ST. GREGORY THE GREAT PASTORAL COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES

FEBRUARY 11, 2015

Meeting started at 7:00 pm.

Those in attendance: Barbara Freuck, Brian Zydzik, Patti Penkalski, Tim Waldoch, Beth O'Connor, Marge Fischer &Tricia Boyle.

Opening Prayer by BarbaraFreuck.

Approval of January 2015 Pastoral Council meeting minutes as amended.

FATHER TOM’STIME:

  • Father Tom, Mike Esser, Jim Samz attending Archdiocese DistrictGatheringfor Synod Implementation at St. Alphonsus meeting on this date (2/11/2015). Deacon Jim & Karin Felske are also Synod delegates.
  • Hospitality on February 15th – Stewardship.

ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE: PATTI PENKALSKI

  • Photos of Father Tom's pastoral visit to our sister parish, Our Lady of the Highest Grace,can be viewed on the parish website and Fatherwill have an article in the next Parish Newsletter with details about his visit.
  • Ash Wednesday Masses will be held on Wednesday February 18th at 6:30 am, 8:30 am with school children,all are invited to attend and 6:00 pm. Distribution of Ashes will occur at all Masses.
  • Soup & Bread Meal will be held after the 6:00 pm Mass.
  • Parish Mission in March. Parish leaders are encouraged to show up and support this collaborative effort with OLOL.
  • A Communal Penance Service is scheduled on March 10th at 7:00 pm at St. Greg’s.
  • Finance Council did not meet last week due to lack of attendance.
  • We are in the middle of the budget process and are reviewing building projects for the coming fiscal year.
  • Year to date financials are in line with budget.
  • Stewardship will not be meeting tonight as Mike Esser will beat the Synod meeting, and other committee members are unable to attend.
  • We are finalizing the script for new member follow up calls and are gathering copies of the registration paperwork for those who joined the parish from July 2014 – present .
  • Patti Penkalski is working with a friend of Father Tom's on a postcard mailing for inactive parishioners, as well as updating the Stewardship portion of the parish website.

FINANCE: BRIAN ZYDZIK

  • No meeting. Still working on the budget.

FORMATION: JIM SAMZ

  • Attending Synod Implementation gathering at St. Alphonsus with other delegates from St. Greg’s.

HUMAN CONCERNS: TIM WALDOCH

  • We had our Souper Bowl of Caring which was not as successful as we would have liked at helping to restock the food pantry. This was mostly due to the major snowstorm on the weekend of collection. IR/OR is looking at alternatives to help restock the food that is needed.
  • Just a reminder to ALL PASTORAL COUNCIL MEMBERS: Our Parish Mission is set for Lent – March 4th,5th6th. It is a joint mission with Our Lady of Lourdes. Thursday March 5this St. Greg's night to host our speaker who is Janet Sullivan Whitaker – a nationally known song writer, composer and musician. Watch the posters around church, the bulletin and the website for more information. It would be wonderful if our council leadership could be present!

COMMUNITY: BETH O’CONNOR

  • Hospitality Sunday February 15th. Stewardship is scheduled to help.
  • There will be no Home & Spaghetti Dinner this year.
  • Boy Scout Fish Frys will be: February 20th, March 13th, March 20th& March 27th.
  • Working on getting information into the Great News about a next meeting date for the Vamos group and looking at how we can move forward.

PASTORAL CARE: TRICIA BOYLE

  • The West Central Interfaith held their annual Spaghetti Dinner at St. Matthias in January. This fundraiser helps to support all of the work the Interfaith does in our local area.
  • Pastoral Care for our homebound, elderly, grieving, and hospitalized continues with the support of both staff and dedicated volunteers.

WORSHIP COMMISSION:BARBARAFREUCK

  • LITURGY COMMISSION: Met on Sunday January 25, 2015. Cindy printed “Filled with the Holy Spirit” and we looked at Page 8. A brief discussion ensued regarding committing to usingand developing engaging resources to teach about the Mass and devotions. We focused our discussion on Mass. Ideas: Think about teaching about different parts of the Mass. Also perhaps dedicate a certain weekend of the month for teaching and hopefully all clergy, including help-outs, would agree and participate. Also, use bulletin or perhaps the newsletter to introduce/reinforce what is happening at Mass when teaching takes place.
  • Special note: Implementation Committee has been formed by the Archdiocese. We will wait to see what direction ifany may come from these meetings, and then discuss further.
  • Morning of Reflection: Briefly talked about idea of a time of reflection to be offered to Liturgical Ministers. Cindy talked with Deacon Jim about leading something. Cindy will survey the ministers to see what might work best in terms of day of the week and time to offer this Reflection program. Idea of prayer, food, personal reflection and ending with prayer is being considered. Looks like it might be best in the spring of this year to try and schedule this event.
  • Other topics: Is it time for a new hymnal?? Matt has been pondering, wondering if it is time to reconsider prospect of new hymnals. Comment was made about the noise when hymnals are returned to the book racks in the pews. Someone said they saw at one parish that pieces of felt were glued into the book rack to absorb some of the sound. There was also a discussion regarding teaching the grade school children how to use a hymnal. Currently, we make a supplement for the children to use. Talked about using the opening song at school Masses to help children learn how to find, sing from and return the book to the rack.
  • Also had some discussion regarding books for funeral and weddings to include posture direction (when to sit and stand), and to include the Lord's Prayer. Cindy will look into adapting the template to include the posture positions.
  • ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT COMMISSION: Will try to meet in the early part of March to discuss the decorations for Easter coming in April and the planting season coming up in spring for the outdoor areas around the property.
  • Cindy continues to ask for more volunteers to sign up for the Eucharistic Ministry and to be greeters and readers. Cindy would like to see more designated acolytes trained for the Masses so as to ease the burden on the current designated acolytes.
  • Preparation is in place for the start of Lent, especially for Ash Wednesday with the distribution of ashes and the Soup & Bread meal after the

6:00 pm Mass on Wednesday February 18th.

  • A special note from the West Central Interfaith program: The Spaghetti Dinner held at St. Matthias Parish on Saturday, January 31, 2015 served 323 people with a net profit of $2400. This seemed like a profitable event for West Central. A number of our parishioners attended the dinner and everyone seemed to have a good time and the food was delicious as always. Thank you to everyone for attending.

Closing prayer by Barbara Freuck

Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm.