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MEETING MINUTES
Genesis Vicariate Pastoral Council Combined Meeting
7 p.m. ~ May 11th, 2009
St. Anne Parish
AGENDA:
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Opening Prayer
-
Vicar’s Meeting Report
-
Tracking Committee Updates
-
Open Discussion
VICAR'S MEETING REPORT
After the Opening Prayer led by Fr.
Bondy, the AOD Representative, Jim Kiefer, AOD
Representative, gave the Vicar’s Meeting Report. A
task force has been established to evaluate the
Central Services of the Archdiocese. The
Archbishop wants to be sure that the downtown offices
are necessary and providing needed help to the parishes.
Another taskforce is looking at
combining the Prysbyteral Council and the Council of
Vicars. Should there be only one group to take care of
the needs of the priests and Vicariate? Cannon
Law stipulates that each diocese have a Prysbyteral
Council. The Council of Vicars was added as a
laison between the Archdiocese and the parishes.
TRACKING COMMITTEE/PASTORAL PLANNING
Archbishop Vigneron is very interested
in the merging and clustering of parishes. Now, he would
like to see developed a method of broadening the
pastoral planning that would make parishes and schools
more effective. This process entails more than
just closing parishes and schools.
The uniting of St. Cletus and Our
Lady of Grace’s communities has been going quite well.
The Hmong parishioners from Our Lady of Grace are a very
active, young and spiritual. They have been meeting at
St. Cletus for Masses and events. There is no merging or
clustering immediately planned, but talks between the
two groups are ongoing.
It was suggested to Fr. Wesley at a
Tracking Committee meeting that our Vicariate Pastoral
Council look at the possibility of breaking into
subcommittees as we look at the many different
ministries and activities going on within the Vicariate.
For example, an Evangelization subcommittee would be
formed which would gather information and investigate
what ecumenical activities are going on in our
Vicariate, visiting other places of worship within the
Vicariate and possibly invite speakers to address the
group. The four topics to be covered, Youth Ministry,
Evangelization, Stewardship and Catholic schools.
came from our original Pastoral planning. Fr.
Schulte expressed his concern about “enlivening” things
in the parishes when collections are down. Two weeks
previously, he had been to a meeting downtown, entitled
“How to Survive a Financial Crisis”. It seems to him
that we’re more in a “survival mode” than a “thriving
mode”. He also questioned how we can survive a financial
crisis through the merging/clustering phase when
parishes are having a difficult time just making their
budgets.
Fr. Wesley’s impression of the
Archbishop’s idea of Pastoral Planning is more than just
“who’s closing what, who’s merging and downsizing?”
although it is a necessary part of it. The pastors also
need to look at what they’re doing to enliven their own
parishes as well as what they’re doing in terms of
clustering and downsizing. After a great deal of
discussion, it came down to the idea that “you’ve got to
do the best you can with what you have”, as that’s all
anyone can really do.
When the Archbishop spoke at the
Central Offices in January, he said he wanted to develop
a an over-all mission for the whole Archdiocese.
Schools and all types of religious education would
figure strongly into this mission. He spoke highly of
catechists and the importance of priesthood vocations.
Another key area is the importance of cultural diversity
within the life of the church. At present, over 50% of
our Archdiocese is composed of people from other
nations. (Currently there are 17 different cultures
within the Archdiocese of Detroit, the largest portion
being Hispanic.)
Fr. Sid Eckert noted that he had
attended a meeting of the North Macomb Vicariate and
they hold quarterly meetings and the subcommittees
handle the research and development of the different
areas of pastoral planning. He suggested that we speak
with their Vicar to see how this arrangement is working.
