Parish Directory – As many of you may have seen the inserts in our bulletins, we are planning to publish a new parish directory. The last one was published in 2006 and our children have grown, some families have grown larger, and we have some new families joining us. We had first considered this late last year, but the Advisory Board thought that we should aim for this Fall, when most of us are back from vacation. The Company that will be taking the portraits is Lifetouch. It is also the same company that takes portraits of our students and faculty. We found them to be the most flexible and easiest to work with among the different vendors out there. I want to thank the Welcome Committee for coordinating this event.
In order for the parish family album to be complete, we would like to invite all of you to participate. Beginning next Sunday, volunteers will be around after masses to help you sign up for a time to take your picture, so bring your appointment books. Lifetouch will be out here 12 days, in the weekdays and on weekends from September 29th to October 16th. We hope you will participate. Lifetouch will give each participating family a complimentary 8x10 portrait and a parish directory. The way they will cover their costs and make some profit is, of course, to sell you portraits. That’s why the Advisory Board and Welcome Committee thought the Fall schedule would work better for us, because then you can also use these portraits for the upcoming Christmas Season as Christmas cards or gifts. It should be a win-win for everyone and I hope you will participate to make our parish family album complete.
Staff/Lay Leaders Retreat – Last Thursday (8/25), the parish staff and some lay leaders took time away from the office to reflect on our ministry. Although the Advisory Board helped us identify our strategic vision for our parish, however, our time away was simply to look at what was going well and what needed attention in our daily work. We reflected on the various ministries in our parish and evaluated each one. The one that scored the highest was the Welcome Committee. The lowest was high school youth ministry and young adult ministry.
With approval from the Finance Committee, we will look to find a suitable candidate for this part time position to replace Sr. Necy. We also discussed ways to strengthen the spirituality of our parish, which was what the parish survey, done by the Advisory Board, revealed as one of the most important priorities in our parish. A program called, “Why Catholic?” distributed by Renew International, was discussed. It is designed for small groups (10-12 people), where a lay leader using the materials prepared, can guide discussions on the different topics of our faith. So often, we may hear of critiques of our faith, but feel inadequate to respond. In the context of prayer and a small faith community, we can discuss issues that are near and dear to us. Overall, the retreat was helpful for us to gauge our effectiveness so that we can improve.
Please Keep in your prayers – the mother of our principal passed away earlier last week (8/30). Mrs. Carol Grewal, our principal, returned to Ireland to be with her family. Her mother’s name is Theo Davis. Please hold her and her family in your prayers.
Peace,
Fr. Dan
