Present: Sharon Gidumal, Mary Beth Coté, Pat Sormani, Fr. Bill, Linda Malm, Joe McClory, Joe Quinn, Nancy Maloney (for Julie Edmiston), Mike Reis, Jack Sanders, Deacon John, Ruth Sanders (for Jane Hanson)
Absent: Fr. Greg
Guests: Rich Mayes, Elaine Little
1) Call to order – Sharon called the meeting to order at 6:06 pm.
2) Attendance and Welcome to Guests
Members and guests were welcomed. Sharon asked if the 6 pm start time was okay, and it does seem generally okay, although the Tamil group sometimes is there later in the building.
3) Prayer/Reading and Reflection was done by Jack Sanders
4) Amendment/Approval of November 2019 Minutes
With one correction the minutes were approved.
5) Old Business:
A. Update - 50th Anniversary Events
*Ruth indicated there was no real update but the Advent Adventure is next week, and the Winter Arts festival is on Jan 25.
*Ruth asked if this question could be addressed here: Will there be an opportunity to offer input or suggestions for the parish renewal with Fr Simeon? It seems that Fr. Simeon will probably do just what he normally does in his ministry.
*Ruth also asked if Fr. Bill would like people to take care of hospitality like last time. Ruth will ask the same people to take care of it.
*Ruth also mentioned they have a small group working on archives for the parish, transferring files from VHS to DVD, archiving pictures, place to keep the parish history. (Trish Herron). Sharon is scheduling a meeting for the group working on this for January.
B. Contact info for alternates – There are still some missing pieces of contact information or alternate names.
C. Signups for Reflections – We now have signups through June.
6) New Business
A. Updates on Pastoral Council Goals:
1. Reports from Standing Committees
Parish Life
The committee met on Dec 4. Debbie developed a Parish Life tab on the parish website and it has info about upcoming events. Thanksgiving Eve service social was well received.
Coming up:
*Dec.14, refreshments after 5:30 Mass, then Parish Appreciation brunch on Sunday after both Masses.
*The upcoming Epiphany party is covered dish: family favorites, ethnic dishes, and so on.This will be publicized in parish email.
*Mardi Gras party may be Feb 22. There is a list of potential people interested and they will gather a group to work on it.
*Feb 28 is the souper supper.
*Feb 29 – March 1 is a community weekend.The committee is planning a “Getting to Know Each Other” activity, with a Wawa gift card as an incentive to participate.
*Ruth pointed out January 5 is also a community weekend.
-Sharon complimented Linda on the job she is doing.
b. Social Concerns
*Sharon is planning to issue minutes from last social concerns team meeting. We still need to find a date to get something started with Just Neighbors in the parish.We will look for dates in January or February for another social concerns fair. This committee will take over recommending charitable giving for budget.
*Jack has moved ahead with inter-faith discussion groups as he previously discussed.Other faith leaders have given him names of people who might like to participate. He will be looking for 7-8 people from Resurrection.
Mary Beth suggested sending it to the parish email. But Jack pointed out those people will be speaking “on behalf” of Catholicism, and there might need to be some screening of people. Linda suggested the email could express that people are volunteering to represent our faith, etc. Sharon asked for the potential email to be sent to her, and others on social concerns, and Fr. Bill, for input.
*The Coffee & Chocolate tasting more than doubled the usual Fair Trade sales!
*There was a good response to the giving tree.All but 5 tags were taken the first weekend.Linda thought on Wednesday this week the gifts would be sorted for distribution.
*Thanksgiving Food drive was very successful too.
*Resurrection’s prison ministry is receiving a special award for outreach (this should go into the Dialog), the 2019 DE Food Industry Council Partnership Award.ShopRight has a foundation that funds various activities and organizations.They provide jobs and fund Jack’s program: textbooks, dictionaries, journals, plus 100% of the food for the graduations.The award ceremony is Tuesday, December 10.
c. Christian Formation
*Advent Adventure will be on the 14
th.There was a visit from St. Nick this morning.Children in 1
st communion program had a church tour.
