second section, in green, depicts the work of pastoral council committees. The other color coding remains as before.
Key questions which arose from this conversation, and which we will need to prayerfully consider for the future include:
1) How do we measure progress when performing reviews?
We need to decide upon metrics to be used for this key task of the pastoral council.
2) What constitutes regular prayer with the pastor, and how do we achieve it?
We seemed to be in agreement that a few minutes of prayer in our monthly meetings, especially when so many members of the council cannot always be present did not represent sufficient prayer time with the pastor for us to really perform the first task of a parish council.
3) How will we streamline and ensure information flow from pastoral staff and finance council to the pastoral council?
Some options that were discussed involved using the quarterly review meetings to hear from the staff directors and setting up online information sharing methods so the pastoral council can hear from the staff (and parish?) to inform their personal and communal prayer without formal meetings, doing a pastoral planning day/combined staff and council retreat at some point in the year before going into the budget process.
4) How many times should we meet per year, and what format should they take?
We were leaning towards three distinct types of meeting. Meetings involving communal prayer and fellowship once a month, possibly in a variety of locations including XLT or the rectory. Meetings once a quarter to review and communicate with pastoral staff which would be the meetings which most closely resemble our current meeting format. And meetings for the internal working of the pastoral council, including discernment, orientation, a retreat, and the listening and discernment part which the council plays in the budgeting process of the parish. These internal meetings would have the particular task of explaining the nature of the council and of obtaining a commitment during the discernment process from those selected. Finally, committees would meet as needed to perform their tasks.
5) Do we have a conflict of interest statement?
Peter Denio lists this among his best practices for Pastoral Councils, but I don't recall signing one at any point. If we have one, should we implement it? If we do not, should we develop one?
6) What role should committees play in the new model of the pastoral council that we are developing for St. Bede, how many should we have, etc.?
This was one of the final points of discussion for the evening. We identified the four committees that are supposed to exist as part of the current rules of the council, and who on the staff they would work most closely with. Finally, we noted that the executive committee could serve as the advisory body for Monsignor whenever an issue arose that he wanted to bring before the Council outside of the quarterly reviews. We did not have time to go into the other standing committees, or examine the need for addition or reduction of committees.
Concluding remarks:
Following the discussion Jeff L. recommended that a sub-committee meet with Michelle and present ideas. The goal is to meet early in June to discuss the Executive Plan and battle rhythm for yearly meetings. Jeff L., Todd E., Heather C., and Evan B. (if available) stepped up to be part of the committee.
Closing Prayer
Next Meeting: June 25th, 2015
Submitted by Celeste Prezioso