St Jude Pastoral Council

Minutes of monthly meeting held at 7pm

On Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

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

Apologies:            Bob Johnson

Opening Prayer:   The meeting began at 7pm with the recital of the proposed mission prayer.

Council

Introductions:       Members were asked to introduce themselves for the benefit of our 2 new members and to state what their hopes for St Jude were for the coming year and how we could contribute to realizing that hope.

                                    Ideas presented were:

·        Encouraged by what is happening eg. Making the feast of St Jude a special celebration

·        St Jude continues to find its heart in the community

·        Events that would help to build community

·        Some from of Young adult ministry

·        Hope that things would settle down following transition and staff changes over past year or two, especially in the area of education young children where we have had 3 directors in 3 years. Transition had been difficult for St Jude, but there is a sense that we are coming back to being a close knit community.

·        St Jude continues to have a warm giving heart, and to be a welcoming  community. 

·        Use the mission statement so that the parish knows where we are going as a parish and who we are; grow St Jude from a good parish to a great parish

·        Having a different staff member coming to our meeting each month and addressing us briefly about their goals and outlook.

·        St Jude is a caring parish as is indicated by The Giving Tree, BackPack program, Tent City etc.

Pastors’ Report (Fr Dave)

General: Mary Kellison has been appointed Pastoral Assistant for Elementary Faith Formation. Concerns were expressed about Fr Joey’s health.

Pastors’ Report (Fr Dave) continued

Calendar of upcoming events:

o       Fall Festival – September 30^th

o       Feast of St Jude – October 28^th

Staff Mission Statement development:

o       It was felt that certain words needed to be included in the draft mission statement. Response from the handout over summer about the mission statement was not very good, but served the purpose of generating awareness.

Staff / Council Report (Sr Betty)

o       Results of the adult faith formation survey were not representative.

o       Only 97 responses were received and considered.

o       Adult faith formation group is looking to hold neighborhood focus groups and build true community by really getting to know our neighbors.

o       They would look to Pastoral Council for assistance in hosting / facilitating the focus groups.

New Business:     Discussion took place about how to celebrate our Feast Day (October 28^th) this year bearing in mind that certain events had already been planned between end of September and October 28^th.

                              It was decided that the various ministeries, volunteers in the community, and all those who pray for all the ministeries etc. would be acknowledged during all masses that weekend

                              A Cheese-and-wine would be held after Saturday evening mass to be catered for by the staff of St Jude.

Fruit, donuts etc after Sunday morning masses to be catered for by Pat Smith. The celebration after Sunday evening mass would be discussed with Rick Casolary, the Pastoral assistant for youth.

Open Topics:        The first draft of Guidelines to address requests made to St Jude for financial and/or other assistance had been written up. A few changes had to be made before being finalized. Fr Dave to forward his thoughts to Gary for finalization.                                          

The meeting was closed with prayers for special intentions at 9.10. Next meeting will be held on October 3rd.