The Pastoral Council met Thursday, May 9th at 7:00 p.m. in Nativity Hall.
- Membership lists - A small committee is working together with a parallel committee from St. Francis Xavier church in Brunswick to help coordinate the official parish membership list, the Southern Cross mailing list, the diocesan BAA list and the diocesan chancery office's mailing list. All these lists should agree. There is also some confusion about who is a member of what parish, and some people are listed as registered members of several parishes. Letters will be sent out in the near future to all members to verify our records.
- Bishop's Annual Appeal - We are working very hard to get 100% participation for the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. Currently we are at 81.58% participation, by far the highest in the diocese. As of May 9, members have pledged $12,090, which exceeds our goal by $3,749. These funds will be returned to the general parish operating fund. Only 14 families from our parish have not responded at all.
- It was decided to continue to sell the Egg Rolls & BBQ Sticks from the Blessing of the Fleet. Please see Gloria if you are interested.
- We appointed an Ad Hoc Committee working together to update the Nativity Pastoral Council constitutions and bylaws. (Committee members: George Trexler, Jan Seavey, Fr. Bob Showers, Gloria Whatley). We will delay new council elections until they have completed this task.
- The Finance Committee (rep.: Jane Heying) is working on next year’s budget and will meet again on May 22 at 9:00 a.m.
- Both the Pastoral Council and the Finance Council have proposed a Long Term Resource Planning Committee, to consist of one or two members of both councils plus other parish members. The LTRPC will look at our buildings and other real assets to better plan long term expnditures, taking into accouont the growth of the parish.
- The Five Loaves & Two Fishes Food Pantry continues to take food and monetary donations to St. Andrews every month. (Nativity's rep.: Oscar Brinckmann)
- Protection of children, youth and vulnerable adults - raising awareness: The Pastoral Council will arrange for a VIRTUS training session at Nativity in the future. Anyone involved in church activities with minors in any way MUST be VIRTUS certified. Beyond this, however, the Pastoral Council and Fr. Bob encourage all parishioners involved to attend a session. You will learn some important things.
- It was decided to hold a yard sale on Saturday, June 1 st . We did not want to do this in July or August because of the hot weather. There is not much time so please bring your donations to the church hall and we will sort and price in the next couple of weeks. We will need volunteers. Please sign up.
- The "Filipino Ministry" will start planning for the St. Lorenzo Festival (held in September) in the near future.
- Fr. Bob and the Pastoral Council will invite the bishop to come to Nativity and hold confirmation here in 2014.
- Theology for Young Catholics will meet in May, either on May 17 or on May 31. (Fr. Bob queried the youth to determine the best date.) The topic will be: Should the Catholic Church ordain women to the priesthood and/or the diaconate?
- The council approved the purchase of a commercial vacuum cleaner, a laser printer, and new chairs for the hall.
- Cleaning - The Nativity church hall is in need of weekly cleaning. It has been very hard to get enough volunteers, since it is a big job. Perhaps it would be better to hire someone. It was decided to collect bids to see if this is a feasible solution.
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