Monthly Parish Pastoral Council Meeting Minutes

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church

Monthly Parish Pastoral Council Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Parish Mission Statement: St. Francis of Assisi Parish is a community of disciples, united through our love of Jesus Christ and our shared Catholic Faith. We joyfully respond to our personal conversion and the call of the Holy Spirit by reflecting the love of the Father through evangelization and service.

  1. Opening –7:00pm
  1. Call to Order: Lori Skillestad called to order the regular meeting of the Monthly Parish Pastoral Council Meeting at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, July 8, 2015 in the San Damiano Room of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.
  1. Opening Prayer: Father Paul opened the Parish Council Meeting with Prayer.
  1. Roll Call: Valentine Christopher performed roll call; 5 were not in attendance; all other council members were present - except for those ministries that do not have leadership yet. Quorum was present.

Attendee List
1 / Father Larry / Present
2 / Father Paul / Present
3 / Father Lauro / Excused
4 / Lori Skillestad / Present
5 / Valentine Christopher / Present
6 / Carmen Fahrenthold / Excused
7 / Hector Rodas / Excused
8 / Faith Formation OPEN
9 / Community Life OPEN
10 / Victoria Rychalsky / Present
11 / Outreach OPEN
12 / Karen Sarnacki / Greg Deiter (Present) - Stewardship Committee
13 / Sandy Chapman / Present
14 / Cathy Gonzalez / Present
15 / Michelle Ryan / Excused
16 / Luis Feliciano / Present
17 / Tom Rejmaniak / Present
18 / Chuck Mancuso / Present
19 / Tim Terzis / Excused
20 / Dan Heredia / Present
21 / David Utsler / Present
  1. Approval of Minutes: Approval for last month’s minutes: Request was made by Lori Skillestad to Parish Council to approve the June 2015 minutes. Victoria Rychalsky moved to approve, Sandy Chapman 2nd the motion. Minutes approved written.
  1. Ministry Business –7:12 pm
  1. Introduction of all members :Valentine Christopher introduced the 4 new at-large members - Cathy Gonzalez, Chuck Mancuso, Luis Feliciano and Tom Rejmaniak. All members introduced themselves for the new members.
  1. Guest Speaker : Josephine Gonzales from Dallas Area Interfaith - invited by Fr. Larry. Spoke about DAI and gathered contact information from all members to hold one-on-one with all. Website
  2. Communication Talk: Moved to next month due to lack of time
  3. Youth Member Added to Parish Council Lori Skillestad introduced the topic of possibility of having a youth leader/teen on the parish council to get a youth perspective. Cathy Gonzalez provided input based on her experience on previous organizations where a youth was on the board with limitations. Sandy Chapman also felt the idea was good. David Utsler recommended having an adult who is a youth leader and is more closer to the group be on the council vs having the youth himself. Fr. Larry had a couple of points - the youth/teen would get bored very easily in our meetings. Maybe having two teens - but that also will not last for long. Maybe instead of having someone on the council, we could call some of the leadership folks over to our meetings and ask them to provide updates on the group - for example, Tammy or Anthony. On the same note, Fr. Larry suggested extending these meetings to Hispanic ministries to come to our council meetings and provide input on what they do and what help they need etc.,
  4. Changing our email group from Yahoo to Google - Lori Skillestad mentioned that we would be changing our email service from Yahoo to Google due to some issues with the yahoo group - like admin of the group is not setup properly, monthly reminders do not record the time properly etc.,
  5. Financial Ministry update : Sandy Chapman provided details on how the ministry decided to standardized monthly payments for the Church loan. If at the end of the year there is extra funds, then they will be used to make additional payment towards the principle.
  1. Closing –8:10 pm
  1. Next Meeting: Scheduled for August 12, 2015, at 7:00 pm in the San Damiano room.
  1. Closing Words from Father: Fr. Larry - Informal update on capital campaign : We have received $700,000.00 of the 2 million for the diocese capital campaign. Will continue working during summer for more pledges. During the weekend of September 12/13 there will be in-pew pledging. Hispanic ministry visiting trailer families, check on them, ask if they need any help, with go to church etc.,

Aug 15/16th - Lay witness sunday

Aug 22nd - mini-retreat for parish organizations; 9-11 am.Will be talking about our various groups and ministries. PC is expected to be there. This weekend will also be sign-up sunday for various ministries.

ACTS - We would now start having 8 retreats every year - 4 in spring and 4 in fall. The 4 would be men’s english, women’s english, men’s spanish and women’s spanish.

Youth ACTS - currently on hold as it is difficult to manage with the time and location and commitment and details. Plus it may affect youth energy and Tammy /Anthony wanted to push it out. Currently on back burner. Experience from other parishes - if the church has a strong youth ministry, then ACTS does not work well there. Currently youth have - 2 confirmation retreats (english/spanish), 2 HS retreats, Mission trip etc., So with all this planning and activities, adding youth acts was difficult.

David Utsler supervisor of staff and various ministries. Changing name of Commissions to Ministries. There are some gaps, where some heads needs to be filled for some commissions. Restructuring is still not complete - in progress.

  1. Adjournment: Valentine Christopher moved to adjourn, Victoria Rychalsky 2nd the motion. Motion approved. Meeting adjourned at 8:32pm
  2. Closing Prayer: Father Larry closed with prayer.

Minutes submitted by: Valentine Christopher

Minutes approved by: Parish Council on 8/12/2015

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