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Saint Peter the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, Libertytown Maryland


Parish Council Mtg Minutes

St. Peter’s Parish Council

October 6, 2009 Meeting Minutes

CALL TO ORDER: Meeting started at 7:10 p.m. in the lower level of the Parish Office Building.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Fr. Jason Worley, Chuck O’Connor, Sandy Ballantine, Ginny Abel, June Schabdach, Anita Gill, Sandy Gordon, Lew Sherman, and Deacon John Martin

MEMBERS ABSENT: Mike Riley, Bob Lilly, Phil Burr, and Mike Horrigan

Chuck O’Connor opened the meeting with prayer.

MINUTES: June Schabdach moved to approve the minutes from the September meeting, Lew Sherman seconded, and the council voted unanimously to approve the minutes.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

  • The council was asked to keep Marsha Lawn in their prayers for healing.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Social Concerns:

  • Anita Gill spoke about the latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, by Pope Benedict XVI. Anita and Ginny Abel discussed the following ideas of how St. Peter’s parish can put the ideals of the encyclical into action:
    • Work for justice in our local community (e.g. Forty Days for Life – parish council members, along with other parishioners, could spend an hour or more in front of the local abortion clinic)
    • Buy from local merchants (e.g. Linganore Winery)
    • Institute a recycling program at the parish
    • As a parish, purchase from companies that are in line with Catholic social teaching (See website: http://www.fightpp.org/show.cfm?page=us).
  • Chuck noted that guidelines from the Archdiocese regarding the encyclical have not been published to date. A discussion occurred regarding revisiting the topic at the Planning Meeting on November 7 and at the upcoming council meetings. We must thoroughly review the encyclical to find which specific “areas” can be addressed by our parish (e.g. resources for the unemployed, contact information for those in need).
  • Anita and Ginny are creating a vision for the focus of the Social Concerns committee. Marybeth Terrell, the Parish Nurse, is interested in joining Anita and Ginny to discuss the needs of the committee. They are in the process of dividing the duties and responsibilities among committee members.
  • Marybeth Terrell is creating a list of parishioners with a medical background.

Development: no report

  • Communications Subcommittee: Phil Burr will chair this subcommittee. Other committee members are Mike Riley and Bob Lilly.

Education:

  • Sandy Ballantine addressed the ongoing need of the religious education departments for an LCD projector. Fr. Jason said that he would be willing to loan his LCD projector until a projector is procured.
  • The Education committee has been formed and consists of the following members: Laura Jones, Stephanie Rubeling, Ken Vaughan, Monica Merkel, the religious education staff, and Sandy Ballantine.
  • The topic of Fair Trade will be addressed at this Sunday's SPY meeting. The evening will begin with a power point presentation on the encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate”, followed by a DVD on Fair Trade Coffee. Meredith Rubeling will give a testimony on her visit to India and Maggie Alspaugh will speak about her missionary work in Jamaica.
  • The SPY teens will be asked to volunteer at a Fair Trade Fair of coffee and chocolate goods obtained through CRS. The Fair is slated to be held the first weekend of December.
  • Anita Gill mentioned that there is a parishioner who is willing to bring in a speaker who works for Project Rachel. Stand-alone projects need to be addressed by Carolyn Nolan.

Evangelization:

  • Sandy Gordon discussed her ongoing attempts to recruit active members to the Evangelization committee.
  • A discussion was held regarding the purchase of educational CDs and pamphlets from Catholic Lighthouse Media (CLM). Sandy presented the different program options available through CLM, including the CD of the Month Club. The council members agreed, with Fr. Jason’s approval, that Sandy should order the Starter Kit for the LCM parish faith raiser program.

Finance: no report. The Finance committee will be meeting soon.

