|
JANUARY 2008 MINUTES
MEETING MINUTES
Genesis Vicariate
Pastoral Council Meeting
7 p.m. ~
January 20, 2008
St. Cletus Parish
AGENDA:
- Opening
Prayer
- Attendance
Check (“Roll Call”)
- Report From
Vicar’s Meeting
- Tracking
Committee Updates
- 2008 Meeting
Schedule
- Open Forum /
Announcements
OPENING
PRAYER
Mike
Kostrzeba said the Opening Prayer and welcomed us to a
new year of Vicariate Parish Council meetings. He also
thanked Fr. Sidney Eckert of St. Cletus for so
generously welcoming the Genesis VPC group to their
parish and for their warm hospitality.
ATTENDANCE CHECK (“ROLL CALL”)
A
“Roll Call” was taken to see which parishes had
representation at the meeting. All parishes had at least
one representative except for the following: Our
Lady of Good Counsel, St. Anne (Parish Rep called in
sick), St. Florian, St. Raymond and St. Mark Parishes.
Mr.
Jim Kiefer of the Archdiocese of Detroit was introduced.
He will be taking over Pam Beech’s VPC duties due to her
moving into a new position within the Archdiocese of
Detroit, Central Services.
Mr.
Kiefer is a staff member from the Department of Parish
Life and Services and Director of the Office for
Pastoral Ministries and we are very pleased to have him
as our new AOD Representative!
REPORT FROM VICARS’ MEETING
Bishop
Boyea started the Tracking Committee update by stating
that there will be no pay increases for the Central
Offices this year which may mean that the Parish
staffs may not receive an increase either, but this is
not for certain as of yet. One of the big problems is
that the insurance costs have really gone up.
At the
afternoon Clergy Meeting, the priests were reminded to
submit all of their budgets and financial statements.
The
“Incorporation of Parishes” is temporarily on hold
because a “glitch” at the Lansing level. Hopefully by
the beginning of February, the process will begin again.
The plan is still for each parish to be separately
incorporated with the Moderator of the Curia, Msgr. Zenz;
The Chancellor of the Archdiocese, Msgr. McClory; the
Pastor of the parish and one designated layperson will
comprise the Board of Directors for each parish
corporations. The Pastors are to submit the name of the
layperson to be the Board member. In most cases, but not
all, it will be either the Parish Council President,
Chairman of the Stewardship Committee or someone of that
nature. The choice is up to the Pastor.
The
“Adopt-a-Family” project was also presented at the
Vicar’s Meeting. This program is specifically designed
to help Iraqi families affected by the war. This can be
done by individuals or by parishes and that information
is available on the AOD website.
Fr.
Jim Babcock is heading a committee to help priests
coming from other countries to serve in our diocese.
This program will help foreign priests who want to serve
in our country to become acclimated and this program
will hopefully be in place soon. When these priests come
to the U.S., they often serve for a few years then, if
they want to stay, they can apply to become
“incardinated”.
Fr.
Andy stated that a couple of months ago, all parishes
were asked to submit a statement of what type of
outreach services they provide to the community; for
example, if they have a food pantry, soup kitchen, St.
Vincent DePaul center, etc. A number of the parishes
sent the information to the Archdiocese and they are
trying to consolidate all of the information, including
types of outreach, location, contact information,
frequency of services, zip code they service, etc. Mr.
Kiefer will check with the AOD representative handling
this process for updates and he and the Recording
Secretary will contact the parishes that have not
submitted their statements as of yet. Once completed,
the Archdiocese will provide a copy of the final
document to each parish.
A
presentation by the Chairman of the Chaldean Federation
of America was made for their “Adopt-a-Family” program.
It is a voluntary program where individuals can “adopt”
a Chaldean family and they will receive a packet of
information about the family they are assisting.
Contributors get the signature of the family that they
actually received the money donated and that it’s not
going for administrative costs or other expenses. The
form is available from the Archdiocese, your parish or
on the VPC website. If you’re interested in more
information about this program, you can also contact the
Chaldean Federation of America and request they come to
your parish or organization to give their presentation.
