VPC MEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 2009

MEETING MINUTES

Genesis Vicariate Pastoral Council Combined Meeting

7 p.m. ~ February 9^th, 2009

St. Anne Parish

AGENDA:

1. Christian Service Presentation

2. Vicar’s Report

3. Tracking Committee Meeting

4. AOD Rep – Jim Kiefer

5. Announcements/Open Discussion

CHRISTIAN SERVICE PRESENTATION

The meeting was opened with a prayer at 7 p.m. said by newly retired Deacon George Posavetz of St. Mark Parish. Council President, Mike Kostrzeba was unable to attend because he recently had surgery and our prayers are with him.

Jackie Palmer, Christian Service Coordinator of St. Sylvester Parish, read a statement to the council about her efforts to hold a luncheon for Christian Service members of surrounding parishes to discuss coordination of outreach programs and how to combine efforts/energy to be more effective. Unfortunately, the meeting never happened due to the lack of response. Ms. Palmer gave an eloquent speech about the resistance she’s encountered and two epiphanies she had while trying to figure out why people wouldn’t participate. First: while parishes are speaking of clustering, merging and closing, people feel helpless. Secondly: people are resistant to change.

She pointed out that our church communities are already changing and those who built the parishes are either gone or would like to reap the benefits of their efforts and turn the reins over to a new generation (whose numbers are diminishing). People think things are fine the way they are and want them to stay that way. She encouraged the pastors to get their parish families together socially in an effort to get to know one another before clustering and merging happens, because inevitably it WILL happen. She also stated that together we can make a larger, stronger family to share each other’s talents and resources. (Ms. Palmer’s entire speech is available online at www.GenesisVPC.org on the February 2009 Minutes Page). Her presentation was met with applause and sparked much discussion about the situation.

Fr. Andy stated that we should coordinate our Christian Services because being more organized we will help us to be more effective. The Outreach Services survey recently completed by the AOD’s Pastoral Ministries Office is a great resource and to help us accomplish this, and the pastors should get behind it to see if there can be a meeting of the people involved in various outreach programs throughout the Vicariate to discuss common difficulties and problems.

Many council members stated that although it is a noble effort to further coordinate these services, most people involved in the outreach services are either too busy or too old to keep attending more meetings and that it’s difficult to get new people involved. One of the representatives stated that he was never was informed of Ms. Palmer’s invitation and how this is indicative of the difficulty receiving information from their parish office. A lot of the reps agreed that they hadn’t heard of the invitation either.

After much discussion, Fr. Andy suggested that we revisit this subject at the March meeting and perhaps form a steering committee. He also asked Ms. Palmer once again contact the parishes (using the Outreach Survey information & VPC Member Database), reschedule the meeting for Christian Service workers and then report back to the council.

VICAR’S REPORT

ARCHBISHOP’S REMARKS:

The new Archbishop, Allen H. Vigneron, met with the Vicar’s committee for about and hour and listened to Vicars discuss the blessings and improvements needed for the Archdiocese. The Archbishop responded to each of the Vicaras'observations. The Archbishop emphasized Pastoral Planning; he wants to have consultative groups at every level of the parish, vicariate and Diocese. He is very open to consulting and likes to listen to a lot of different people before making a decision on a subject.

The Archbishop also mentioned that we need to have a realistic understanding of what we can do and what our resources are. We cannot measure ourselves by too high of a standard because by doing so, we create higher level of stress for ourselves. Parishes have to assess their resources (personnel, finances, etc.)  before creating a goal that is doomed to failure.

A major concern of the Archbishop is the lack of Mass attendance by the average Catholic. He believes that Mass is the touchstone of our lives as Catholics and a lot are not attending the Mass regularly.