Jim Kiefer offered to speak with them, as he is a
liaison to that Vicariate also. For example, there is a
committee on lay-ministry which sponsors people (up to a
quarter of the tuition cost) who are pursuing
certification in various areas of parish ministry. It
was also noted that each member of the Vicariate
Pastoral Council in this vicariate is well prepared and
maintains constant contact with their own parish council
before coming to the quarterly Vicariate meeting. It’s a
much more effective way of doing business, planning and
being fiscally responsible. Fr. Andy stated that we
aren’t making any definitive decisions at this meeting,
but asked the members to discuss if we should develop a
similar model. He used the example of planning a
retreat. He noted that the Christian Service Outreach
was a great example of this type of effort within our
own Vicariate. We all saw a need in this area, so Jim
Kiefer and his staff designed the Outreach Survey and
compiled the responses to create a detailed map of what
services each parish offers.
The Prysbyteral Council and the Vicars
are the two clerical sources of information for the
Archbishop. Historically, the Prysbyteral Council does
the official groundwork but they don’t meet with anyone
else. The Vicar’s Council was set up to be the liaison
between the Archdiocese and the parishes. With this in
mind, Fr. Wesley stated he isn’t sure what the outcome
will be. The discussion will resume at the next
Council of Vicars meeting in the Fall.
Richard Palmer, St. Edmund’s rep,
stated that what is happening is common with a lot of
organizations. It’s many parishes, Parish Council
doesn’t work on every problem within the parish; they
have commissions and organizations that handle
individual situations. Then they report their
findings back to the Parish Council. Fr. Wesley stated
that if we wanted to do that we would have to all be
involved beyond our monthly meetings in areas such as
Youth Ministry,, Evangelization. Fr. Schulte noted that
we’re in a dilemma; if we’re going to have these
subcommittees, we’re going to need volunteers to fill
them. The parish pastors aren’t at every VPC meeting and
not all parishes are sending representatives. He
suggested that we’ll need to go back to the parishes and
get new volunteers.
Mike Kosztreba, Council President,
stated that sometimes the members of the Council feel
like they have a purpose and other times they feel like
a scapegoats. As a group, parishes are closing and if
they ask for support, we’re here for them. We may not be
happy if a parish is merging or closing, but as a
group, the Vicariate Pastoral Council can only give
moral support. He also said subcommittees are a great
thing but you have to have the people to work on them
and do the job the right way. Trudy Gorski, St.
Cletus’ rep, said that as long as she’s been on the VPC,
which has been about 12 years, that Youth Ministry has
always been the #1 priority of the Council. She noted
that there was an ad in the Michigan Catholic for a DRE
and asked Msgr. Rice if there was any response. He said
there were some applicants and they were in the process
of interviewing them. Trudy stated that this is a good
start in working towards a good youth ministry within
our Vicariate. She also said that in our reaching out
and sharing our resources, this could help all of the
parishes in this area.
After much discussion about the
subject, Fr. Wesley said he is very proud of the work he
hears we are doing within the parishes and what we’ve
accomplished thus far. He suggests that since we don’t
know what’s going to happen between the Prysbyteral and
Council of Vicars, we will put this discussion on hold
and keep it as an agenda item for the meeting in
September. In the meantime, we should think about the
VPC’s direction during the summer break and discuss it
when we return in the fall. Mike Kosztreba suggested
that we rate the 4 areas we need to work on in order to
determine what we need to work on first when we
reconvene.
Jim Kiefer said for each area, there is a corresponding
office downtown that can be of service: an
Evangelization team; a 5-member office that works with
Youth Ministry; and the Christian Service staff. Each of
these departments will help us set up and organize our
subcommittees and programs. We could also have a copy of
the North Macomb’s VPC guidelines and model ours after
theirs. They may even be willing to send a
representative out to speak with our group. Msgr. Rice
said we need to do things together between our parishes,
such as a common mission during Lent that would help us
come together as a Vicariate.
After much discussion amongst the
representatives, this area was tabled until the next
meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS/OPEN DISCUSSION
You can now
access the VPC site at its new address:
www.GenesisVPC.org.
We are now posting current events held by our Vicariate
parishes (only). 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 next VPC
meeting will be on September 14th, 2009 at
St. Anne Parish.
A
closing prayer was said and the meeting was adjourned at
8:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Monica Archibald
Recording Secretary |
VPC
MEETING MINUTES - MAY 2009 MINUTES - Last Meeting of the
Season