Liturgy:

  • June Schabdach has trained four new altar servers (with the help of the Gills).
  • The Knights of Columbus’ Rosary for Priests will begin the first weekend of November and will continue before all Masses. The Rosary for Priests will continue on the first weekend of each month. The Rosary for Respect Life will be said before the 5:30 Mass on Saturday nights.
  • The Prayer for Priests will continue to be said before the beginning of Mass until June 2010.
  • The altar servers were alerted to the new procedure for the Preparation of Gifts. The ushers also need to be notified of the change in procedure. The collection will be taken up first and then the gifts will be brought up to the altar.
  • To date, no directives have been handed down from the Archdiocese regarded H1N1 flu precautions.
  • The topic of hosting a parish mission was discussed. It was pointed out that planning a parish mission should be done by the Evangelization committee. Fr. Jason noted that he has a few ideas regarding speakers and topics for the parish mission.
  • June will be meeting with Fr. Jason to discuss appointing a wedding coordinator for the church.

Maintenance:

  • Lew Sherman reported that the recently installed laminate floor at the Thrift Shop has begun to buckle and that there has been water damage to the floor. The contractor was notified of the problem; the contractor proceeded to put caulking around the concrete and along the siding. This repair has not solved the water leakage problem. It was recognized that the Thrift Shop was built on an existing concrete slab, which is allowing rain water to leak into the building. Lew asked for a recommendation from the council as to how to proceed. Chuck recommended that Lew contact several contractors to come up with recommendations for a long term solution.
  • The Thrift Shop sign no longer serves as a parish announcement board.
  • The restoration of the cemetery fence was discussed. It was noted that if the fence is constructed, a gate would need to be installed where the transformer box is located. Fr. Jason suggested that the cemetery fence would add a “finished look” to the area surrounding the church. It was agreed that Lew would contact Rick Heilman to move forward with the project.
  • Tom Bowman has spoken to Fr. Jason about fixing the unfinished portion of the fence next to his property.
  • Mr. Bowman has asked that his house be power washed, now that church construction is complete. Because Mr. Bowman’s house is old, it may be problematic for Pat Spielman to power wash the house. It was agreed that the best course of action would be for Mr. Bowman to hire a power washer and St. Peter’s would pay for the service.
  • Grounds/Landscaping Subcommittee: At this point, no large project needs to be planned for the Fall. Pat Spielman is relieved to have some of the pruning, planting, and mulching removed from his list of responsibilities.

Planning:

  • Church Basement Rooms: Chuck has asked for a permit to finish the basement rooms.
  • The commissioning on the HVAC should happen tomorrow.
  • The County has released the temporary Use and Occupancy permit.
  • The Planning committee needs new members; several current members will be stepping down within the next year or two. Currently, there are four members on the committee.


OLD BUSINESS

Parish Picnic Follow-up:

  • Several parishioners have asked to return to having the mass outdoors next year.
  • We might want to revise the RSVP procedure for next year’s picnic.

Coffee and Donuts Sunday:

  • Parish Council Representation – Should the parish council continue to man our table at Sappington Hall on Coffee and Donut Sunday? We need to make parishioners aware of the Parish Council and what we do. Ginny suggested that parish council members might become greeters so that parishioners can put a name with a face.

Parish Council Meetings:

  • All parish council meetings are open to parishioners. It is protocol that as a visitor you have no speaking voice; and, if you wish to make a statement, you submit an item to be included on the agenda.
  • The parish council meeting schedule is now finalized. Our next meeting is our planning day on Saturday, November 7, 2009.
  • The parish council meeting that will be open to the entire parish will be January 5, 2010. A snow date will be chosen.
  • The June 1, 2010 meeting will be our budget meeting.

NEW BUSINESS:

Pastoral Leader Conference:

  • The information covered at the Pastoral Leader Conference will be placed on the agenda for the parish council planning day.

New Appointment to Parish Council:

  • With the resignation of Maggie Alspaugh, an opening has occurred on the Council. Fr. Jason has asked Sandy Gordon to accept the three-year term and she agreed. Fr. Jason will be asking a parishioner to the “appointed” one-year position soon.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:26 p.m.

Minutes respectively submitted by Sandy Gordon.

Parish Mission Statement (rev. 3/05)

We the people of St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Community are called by our Lord Jesus Christ to grow in faith, celebrate hope, and experience His loving presence in our midst. Drawing our life from the Eucharist and guided by the Holy Spirit, we seek to follow God’s Word by supporting one another, continuing our faith formation, promoting social justice, reaching out in service, and inviting others to share in our journey.










 
 
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