You can reach them by phone at (248) 851-3023 or visit
their website at:
www.chaldeanfederation.org.
The
Red Cross gave a presentation at the Vicar’s Meeting and
they are encouraging the parishes to hold blood drives.
Due to the closing of many local factories, a major
source of donated blood, they are encouraging parishes
and organizations to hold their own blood drives. As you
know, donated blood is always needed and the reserves
have been running low. Your donation can save a life!
Fr.
Andy stated that there is only $58 in the VPC budget and
the only money really needed is for postage. Previously
there were some difficulties notifying representatives
of meetings so we will be using the US Post Office for
all future mailings in addition to email notifications.
The
Pope will be visiting the US in 2008, as soon as more
information is available we will pass it along to you as
well as how to get tickets to see his Holiness.
The
Regional Bishop visits each parish every 5 years and
Bishop Boyea has already visited a number of parishes
and their parish councils. He has his own schedule of
when he will be doing this, but if your parish would
like him to come sooner or for a specific date or event,
please contact him directly.
The
“Cathedral Endowment Program” has begun and they are
raising money for renovating Blessed Sacrament
Cathedral, the “Mother Church” for our Archdiocese. The
goal is to raise $25,000,000 and they’ve already raised
$20,000,000; they’re now looking to raise the final
$5,000,000 for the Endowment Program. For more
information on how to donate to this program, please
contact them at (313) 883-8657 or download the donation
form from the Archdiocese website,
www.aodonline.org and go to “Giving Opportunities”
then “Cathedral Campaign”.
TRACKING COMMITTEE UPDATE
The
Clergy Tracking Committee has been asked to give a
merger/cluster update. At the February meeting they will
be able to determine if they’re headed in the right
direction. The current parish groupings and updates are
as follows:
e
St Louise &
St. Cletus: The Parish Administrator, Fr. Sidney Eckert,
has been appointed to St. Cletus in compliance with the
recommendation of Bishop Boyea. A “Unity Committee” has
been established between these two parishes that is
comprised of 12 members; 6 from each parish along with
the pastors. They are looking at a cluster date of July
1, 2009 with the understanding that eventually a merger
will occur.
e
Our Lady
Queen of Heaven, St. Raymond and Our Lady of Good
Counsel: The original plan that was submitted
requested that permanent Deacons be assigned to these
parishes by the Cardinal so that neither one would have
to close was not accepted. Instead, it was proposed that
the pastor delegate 2 Deacons to be in charge of the
parishes while he retains canonical authority. The
Deacons who were assigned to St. Raymond and OLGC have
since moved on to other assignments. One pastor is
assigned to OLQH while another is assigned to St.
Raymond and OLGC. They have a “Tri-Parish Council” that
has had meetings and both pastors have exchanged pulpits
so the parishioners get used to seeing both priests.
e
St.
Ladislaus, Transfiguration and Our Lady Help of
Christians: The parishes are moving towards a merger at
a steady pace. There is only one maintenance staff
member and several Parish Leadership Meetings have been
held together. The Mass schedule has been staggered so
that in the event that one priest can easily cover both
parishes should the other not be able to preside. There
is one Polish Mass and one English Mass at each church
and the finances have been kept separate with 2
part-time bookkeepers handling the accounting needs. It
is possible the merger will occur in 2008. The official
title is “Transfiguration/Our Lady Help of Christians”
since they’ve merged and have not come up with a new
name yet because of the fact the merging of all three
parishes is imminent.
e
St. Florian
and Our Lady Queen of Apostles: These two parishes still
have not named a cluster partner, although it has been
suggested that they should merge. St. Florian is run by
the “Society of Christ”, which concentrates on serving
recent immigrants from Poland. Both of them have Charter
Schools. The pastor of OLQA believes that he and his
retired priest (who still resides at the parish) can
handle the parish’s sacramental needs. This parish
handles all of the English-speaking Religious Education
needs for the Hamtramck Public School System along with
students from Transfiguration/OLHC and St. Florian
handles the Polish-speaking Religious Ed needs.
e
St. Mark: At
this time, St. Mark still has no cluster partner.
e
St. Edmund,
St. Sylvester & St. Martin DePorres: These parishes are
strong and each has their own pastor. While there are no
cluster or merger plans at this time, it has been
suggested that these parishes can easily work together
and form a cluster, but that would be something that
would happen very much in the future.
