Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Mike Rzucidlo.
 
Reflection: The Prayer for Discernment was read by Mike Rzucidlo.
 
Members Present: Gerry Abrams, Mary Louise Chesley-Cora, Anita Delaney, Sharon Gidumal, Father Graney, JoAnn Hedrick, Ruthann Maisonet, Rich Mayes, Al Mercatante, Mike Mitchell, Maritza Poza-Grise, Joe Quinn, Mike Ries, Mike Rzucidlo, Jack Sanders, Dick Schwer, Kathy Swain.
Member Absent:  Deacon John Falkowski.
Guests: Elaine Little, Nancy Maloney, Ruth Sanders.
Special Guest:  Bill Reynolds.
 
Minutes Approved:  The minutes of the August meeting were approved.
 
New Business:
The election of officers was conducted by Mike Rzucidlo who had chosen not to run for an elected position. The results of the election are as follows:
                                                Executive Officer:  Al Mercatante
                                                Assistant Executive Officer: Sharon Gidumal
                                                Secretary:  Mike Mitchell.
 
October retreat – It was decided that the annual pastoral council retreat will take place on Saturday,
October, 14, beginning at 3:00 p.m. and will also include a pot luck dinner, attendance at 5:30 p.m. Mass, and a brief meeting. A committee consisting of Anita Delaney, Dick Schwer, Ruth Sanders, Mike Rzucidlo, Sharon Gidumal, and Gerry Abrams will be responsible for planning the retreat. Anita will organize a meeting of the committee.
 
Al Mercatante thanked the outgoing officers and then introduced Bill Reynolds who facilitated the goal setting session of the meeting.
 
Bill began the session with a brief explanation of the differences between a vision, an objective, a goal and a task. He explained that a SMART goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
 
Twenty-two objectives that had been submitted in advance by the Council members had been combined when possible and reduced to twelve and would eventually be reduced to 4 or 5. The twelve are as follows:
 

• Resurrection continue as a sustainable, independent, vibrant parish.

 

• Pastoral Council improve by:
  • Being more visible in the parish community,
  • Communicating better – personal communication,
  • Stronger presence in the community,
  • Make progress on own goals,
  • Two way dialogue

 

• Prepare parish for operating without a resident priest/resident pastor.

Suggestions: Discern those with pastoral leadership and train laity
         Offer adult faith formation to meet gaps
 

• Attract new parishioners/increase membership especially with young families and young adults.

 

• Continue to invite those interested in deepening their faith to faith sharing groups.

 

• Provide new opportunities for cultural, ecumenical, and interfaith relationships/collaboration.

 

• Grow social concerns ministry.

 

• Promote/enable more people to be connected to active ministries (remove obstacles).

 

• Increase social media visibility of CFP.

 

• Discern how Resurrection can become an accompanying parish for ALL whom we encounter.
• All are welcome, especially those on the edges.

 

• Communicate more effectively to all parishioners and the external community about our Jesus-centered faith community.

 

• Foster social opportunities at Resurrection.

 
After discussion and clarification of some of the ideas, all Council members had four votes to choose those they were most interested in pursuing. Those that were not chosen are indicated by strike through. The two that are highlighted were combined. The list had thus been reduced to five. It was decided that the first of the twelve is the BIG mission.
 
We then broke out into small groups with each group taking one of the objectives to brainstorm and come up with some tasks that will accomplish the objective. We came back into the large group and each small group made its report as follows:
 
Group number one addressed ways to improve Pastoral Council and their ideas were that Council members should wear nametags, a picture of the Council should be available, a new parish directory, announce meetings, stewards should be more accountable, and there should occasionally be a table in the gathering space that would focus on a particular ministry.
 
Group number two addressed the future without a priest. They suggested a collection of data from those places where it “works” to have a parish without a resident priest, come up with a job description for a lay leader and provide training, communicate with the bishop, research local sources for a lay administrator such as Neumann College, parishioners attend a conference on pastoral life, and hire someone by the first quarter of next fiscal year.
 
Group number three addressed attracting new parishioners. Their ideas were to invite people to participate, all ages, all activities; have a bring a friend to church day on our welcome Sundays, talk with young families, meet with young adults and form relationships, engage teens in communication.
 
Group number four addressed social concerns. They suggested that we focus on getting volunteers for current ministries, need a current list of e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers from those willing to share them, advertise/promote ministries through articles on the front of the bulletin and on the monitor in the gathering space.
 
Group number five looked at communicating more effectively. Their ideas were to have the stewards reach out to their portion of the alphabet and report quarterly on their contacts, there should be a well- advertised suggestion box, both digital and paper; a buddy system for new parishioners, sponsor more events like Peace Week, each Council member should invite someone to a meeting.
 
After a brief discussion where areas of overlap were pointed out, each member of Council signed up to serve on a committee to flesh out these five objectives following the SMART system and to ultimately achieve the objectives.
 
 Al asked that the first person listed on the team to work on the goals for each Objective will be the initial coordinator of that team. In addition, he asked each team to give a brief update on their progress by the October 14 meeting. Al reminded us that as elected and appointed members of the PC we have the responsibility to lead and to move these Objectives forward in a timely manner. It was suggested that each team identify individuals from the parish that could be added to their team. It is important that we include parishioners and others who have resources helpful in working toward setting goals for each Objective.
 
A prayer was offered by Father Graney.
 
The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.
 
Respectfully submitted,
 
JoAnn M. Hedrick
 
After the meeting, our very able facilitator, Bill Reynolds, offered the following:
Feel free to include my email and/or cell 302-367-3972 to offer that if any of the 5 teams want to invite me to an initial meeting or two to help frame things a bit, I'll do my best to do so.