FINANCE COMMITTEE:

Fr. Andy is a member of the Vicars Finance Committee heard a report on how much money is owed to the Archdiocese by various parishes. For example, the report included how much was owed to the Michigan Catholic Conference for insurance, payment on the loans parishes have from the Archdiocese, taxes not being paid, etc.  There are other parishes that are in the rears to other vendors such as utility companies.  Furthermore, some parishes are not submitting budget and financial reports.  The assistant bishops and Vicars have no authority to enforce parishes to pay their bills and submit their reports. Archbishop Vigneron feels that instead of being hard-handed, our support and encouragement would produce greater results.

INCREASED USE OF ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION FROM THE ARCHDIOCESE:

To help save money the Archdiocese will be sending more information electronically. The new system is not quite in place yet and is tentatively expected to be running September 2009. When it is working properly the weekly mail packets and other information sent from the AOD will be done so on the internet. The parish secretary or pastor will then have to download the information and distribute it to the intended recipients. Each parish will be assigned their own private password (not shared by other parishes), so that, they will be able to access their own budget, financial and other reports which will also be filed online. A “Help Desk” is up and running and is available by emailing ITThelpdesk@AOD.org.

SALARY INCREASES

The Vicars recommended that since our teachers did not receive an increase last year, they receive a 1.5% one-time increase to their base salary.   The diocese realizes that parishes cannot pay as much as the public schools can and recognizes that the “step program” pay system is out of reach for many parishes. Michelle Shepherd, St. Clement School Principal, noted that it has been only since 3 years ago that their teachers were paid according to the diocesan scale.  

The Vicars suggested that individual parishes will need to assess their own financial situation, review the AOD’s recommendations and determine for themselves what they can offer to their staffs. Furthermore, the priests’ base pay is very low, so the diocese proposed an increase of 2% to base and 3% above that amount. Again, it is up to each parish to decide if they can afford to give increases. Fr. Andy noted that increases should be given equally to all employees in a given parish, and if the pastor cannot give the employees raises, than he shouldn’t take one either. 

TRACKING COMMITTEE MEETING

There will be a Tracking Committee meeting February 24^th at the Sacred Heart Seminary. Steve Fallon, St. Sylvester, Deacon Stevens, Trans-OLCH, and Tom Lippert, St. Louise, will accompany Fr. Andy to the meeting as our Vicariate representatives and will be discussing the status of the cluster/merger plans.

Discussions are ongoing between St. Cletus and the growing Vietnamese community that is interested in using the St. Cletus facilities for their worship/social and activities.

Steve Fallon noted that St. Sylvester is not in the process of merging, but is trying to ‘piggyback’ their programs with St. Edmunds such as religious ed. He gave a “Together In Faith” report stating that St. Sylvester is a long-standing parish with strong ties to the community. Their strong outreach programs, a progressive worship commission, well-structured Stewardship Commission and vibrant Education Department cannot continue with declining parish enrollment. Their Parish Council recently took steps to form an Evangelization Commission to study the declining active parishioner base and explore ways to spread the Word of God to the community. They’ve had to address financial issues with many of their programs so they are reaching out to surrounding parishes (St. Edmund & St. Martin DePorres) to come together to see what programs can be combined (this not only includes religious programs but services such as landscaping, snow removal, etc.) to effect a reduction in cost.

ARCHDIOCESE REP JIM KIEFER

Jim distributed the updated results of the Outreach Survey as both a spreadsheet and color-coded map and explained how the information is formatted. He requested each parish to review their information and send any corrections or updates to the Recording Secretary. The completed survey is available by contacting your parish office or by going the website’s “Outreach Services” page at www.GenesisVPC.org.

Jim reminded the council that those that haven’t done so need to choose their cluster partner. If they don’t and something happens to the pastor, the Archdiocese will choose their partner for them. He also distributed copies of the Michigan Catholic Conference’s “2009-2010 Advocacy Priorities”, which is available to all parish members. This is the ‘political arm’ of the diocese within the entire state. Every 2 years the MCC Board of Directors approves and advocacy agenda for the forthcoming legislative session. They are concentrating on 8 policy categories: Religious Freedom, Human Life, Children & Families, Health Care, Education, Economic Justice and Regulatory Policies, Restorative Justice and Federal Issues. For more information or free copies of the publication, please contact Beverly Starrak in the MCC Public Policy Division at (800) 395-5565 or email at: bstarrak@micatholicconference.org.

