Pastoral Council Minutes

Attending: Rose Braun, Fr. Mark Burger, Steve Gross, Tim Harmon, Jerry Koehne, Kevin Kohls, Brian Krause, Debbie Meinhardt, Claudia Miller, Cindy Muron, Ann Perry, Ray Sousa, Barb Utrata. Visitors: Michael Dailey, Father Linh Nguyen, Sandy Kelly (scribe)

Preliminaries: The Council Meeting opened with the Pastoral Council Prayer at 7:00 p.m. Kevin Kohls led the reflection.

Agenda Items:

1. Approval of minutes from March meeting – all. The April minutes were approved as written.
   
   
2. Music Ministry – Michael Dailey
   1. Overview of Activities and Current Topics. Michael discussed the mission of the music ministry. The membership opportunities include Adult Choir – 22 people, Handbells – 11 people, Youth Chorus – 22 people, Parish Youth Orchestra – 12 people. Praise Teams will be a new opportunity. We currently have 14 active Cantors.
      
      
   2. Issues/Needs/Challenges – Michael stated we need more orchestra members. His biggest challenge is the need of a vocal ensemble for teens.
      
      His goals are: (1) Increase membership in all ensembles; (2) Add more congregational repertoire including bi-lingual; (3) Begin to employ Praise Teams; (4) Produce a Christmas CD “A Child is born” by December; (5) Host music – St. John’s Series.
      
      
   3. Feedback – Rose suggested they place an ad with local high schools to recruit more orchestra people. Michael stated it would be in Eagles Wings. He will also send out emails. Mailings aren’t practical.
      
      Can young adults/teens be added to Adult Choir? Michael stated that for some it works and for some it doesn’t. He feels they need their own choir for social reasons among others.
      
      Tim Harmon stated he has been impressed with the orchestra.
      
      Rose inquired how leadership is planned for the new groups that Michael intends to begin with the music ministry growing as it is. Michael hopes a leader will emerge in the new groups as we had previously with Danielle and the Saturday 5 p.m. group.
      
      Michael said the parish needs this type of music ministry choir as the choirs need to start young for the future.
      
      Michael does need more volunteers/leaders. He is very optimistic.
      
      A comment concerned bi-lingual music – this will require additional work by the choir and they will need help with this. Michael stated these songs would be Vietnamese and English. Work will be very slow.
      
      
3. Discussion on “Pastoral Administrator” position – Fr. Mark/All
   
   
   1. Father Mark reported three Parochial Vicars are being ordained this spring.
      
      
   2. Five mega parishes will soon be meeting. That number could grow.
      
      
   3. A discussion was held on possibly getting an Administrator to help the priest. This possibly could be a shared position by the other mega parishes. Father discussed the importance of the priest to be able to pray and preach. These are his two most important responsibilities. He also must take care of people day to day and this year he will preside at 15 confirmations in Deanery along with his other responsibilities.
      
      
   4. Father Mark asked the Council to come up with the questions he should be asking as the parishes decide if such a position might work as well as possible interview questions they may ask candidates for a Parish Administrator position. He would like to have this list by the next Pastoral Council Meeting.
      
      Debbie Meinhardt suggested perhaps they could form brainstorming groups. Brian Krause, Rose Braun and Debbie will facilitate these groups.
      
      
   5. Father Mark discussed the reason Bingo has been cancelled. He explained he would normally have brought this decision to the Council, but time was of the essence as they were out of supplies and Charlie Hake could no longer run the Bingo. The Finance Committee decided to cancel Bingo immediately as it was no longer making money.
      
      
4. Dead Trees – Tim Harmon
   
   
   1. The Colorado Blue Spruces planted in Fr. Ray’s honor have died. He suggested we consider a different kind of tree – perhaps a Honey Locust. Tim will talk to Kirt Robb, our Maintenance Supervisor, about this.
      
      
5. Other Comments
   
   
   1. Rose reported Linda Kane asked if we could change our June 2nd event. A priest is coming from Africa and will be here for the June 21 and 22nd masses. She would like Council to think about providing some sort of entertainment for him on June 17.
      
      
   2. Fingerprinting – Kevin Kohls stated St. John’s is no longer doing this. St. John’s has provided this service for a number of years. With the increasing number of requests from all groups requiring fingerprinting, it is no longer feasible for us to provide the service. St. Max will now be handling fingerprinting.
      
      
   3. Cindy Muron asked for opinions on publishing the PC ballot. Council agreed a double-sided sheet of paper would be appropriate.
      
      
   4. There will be no July Pastoral Council Meeting.
      
      
6. Adjournment and Closing Prayer of Thanksgiving. – Brian Krause.
   
   

Next Meeting: Monday, June 2, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. at the home of Rose Braun.

-- Reflection by Cindy Muron

-- Prayer of Thanksgiving by Tate Cooper