Minutes for November 20th, 2008

Attendance
Darlene Greiner, Patti LaRue, Father John, Deacon Mike Caldwell, David Mastroieni, Marlene Myers, Janet Rathbone, Tim Cook, Lillian Erwin

Not in Attendance
Mike Jefferies, Mark Butler, Lori Burmester

Meeting began at 6:00 pm

Opening
Father led the group with the opening prayer.

Father opened the meeting with talking about Back to Prayer Night and the Josh Blakesley concert that the church was putting on.

He also talked about getting in touch with the Philippine Community of our church and how important this was.

Also stressed what a challenge it seems to be to have true community. Individuality seems to be the priority.

Old Business
Approval of October minutes.

Helping Hands Update – Deacon Mike talked to all the parishes in our area and they seemed to be behind the idea. They've told Mike to go a head and run with it. Fr. David from St. Peters thought that St. Vincent de Paul should handle this, but previous experience, they didn't do a very good job the first time they tried.

Mike said that they are only considering donations, don't want to sell items, just want to be able to give to the needy.

A notice has been sent out to all the churches for warehouse donations. Mike said he will wait to see what happens before going on with a plan for building a structure on our church grounds.

New Business The parking lines in the parking lot are being taken care, Joe has been given the estimate it's just setting up a good time to have it done.

Lillian mentioned that the food pantry is very low and needs to be restocked for winter.

It was suggested that the parish directory be updated and that we try and get someone to volunteer to take on the task.

Ecumenical Outreach – Deacon Mike feels that we shouldn't be married to our religion but to Jesus and that we need to be more unified with other churches outside our own religion.

But it was also suggested that we need to be careful when approaching certain non-Catholic churches. Need to go into this with our eyes open.

Lillian suggested we invite them to come to our church first. To some sort of community event they can participate in.

It was suggested we go with main line religions first such as Lutherans, Episcopalians, Greek Orthodox and Baptists.

It was also suggested that we might invite them to participate in a community Good Friday procession.

Another suggestion was some way to get together by serving the poor together in some manner.

Ask the different churches to share their bulletins with us and vice a versa.

Mary Jo Tulley from the Archdiocese office has offered to come to talk to us about what ecumenical really means.

State of the Parish – Father John feels we need to find out what the parishioners feel the church needs. Also suggested we pray about it.

It was suggested that a short survey be given. “What do you think God feels is the greatest need for St. Joseph the Worker Parish?

The survey could be done after Christmas. Present the idea one week before actually taking the survey. Give short survey out the following week, giving the parishioners time to think about the question.

Round Table
Darlene brought up a problem that some parishioners have come to her about and that's the excessive noise in the church prior to Mass, particularly during the 10:30 Mass. Also how disrespectful it is for people to just rush past the Tabernacle and not even bow in front of it.

Father said he would mention something about this at all the Masses, suggesting they try and keep the noise level down.

There was complaints about the piano being in the way of the altar and something should be done about this.

There's a new writer for the websites The Weekly Word, her name is Stella Armstrong and has being going to the church for just 6 months and is from Manila.

Peace and Justice committee are going to be concentrating on human trafficking and are thinking about putting a flier in the bulletin regarding this issue.

Closing Prayer
Father John led the closing prayer

Meeting Adjourned at 7:00 pm

Next meeting is January 21st at 6:00 pm in the Parish Center.

Minutes prepared by Patti LaRue, Recording Secretary