January 19, 2021
Present:
Fr. Frank Jay, Peter McCarville, Dorothy (Dot) Peters, Don Clark, Patrick Farrell, Mary Pendergast, Courtney Woods, Patti Baird Gill
Next meeting:
February 9, 2021, 6:30 pm, St. Mary’s Holy Family Church
Storm Date: February 10, 2021, 6:30 pm, St. Mary’s Holy Family Church.
1. Announcements
Carm Rix sent her regrets. She will not be able to participate with the Parish Council at this time due to health problems.
2. Discussion
Introductions around the group. Fr. Frank Jay – Parish Priest, Peter McCarville, President of the Knights of Columbus, Dot Peters – President of the CWL & Church Decorator, Don Clark – Evangelical, Patrick Farrell – member of the previous Parish Council, Mary Pendergast – Music Liturgy, Courtnay Woods & Patti Gill – Co Chairs of the Catechism Program.
What is the purpose of the Parish Council? It is to work in close cooperation with the Priest of the Parish to carry out the mission of the Church (Give Glory to God). Fr. Jay would like us to start planning for the Church Reset (Post COVID) coming hopefully in September. The reset would be the return of Religious Education classes, meetings, large gatherings etc.
Fr. Jay reminded us that A Parish Pastoral Council is not a finance committee which is sometimes difficult to not get into. We are to assist in bring the Glory of God to our parish community.
Now is the time for dreaming, planning for future
We all agreed we want a vibrate Christian community.
This meeting our focus was on the immediate issue of the Parish Centre. We did brainstorm ideas on what our vision for our Parish would look like. For example:
Welcome Initiative
Planning to Welcome individuals and families (existing and new) to our church community.
· Welcome Greeters at church entrance – who would introduce themselves and get to know people as they enter the church. Inform them about the parish activities and invite them to meet other.
· Possibly Introduce new comers to our parish if they were open to it at the beginning of Mass or at a social.
· After mass social with tea/coffee every 3-4 months.
Celebrating our Parish Achievements
· Does our parish know the positives within our community today?
o Sunday Virtual Facebook Mass, Bible Study online, Daily Videos that Fr. Jay does. Number of Views each one receives is showing us our outreach today.
o Catechism Program
o Confirmation
o What our Knights of Columbus or CWL is doing?
What can we do to spread our church news to everyone? We discussed posting what is happening in our Parish in bulletin. Possibility doing a bio each week/month on an individual or group. Having someone with journal writing experience was mentioned.
Christian Unity
We are accustomed to doing things by ourselves (Kensington Catholic Church) and we need to look at inviting and working with other Christians denominations in our community.
· Community Picnic (Annually)
· Family Games Night
· Yard Sale
· Seminars (for example: How to Prevent being Scammed)
Celebrating our Children’s Sacraments
What can we do as a Parish to celebrate our children being Confirmed? We should look at having an event or party.
Upcoming Plans
Parish Centre Alternatives
A) Murray Christian Centre
We have been invited by the United Church Parish Council in Kensington to attend their meeting on February 11, 2021. It would be to discuss sharing the Murray Christian Centre in the event that our Parish Centre may be sold. Courtnay Woods had been in touch with their council member(s) and discussed the possibility of using their facility. They were very open and welcoming to the idea of sharing their facility. We have been asked to come with a proposal of what our requirements would be so they can review and provide us with a cost proposal. Courtnay and Mary Pendergast have volunteered to attend their next meeting. Courtnay will be putting together a presentation with an outline of our Parish requirements with timeline for them to consider.
Courtnay will be gathering requirements from our Catechism classes, CWL, Knights of Columbus and Church meeting needs. She will be emailing a spreadsheet for input from each of these groups to provide this information.
Our next Parish Council meeting we will be to review and go over the proposal.
B) Addition on Church
We would like to look at the possibility of adding a small addition to our church for small groups. This space could be for after mass tea/coffee, small study groups, etc. Mary Pendergast is going to follow up on this and come back to the group.
C) Fundraising
We have members in this group that have plenty of experience fundraising. We can look at possible ideas as we continue planning for our group.
Mass with Children
We had discussion on how we could have a Mass with Children with current COVID restrictions. Fr. Jay said we could have it during the week, maximum of 50 people. We were all thinking of having our next one during the Lent/Easter weeks. Dot Peters will look into décor ideas and bring to our next meeting. Patti/Courtnay will be take care of getting children signed up and attending. More planning to follow.
Hardcopies of our Parish Bulletin
Fr. Jay is going to print 30 copies of this upcoming Sunday’s bulletin for parishioners who don’t use a computer and can access online. Mary will distribute at Clinton Lodge, Ask Carol Evans if she could take copies to Kensington Community Care and Dot Peters to those, she knows who might like a copy. We hope to hear how this goes over at our next meeting.
Finance Committee Annual Meeting
The annual Parish Meeting is scheduled for 7 PM on Monday, February 1, 2021. Wednesday, February 3, 2021 is the storm date. Attendance would be good to further discussion on what we should do about our Parish Centre.
3. Roundtable
Mary Pendergast – Exploring small addition to church
Courtnay Woods – Reaching out to groups on space requirements for meetings etc. Preparing proposal for meeting with United Church Council.
Fr. Jay – Printing bulletins for distribution to parishioners
Dot, Mary and Carol Evans – Distribution of bulletins to parishioners (Patti said she could help if needed). Patti will send email to Carol Evans asking if she could do this.
Everyone – Assist Courtnay as required to prepare her proposal. She will be reaching out by email.
Dot Peters will be bringing décor ideas to the next meeting for our next Children’s Mass.
Business for next meeting is appointment of Chairperson and Secretary for our Parish Council.
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