*January 11 is the date for 1
st reconciliation; there are 4 candidates.
*There are 11 candidates for confirmation; 7 of 11 were with their parents at the confirmation class this morning.
Liturgy
Ruth reported for Jane.New committee member is Reena Mascarenhas. Liturgy calendar is posted on parish website, publicized in Debbie’s emails.
Monday is a Holy Day of Opportunity (Immaculate Conception).
This Wednesday is prayer opportunity with Immaculate Conception/St Jude parish at 5:30.
Since Christmas is coming up, Ruth reminded us we need council members to serve as ushers or greeters.Usually we have CFP families at 4 pm but people are needed to serve at the other Masses. It’s very important to have good ushers for those Christmas Eve Masses. Fr Bill also asked people to park on the street if possible, so that guests coming late will have a place to park.There was some discussion of parking needs.Sharon asked if it would be desired to have some parking lot guides/attendants. Linda thought we could also announce ahead of time, but people do sometimes forget.It will be announced at Mass the next couple of weekends. The 4 pm Mass has the biggest attendance for parking.
John mentioned people seem to think there is an 11 pm Mass, but there is not.This needs to be made clear and well publicized.
Ruth reminded us of the serve binder available for people to sign up for liturgical ministries, or signups can be done by email too.
John reminded us of the Dec 12 Guadalupe Mass.
2. Marketing Resurrection outside of the Parish
Fr. Bill reported Debbie has put some things in the Dialog datebook. The Thanksgiving eve service is an example. She’ll also submit times for Christmas Masses.
Mary Beth thinks there should be some articles/news written after the fact.
Linda mentioned using NextDoor to let the neighborhood know about activities. John suggested publicizing the Christmas Masses, for example.
There was some discussion about how Journey Church is growing.
Linda will follow up with Debbie to get something in NextDoor. We could encourage people to share their Facebook posts when Debbie posts something like a Mass schedule. People who get the NextDoor posting about Christmas Masses can mark that they are interested/going, and this may encourage others to go.
Nancy is on a list for community events, to get Resurrection publicized. (Newark Days, for example).
There is still no PR/marketing person.
3. Small/Faith Group Sharing
Fr. Bill convened a meeting recently, and Jack also took some notes. This was a gathering of some people who have been leaders in previous or current small groups. The group carved out a time frame for small groups to meet for winter into Lent. The possibility of new groups was also discussed in this meeting. Fr. Bill thought the meeting was productive. The group is established to try to get this in motion. Signups may be in January, with groups to start around Ash Wednesday.
Jack mentioned some interest from some couples with kids in CFP. But this did not work with CFP parents for Just Neighbors. Jack stressed the importance of personal invitations and personal follow up. But the interest Jack mentioned is for evening meetings, not mornings. Jack has been talking about using the book
Meeting the Jesus I Never Knew.
Nancy thought email invitations to CFP parents should come from Nancy and Elaine, not someone they don’t know. Elaine said she is willing to help publicize, but wants specific info on timing, dates, topic.
Fr. Bill does have a book on scripture that may be helpful, since people have been asking about it. Hopefully one of the small groups will take this on.
Fr. Bill reported Angie is doing a regional series of 6 videos on how the spirit works in our life. This is in planning now; it has not started yet.
4. Additional Volunteers for visits to sick, homebound
The request for additional volunteers was listed in the bulletin this week.
Fr Bill found 8 or 9 people he will ask. Personal invitation is the best way to get people. There was previously a good response for volunteers to make Cadia visits.
B. SWOT Analysis – There was discussion was on why it was done, how to use the information, and the next steps. Nancy reported on this.
*This analysis was done because it seemed like a good idea in conjunction with our marketing efforts. Jack, Linda, and Nancy participated in the SWOT analysis.
