St. James Pastoral Council Minutes
May 12, 2008

 

 

Opening and Closing Prayer:  John Alvey

 

Members Present:  Julia Alsobrook, John Alvey, Mary George, Dave McDonald, Lisa Richardson,

Joe Ross, Ann Tucker and Fr. Tom Albers

 

Members Absent:  Diane Dolak, Cathy Teague, and Jim Thornton

 

Guests Present:  Marvin Weishaar

 

Old Business:

            1.  Discerning God’s Call for the Parish Goal #5 (Parish Improvement Project)

            The interior of the building expansion is complete and moved into.  There is still some exterior

            work to be done this summer.  Bishop Finn will be at St. James to do the dedication on June 1st.

            He will preside at the 11:00 AM Mass then have the dedication immediately following.  There

            will be a reception in the social hall after the dedication.

 

            Our debt will be $1.6 million.  The soft cost is being finalized now.  The total cost is $1.7

            million.  The bigger cost of the over run was moving the electrical and adding a transformer        which was $50,000.  The additional transformer will be accommodating future growth.           Another large cost is the roof repair plan.  The plan calls for replacing the roof over the narthex

            on through the existing school building.  It will be taken down to the decking, plus, some            redesign has to be done.  Another problem area is the flashing around the fireplace chimney in

            the pastor’s office that will need to be repaired or replaced.  The complete plan for roof repair   will be about $85,000.  This should hold for the next 7 to 8 years.  There were 24 change orders       to the original plans which added to the cost.  The donated shelving for the library would not fit         due to the height and design so new shelves for the library had to be ordered.  The total cost will

            be about $1.7 million.  This will raise our payment to $13,500 per month.

 

            2.  Size of Council.  Joe Ross will stay on the council.  John Alvey will go off the council.  We

            will add 2 new members,  There was a discussion about election VS discernment process.  Fr.

            Tom prefers the election process but is OK with discernment if that is the way the council would

            rather go.  Ann and John will do some research on a facilitator for a discernment process in

            both seeking someone to do it, the price it would cost and what has been spent in the past

            for the discernment process.  Requests for names will be given at each Mass for the next few     weeks and calls to each person will be made within the first 2 weeks in June.  It is the council’s

            desire to have the new people seated in August.  The council members thought it would be a

            benefit to shorten the process.

 

            3.  Recording Secretary:  Mary George acquired a volunteer’s name from Daryl for a

            council recording secretary.  Mary invited Tom Pfeiffer to be the recording secretary for

            the parish council and he accepted.  He will start at the June meeting.

 

New Business:

            1.  Fr. Matt’s Farewell Reception.  There will be a farewell reception held after the 11:00 AM

            Mass on June 22nd.  Mary George and Bobbi Roman will organize the reception.  Fr. Tom         suggested the parish give Fr. Matt a departing gift of $500.00

 

            2.  Parish Feast Day will be held Friday, July 25th.  All ministry heads will be asked to take

            an active role by sponsoring an activity or donating supplies, etc.  Mary George will again          organize this celebration.  Each Parish Council member  will be expected to attend and take an           active part in the celebration, set up and clean up.  It will begin with a prayer service and        festivities afterward.

 

            3.  The Prayer Garden Committee asked their concerns to be heard.  The Prayer Garden            Committee asked for the Parish Council to make a ruling that they could be given the flexibility         of arranging the bouquets of roses (sold in honor of the Blessed Mother and mother figures) on      Mother’s Day along with the scroll with their names written on it around the altar.  This year

            they met with some rudeness and the bouquets were not placed in a prominent way to display the          roses.  There has been a history of opposition by the head of the environmental committee to the           Mother’s Day Roses and the scroll being placed on the altar. The Prayer Garden Committee        received complaints, derogatory comments and even threats of people not buying roses next year       if they can’t be displayed properly.  The committee contends that this happens every time we get        a new liturgist or pastor. Fr. Tom said he would talk with Danny Baker to investigate the             problem and there does not need to be a ruling made by the parish council.

 

            3.  Has there been a resolution to the school board for next year?    Could this be on the agenda for the next meeting?

 

Ministry Reports

            Youth:  Lisa Richardson.  Confirmation was awesome and flowed real well.  There were 53

            confirmed by Bishop Finn.  They ran out of cake at the reception but Bishop Finn stayed until

            the last kid left.

 

            The youth room is to be painted by June 1st when Bishop Finn comes to do the dedication.

            Bobbi is asking for youth volunteers.

 

            Graduation Mass is at the 6:00 PM Mass on May 25th.

 

Activities:  Mary George.  The next blood will be Tuesday, May 27th.  Mary questioned whether Joe Barry should be allowed to give a short talk at the end of Mass to encourage people to donate.  Fr. Tom said he preferred not to have someone speaking after Mass because the time gets out of hand and so many groups are asking for time for announcements.

 

Carol Bloomer – Peace and Justice Group would like to have an information series based on Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, released by U.S. Bishops in November 2007.  Fr. Tom was aware of the program suggested by the diocese, but wondered if we could work with the other Northland parishes on this.  Fr. Tom said we must be careful not to condone any political party, platform, or candidate for fear of losing our tax-free status.

 

Groups:  Ann Tucker and Dave McDonald.  No reports made

 

Liturgy:  Joe Ross.  Everything went well for the Tritium and no changes are expected to be made.  There were some complaints made about the noise during Holy Thursday adoration.  There was a discussion about noise before Mass a lot of the time when people are trying to pray. 

 

Education:  Julia Alsobrook and Diane Dolak.  Cecilia  Richardson reported that the Catechist Appreciation Luncheon was April 27th with quite a few in attendance.  Families donated desserts and the church catered the main meal.  She suggested that it would be good for some of the council members to attend the luncheon next year. 

 

Religious Ed classed ended for Wed night group on April 30th and for the Sunday group on May 4th  with the closing Mass at 11:00 AM Mass on the 4th.

 

The Baptismal Prep Ministry is looking for 3 more lead couples.

 

There are 109 children receiving First Communion this year.  They start at all Masses on the weekend of May 10/11 and end at 5:00 Mass on Saturday, May 24th.

 

Vacation Bible School will be July 14th through the 18th with the ending program on the evening of the 18th.  The theme is an adventure park.

 

Pastor’s Comments.  Fr. Timothy Armbruster, a Precious Blood Priest, will be coming to St. James on July 1st.  He has a lot of interest in the school, and is active in clown ministry.  He has a lot of energy and will be good for St. James.  He is now a pastor in Sedalia.

 

Closing Prayer:  John Alvey

 

The next meeting will be Wednesday, June 4th due to Fr. Tom, Fr. Matt and Ann Tucker being out of town for the Precious Blood Assembly.  Diane Dolak will have opening and closing prayer.

 

Meeting notes courtesy of Ann Tucker