This being the first meeting for the pastoral council for the year' and meeting on Saturday, we began with Holy Mass in church at the 8:00 am mass.
Present: Msgr. Sork, Dave Kurt, Shirley Giltzow, John Barbieri, Christina Britt, Pat Dahlberg, Ann Armstrong, Heather Cassano, Viktor Rzeteljski, Kathy Keller, Jay DeMiranda, Kyle Felsman, and Mia Counts.
Absent: Michael Jules
John Barbieri led the Council in the First Fifteen reflection.
The meeting opened at 9:00 am with the First Fifteen Reflection led by John Barbieri.
This was followed by a welcome from our chairman, John Barbieri, then an around the table with self-introductions by all of the members.
Pastor's Welcome and Report
Msgr. Sork gave some history on the history of Pastoral Councils. They came out of Vatican II, in drafting the Constitution, 2nd chapter, "Lumen Gentium" the church as people of God. This document stressed the role of people in the church. Pastoral Councils then evolved out of this council which says that people should be involved collaboratively to develop direction. The Los Angeles Archdiocese mandates Pastoral Councils for all parishes. The Pastoral Council sets the vision, and then the pastoral staff has input, and then carries it out. A pastoral plan was written by and for SJF in 1999, and reviewed in 2004. Each year the pastoral council sets action plans. The Msgr. then reported on some developments that occurred over the summer. We have 2 new priests. Fr. Keith Byrne joined us as assistant pastor. He is 40 years old, ordained for 4 years, and hails from Northern Ireland. Fr. Peter Tran is visiting us from Viet Nam. He is here to study theology at a school in Upland, and is here also to gain experience in parish life.
Father then gave a report on the progress of the Building Plan. The City of RPV required us to erect silhouette poles to outline the new church and buildings. The first meeting with the City Planning Commission was quite contentious with objections from our neighbors. That meeting ended at 12:40 am. The commission believed that our tower was too high, and had many questions on parking. We then redesigned the church making it somewhat smaller, reducing the height, and repositioning it further away from the intersection of Crest and Crenshaw. At the second meeting the commission still had many questions. They directed us to: 1) have open meetings with all of the surrounding neighbors, 2) conduct a sound study relating to the sound level of the proposed bells, 3) conduct a sun/shadow study as to any effect on the neighboring houses. The next meeting with the planning commission is on 9-23-08. We may succeed at this next meeting, but must realize that the opposition might appeal to the RPV City Council.
The search for a new Youth Minister is continuing. Interviews were conducted, but none were chosen. The committee consists of a few concerned adults, and two youth members.
At the request of the Archdiocese, we have made an interest free loan of $100,000 for 5 years to the Archdiocese to defray the cost of the large civil settlement against them. This came after many months of discernment and collaboration with the Pastoral Council, the Finance Council, and the general population of the entire parish.
Parish Staff Welcome
Dave distributed a parish organizational chart along with another list of all of the members of the Pastoral Staff, and a partial list of their operational functions. Dave also mentioned many of the activities that occur here at the parish on a daily basis. He mentioned one notable outreach that receives almost no mention, is that the parish provides meeting space for Alcoholics Anonymous groups 5 nights each week.
Pastoral Plan Mission
John reviewed the Pastoral Plan Mission statement stressing the role of the Pastoral Council members to increase communication with all of the parishioners at large to provide information to the council and to the pastor to provide for the spiritual welfare of all. John urged all of the council members to contact members of the pastoral staff at any time to ask for information on any subject. John related that he has always met with excellent cooperation from the staff.
Review of Pastoral Plan
Ann Armstrong briefly reviewed the pastoral plan, and distributed the action plan for 2008-2009. She explained that the ad hoc committee had met several times over the summer to develop these action items. The committee consists of Ann, John B., Dave, Shirley, Mia, Viktor, and Heather. The monitoring of the pastoral plan is the primary function of the Pastoral Council. Ann asked all to review the action items, and ask questions or give suggestions directly to Ann by October 1. She will coordinate and revise the action items as necessary. They will be brought back to our meeting on 10-1 for approval by the Pastoral Council. Ann then took volunteers for individual pillar items.
Priorities for the Year
John spoke on parish outreach and public affairs. He suggested that the RPV Planning Commission appears to be an intelligent thoughtful group, even though giving the possibly giving the appearance of being obstructionist on our project as well as others. If our project is eventually appealed to the City Council, John believes that we need to make them aware of all the good works and outreach that the parish performs. He suggests an ad hoc committee to prepare for this. This is inherent to our pastoral plan because it is our new house of worship. John asked all members to pray about this during the coming month. Msgr. Sork added that the project is largely directed at developing youth facilities for coming generations. Some discussion ensued as to problems with the Rolling Hills Covenant Church and Marymount College projects.
John mused as to why we don't have parish wide events, e.g. a parish picnic, an outdoor concert, etc. John asked the members to give this some thought and bring ideas back to the next meeting. John mentioned to Mass of the Blessing of the Animals, here at our church on Oct. 4, at 11 am. Ann suggested that PC members visit or join various parish ministries, particularly those relating to the area in which the member's action plans fall.
Viktor queried as to whether the Pastoral Council has any particular role in monitoring the financial situation of the parish. Dave explained that the Finance Council is very active and an astute group in this area. The Pastoral Council is certainly entitled to basically all of the overall financial information, and observed that the Pastoral Council was very directly involved in the decision to help in the Archdiocesan settlement matter.
After the break John announced that Karen Joostema had to resign her position on the council due to their pending move to the Washington DC area. John would like to solicit new members to be nominated to go through the voting process, and asked all members to think of who might be a good candidate. We will have nomination forms at our table at the Time and Talent Festival. New nominations will be added to the nomination of Flo McTaggart to bring to a vote. The existing nominating committee will handle this.
Pat asked if parishioners who had pledged to the campaign have decreased their regular weekly contributions. Dave explained that this has happened, but not to any great extent. There have not been any campaign pledges that have been formally retracted, but several people have fallen behind on their payment schedules.
The meeting was closed with the prayer to St. John Fisher, and the meeting adjourned at
12:20 pm.
Dave Kurt