Parish Council Meeting Minutes
March 08, 2015
Members Present: Mary Ann McLane, JoAnn Hedrick, Donna Ramage, Mike Duffy, Joan Budd, Patty Zaza, Patricia Szwed, Bob Straub, Dolores Lepori , Joe McClory, Fr. Bill Graney, Jim Nolan, Mike Reis, Deacon John Falkowski, James Davidson, Cory Zolandz, Tom Leitch
Members Absent: Selvam Mascarenhas, Rich Mayes
Opening Prayer: Bob Staub’s reflection encouraged us to remove our blinders and to look closely and lovingly at the people and situations around us. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Parish Buzz: Glad for winter to be ending, looking forward to Spring, Holy Week and Easter Celebration.
New Business: Elementary Christian Formation/Children’s Ministries : Cory Zolandz
This summer CFP moved “home” utilizing our parish building for our AM K-5 CFP- this has been met with lots of success including the parish being more involved in our formation and our children being more engaged with parish life and Mass attendance.
We have moved our 6th grade to our Middle School Youth Ministry, and so Elementary is accounting for 52 active members, 38 families.8 Full Time Catechists and 5 Assistants ranging from high school students, parents, parishioners, and grandparents.This is a gifted and devoted group of people who serve our children for over 30 Sunday mornings a year. Many thanks to them!!!
We have offered activities outside of the classroom/Sunday AM to help engage families in the life of the church, and hope to continue to grow this ministry.Outdoor Rosary, Ladies Night Out, Kids-Only Christmas Party, Cookie Exchange, Lenten Prayer Service & Simple Supper, Stations of the Cross, May Picnic, VBS.Looking forward to adding a Kids Camp Out this summer or fall 2015 in collaboration in our Youth Ministry. I would like to find a way, more than our School Supply Drive to help engage children in active service work (although, many of the children do much service work in their schools and clubs.They certainly have an understanding and a desire to serve. Praise God!)We are working hard to offer many varied activities for kids and parents in addition to the many offerings by the whole parish.
Little Lambs is a brand new program we have been offering every other Sunday during 10:30 Mass in correlation with Children’s Liturgy of the Word.It is for children ages 0-5 to come to the nursery during Mass, play, learn, and grow in friendship and faith.We have 2 catechists currently and we 8 children that have visited, but more regularly 4-5.This is a ministry that I would like to promote more in the coming year.
Diocesan Assessments- Our CFC and catechists have been working together to create a workable plan to implement the Diocesan Assessments.Parent Meeting will be offered on March 22 at 9:30 AM. Assessments will be given the last two Sundays of April 2015..
Election Committee Report: Mary Ann McLane led discussion. Donna Ramage and Dolores Lepori agreed to run for re-election. A sign sheet was distributed for current members of the PC to man the nominations table for the candidates for next year’s Council. Nominee’s will be sought in April after Masses on 2
nd and 3
rd Sundays. Elections will be held in May on 1
st and 3
rd Sundays.
Finance Committee Update: Mike Reis opened the discussion and said the discussions Parish Council regarding finances should be forward looking, how to increase offertory collections, rather than looking at individual line items of a multiple page budget spreadsheet. This is the role of the Finance Committee. Following in that theme Jim Nolan presented a page summary that will be used for Parish Council financial discussions in future. There was some discussion exactly what the form should contain but consensus was that this will be very useful.
Pastor’s Comments: Fr Bill reported that 20 people participated three input sessions for the family synod. Six pages of comments were generated to forward on to diocese.
Need a few people from the parish to generate ideas on the Kitchen Improvement Project. Also select a project manager for the project, experience with planning and design would be helpful so that process can continue and concepts can be presented to larger parish group.
Zeni Fox a Professor at Rutgers is a good speaker on lay ministry taking on a larger role in day to day operations of a parish. Professor Fox could be invited to Resurrection to speak on this topic. LaSalle University recently appointed their first lay president, Colleen Hanycz, PhD which is an example of lay ministry taking additional responsibilities.
Keep Fr. Joe Dobrinski, former pastor at Resurrection in your prayers as he is recovering from a stroke.