ANNOUNCEMENTS/OPEN DISCUSSION

The VPC website is undergoing some changes! You can now access the site at its new address: www.GenesisVPC.org. One change is that we will be posting current events held by our Vicariate parishes. There is a form available on the website “Current Events” page to submit your event. Copies of the form were distributed and if you need additional copies, please contact Monica at (517) 552-6492 or by email at Monica@instantassistant.com. Also, if you have any suggestions for the new site, such as features you think would be helpful, please let us know!

The RCIA Committee is offering a workshop “When Other Christians Become Catholic” featuring Fr. Paul Turner The goal of the workshop is to help catechumenate teams think more carefully about the baptismal unity of all Christians as parishes reach out to the unbaptized through their RCIA processes. Two opportunities are being offered at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary: Tuesday, March 10^th from 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm and Wednesday, March 11^th from 9 am until Noon. The cost is $10 per person. For more information please call (313) 883-8768.

The “Castelot Summer Scripture Conference” is being held at the St. John’s Retreat Center in Plymouth, MI on Monday, June 22^nd thru Thursday, June 25^th. David Neuhaus, S.J., will be focusing on “Reading Mark Again”, and Jan Michael Joncas will be presenting “The Cries of the Human Heart” and “Jewish Psalms in Christian Worship”. For more information please contact the Office for Pastoral Ministries at (313) 237-5954.

The Office for Pastoral Ministries is also sponsoring the F. Gerald Martin “Pastoral Ministry Conference” at, Monday August 3^rd thru Wednesday, August 5^th, 2009 at Madonna University in Livonia, MI. Ronald Rolheiser will present “Good News Unleashed: Being Catholic in a Secular Society”.  Accommodations will be available at the St. John’s Retreat Center. Both events are being co-sponsored by the Clergy Life Ministries. For more information please call (313) 237-5954.

St. Sylvester Parish presents their Annual Lenten Fish Fry at the Fr. Bretz Social Hall on Ash Wednesday and ALL of the Fridays during Lent from Noon until 7 pm. 

The Archdiocese of Detroit Women’s Ministry Invites you to a Women’s Lenten Retreat: “At the Foot of the Cross: The Passion of Mary” by Retreat Leader, Sr. Mary Finn, HVM on Saturday, March 7^th from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, 2701 Chicago Blvd. , Detroit , MI . The event is $35 per person and includes lunch and retreat. Please RSVP by March 2^nd and if you have any questions contact womensministry@aod.org or call 313-237-5762

A Saturday Evangelization Series “The Call of St. Paul: Evangelization & Building Communities of Disciples” at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary from 10 a.m. until Noon. Together you will discuss the letters of St. Paul and discover the call to boldly live & spread the faith. There is no cost to attend and the 2009 dates are Feb. 21^st, March 21^st, April 18^th and May 16^th. A free-will donation for refreshments will be collected. For more information, please call 313-237-5702.

“Seminar Style Marriage Preparation Programs 2009”, contains numerous seminars taking place throughout next year. The Bishops of Michigan have suggested these topics to be included: Marriage as a Sacrament, Conflict Resolution, Careers, Family of Origin, Communication, Children, Commitment and Church, Intimacy, Sex and Procreation, Understanding of Sexuality and Marriage and Natural Family Planning. For a list of the programs offered, their dates and times, please contact the Office for Family Ministry at 313-237-5892.

As a reminder, the combined Clergy & VPC meetings at St. Anne each month at 7 p.m. and the schedule is as follows:

• March 9, 2009

• May 11, 2009

• June 8, 2009 (if necessary)

A closing prayer was said and the meeting was adjourned at 8:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Monica Archibald

Recording Secretary