St Jude Pastoral Council

Minutes of monthly meeting held at 7pm

On Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

Present:                Don Cairns (Chairman), Fr. Dave Rogerson (Pastor), Sr Betty Schumacher, Bob Stephens, Angela Elfenson, John La Fond, Anusha Fernando, Gary Smith, and Lauren Sing

Guests:                 Fr Bill Heric, April Collier, Jim Kubacki, Susan Ramey, representing the Board of Trustees of Eastside Catholic High School, and Tina Petesch (parishioner and parent of student at ECHS)

Apologies:            Bob Johnson

Introductions:       All present were asked to briefly introduce themselves.

Opening Prayer:   The meeting began at 7.05pm by Sr Betty with a reading from the Gospel and a brief silent reflection.

Welcome:             Fr Dave welcomed the representatives of ECHS.

ECHS:                  Fr Heric talked briefly about the new ECHS campus to be opened in September 2008 in Sammamish and a video presentation was watched. The board president, Jim Kubacki, then followed up with some further information about the school environment and responded to questions posed. The framework within which the school worked was:

·        Academic excellence

·        Relationships with God, families, faculty and friends

·        Servant leadership

Statistics show that 30% of Catholics attend mass regularly, while 73% of Catholics from Catholic schools attend mass regularly.

Prayers were requested at this time, as well as a request to be a pacesetter in actively promoting the school.

Opportunities existed for  interaction between ECHS and St Judes, especially with youth programs.

The representatives then took leave of the meeting.

Parish Feast Day:

The general consensus was that it was an excellent event with many people attending the “Cheese and Wine” socials after Saturday and Sunday evening liturgies. Sr. Betty suggested hosting such an event once a month after a Saturday evening liturgy for all those attending, but specifically inviting new parishioners to the event beforehand.

Favorable comments were made about the prayer cards that the youth had placed on windshields while we were attending mass that weekend.

Where to go next with the Parish Mission? (Facilitated by Sr Betty)

We now need to set our “Vision”, which needs to be something to strive towards, by:

·        Brainstorming

·        A Planning process

·        Town meeting approach

·        Small groups with many meetings

·        Invite leaders of various ministeries

The vision statement should be guided by:

·        How do we want to be recognized?

·        What are the driving forces?

·        Be more connected

·        Focus on strengths and weaknesses

After some discussion, it was decided that to begin the process, the staff and Pastoral Council would each come up with a vision statement and the two would be compared at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, November 14^th at 4pm.

Since it was getting late, the meeting was adjourned.

Next Meeting:     December meeting preliminarily set for Wednesday, Dec 5^th. This would be a joint meeting with the staff and would be potluck format. Don to confirm this date.

The meeting was closed with prayers for special intentions at 9.10.