*There was a lot of discussion about the “rules” weakness. This is really both a strength and a weakness. It’s the rules of the Catholic Church, not Resurrection per se, that may be seen as a weakness by some.
*Ruth commented we lose people at both ends of the spectrum. We try to strike a healthy balance. We may make a language adjustment, for example.
*Marriage in particular is an issue for people, because people think if they’re divorced they think they can’t receive communion. People have to be willing to come and talk to us and see what’s possible.
*Sharon asked what we can do with this SWOT analysis to help us towards our goals? John pointed out a big strength is we are welcoming, we go beyond the rules, and this does bring people in. This is sometimes for baptisms, marriages, funerals. John and Mary Beth pointed out the need to walk with people, to meet them where they are, to minister to them.
*Linda observed there are more children here lately, so we need to pay attention to them.
*Rich posed traditional vs. non-traditional instead of conservative vs. liberal.
Ruth said it would be worthwhile thinking about the words to use: traditional and non-traditional may not mean the same thing. When we say non-traditional we don’t mean like Journey Church; that is not what we want to convey.
John said we are trying to be inclusive. Joe Quinn suggested modern.
Joe McClory pointed out the political implications of conservative vs. liberal.
We do need to pick the right words. This will be further discussed.
7) Finance Council Update
An idea for envelopes as a possible solution to the “Electronic Giving” Dilemma was posed.
Debbie is printing up some envelopes (Christmas motif) and a communication will go out to electronic donors. So electronic donors will have something to drop in the basket, to make it more visible that everyone is contributing.People can pick them up when they get here.
John argued it doesn’t make sense to do this for Christmas. It may make sense to do it on a regular basis.Fr Bill suggested if people see offerings in the basket, they are more likely to do it. This would even be true for the 4 pm Christmas Eve Mass.
Jack suggested electronic givers who are getting envelopes can write on the outside of the envelope “electronic giver.”
We’ll try it for Christmas and see how it works.
Finances are tracking about the same, a little under on offertory target.Will have more info on stewardship campaign for the January meeting.
8) Other Reports
Rich reported on activities for Building & Grounds: worship space was painted, gutters have been cleaned, Fr. Greg has been a big help with repairing the Resurrection sign near the front doors. There were some issues with HVAC –igniter blew out in the middle of the night, so it was repaired. The office leg of the boiler system had a failing component. A contractor cleaned a contact but that might not be enough.
Installation of LED lights for the outside lighting is in progress, which should realize substantial electrical savings. The next big project will be bathrooms: epoxy flooring, new vanities and sinks, new stalls, repair of any rocking toilets, toilets will be chair height. Baptismal font pump seems to be working now. There may be an issue with the timer turning off. New salt-resistant concrete in front entrance was installed. Gaskets on exterior doors will be replaced. A couple of “roof leaks” were fixed; these were actually pieces of stucco breaking off. Eventually more maintenance related to the stucco will be required. They are hoping to get heat tape up on the roofs to prevent formation of icicles. There is a proposal to replace the carpet in chapel, but new carpet has not been picked out yet.
Rich reminded folks to call him if they see an issue, or something breaks, etc.
9) Floor open to Council and members of the parish.
Elaine said a 65” TV was just purchased, and will go on the wall in this meeting room.
Jack went to the gathering of ministers that Fr Bill had mentioned previously, and was introduced as Fr. Graney’s guy.
10) Announcements
January Meeting – reminder of Pastoral Council meeting at Resurrection. Traditionally this has been a social meeting, but this year we are going to have a regular business meeting on January 12. Sharon will bring wine.
11) Pastor’s Comments and Advice
It’s important to have balance. People have various criteria for choosing a church. American Baptist churches in the area have taken on a generic name so as not to be associated with southern Baptist. Emmanuel Church, for example. This was part of the earlier conversation about reaching out to others.
12) Closing Prayer – Fr. Bill shared a few stanzas of the Magnificat.
13) Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 8:01 pm.