There
was a fire in the rectory of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
The pastor was rescued and the building was extensively
damaged.
St.
Louis the King Parish has a canonical pastor who is over
70 years old and has requested to stay in this position
for the foreseeable future. It has been proposed that
St. Louis the King will join the Transfiguration-Our
Lady Help of Christians merger after he retires.
Ascension Parish has closed and been merged with St.
Clement Parish and the sale of Ascension is nearing
finalization.
St.
Leonard & St. Dorothy have merged and been renamed “St.
Therese of Avila” and they are now clustered with St.
Clement Parish. St. Terese of Avila do not have a plan
to merge with St. Clement. It was brought up at the
meeting that the parishioners of the newly formed “St.
Therese of Avila” are dissatisfied with the way the
merger occurred and the subsequent problems with
scheduling masses, contacting their parish
administration, etc. Steps are being taken to resolve
these issues so all 3 parishes (including St. Clement)
can better serve the parishes.
The
topic of Youth Ministry was discussed at the Vicar’s
Meeting. There was an attempt to gather youth ministers
from the Vicariate parishes to form a “Youth Ministry
Council”. Fr. Andy spoke with Tom Salas, the Campus
Minister of Macomb County Community College, and there
was at least one meeting, but no further information is
available at this time.
There
are 2 Catholic Schools in our Vicariate; St. Clement and
St. Anne. Representatives from St. Clement have not
attended the VPC meetings nor has a report been given by
either school on the overall picture of their needs and
future plans, although it has been requested several
times.
Jim
Kiefer, Director of Pastoral Ministries addressed the
group. He is looking forward to being of service to the
Genesis VPC and working as the AOD
coordinator/facilitator. Mr. Kiefer has a history with
our Vicariate as he used to teach at St. Clement High
School. He made us aware of the celebration held at the
Cathedral honoring Martin Luther King. Also, on February
5th some of the Ministers from our Vicariate
were honored at a Celebration of Certification where
they either became new ministers or renewed their
certification.
2008 MEETING SCHEDULE
The
meeting schedule is as follows:
February 25, 7 p.m. - Our Lady Queen of Heaven Parish
March
- Easter Break
April
14, 7 p.m. – St. Mark Parish
May
19, 6 p.m. Combined Clergy & VPC Dinner Meeting – St.
Ladislaus Parish
OPEN FORUM/ANNOUNCEMENTS
Sister
Angelica Zajkowski, CSFN, of Transfiguration-OLHC is
offering Art Classes and taking on new students all the
time! For more information please contact her at (313)
461-4878.
St.
Sylvester Parish will be having a Fish Fry on Ash
Wednesday and every Friday through Good Friday. You can
eat your dinner there, get a carry out and there may be
a possibility of evening home delivery for senior
citizens within the area. For more information, please
contact the Rectory at (586) 751-3636.
St.
Terese of Avila is hosting a Fish Fry each Friday of
Lent. Their St. Vincent DePaul program has moved into
the back of the St. Leonard Campus. Also, the Senior
Meals are still happening at the St. Leonard Campus.
The
Deaf Center Community is now having Masses at St.
Leonard at Noon on Sundays, and is open for the whole
community to attend, as they are also spoken as well as
given in Sign Language.
St.
Clement is hosting a Fish Fry each Friday of Lent from 4
– 7 p.m. For more prices or information, please contact
the parish office at (586) 757-7500.
As per
Fr. Eckert’s recommendation, we will be contacting all
of the parishes to determine what special happenings
each is offering for Lent, whether it be a Fish Fry,
Stations of the Cross, special Masses or speakers, etc.
Once gathered, we will make this information available
to all of the parishes and post it on the website.
The
meeting was closed with a prayer by Bishop Boyea at 9:20
p.m. |
VPC
MEETING MINUTES - JANUARY 2008
