Attending: Mark Riley, Dennis Macha, Fr. Patrick, Judy Comeaux, Sabrina Saladino, Marian Hendrick
Family Promise program follow up: Discussions ensued on whether the program would work for St. Anthony. It was felt by the council that the program is good but not something we can support. Mark will tell the Family Promise program folks that we can’t support their program at this time. Mark will tell the program that if they have information we can provide the church in case there is a member(s) who want to volunteer with the program when it is at other sponsor churches.
Pastoral Five year plan – Fr. Patrick received a reminder card regarding nominees for the Pastoral Plan committee. The deadline for parish representatives is May. Name suggestions were given to Fr. Patrick and he will contact the nominated parish representatives to be sure they were willing to serve and then convey the info to the Diocese.
Recruitment of new members/New Member task force: An observation made by the Pastoral Council is that RE parents who come on Wednesday would attend mass on Sunday we would have no need to recruit new members. We would have an explosion of membership. The issue here is an issue of the parents not bringing the children to church to reinforce what the kids have learned in RE. Fr. Patrick feels we should focus our efforts on RE where there are prospective new members through the children.
Cathy Lyles brought a history of a church in Fredericksburg and she suggested that the parish create a history pamphlet of St. Anthony. We could use the history pamphlet for visitors rather than the present visitor card during masses.
Judy stated that it has a dynamic impact on a visitor when you make an effort to talk to a them. It makes an impression. Dennis says it is o.k. to ask a visitor their name. Judy suggests that maybe Pastoral meet with Stewardship and get Stewardship’s buy-in on recruiting new members.
Sabrina asked about a ministry list from Stewardship. Fr. Patrick said to contact Jeff Tate to get information on ministries and their leaders. Sabrina would use the list to contact ministry leaders and get current and up-to-date information for the website.
Cecil: Next time we have a mission – invite people to come to the mission. Utilize a phone bank to encourage people to come to the mission. The phone bank was very successful during the capital campaign so why not use it to invite people to come to St. Anthony.
Parker Street Closing: Fr. Patrick needs to get with the city to get the details regarding the street closing. Martin Zimmerman at the March meeting mentioned some of the plans that the city of Bryan is considering. Thus why Fr. Patrick wants to meet with the city to discuss their plans
Parish Center: Fr. Patrick informed the Pastoral Council that the plans for the parish center renovation have received final approval and the finances are in order. The contact and bond have been approved so in early May renovations will begin. The project is budgeted for $450,000. This is a hard number and it is not anticipated to increase throughout the renovation. The reason for the increase to the center renovation is primarily due to the fact that the AC will be completely redone and the city of Bryan is making us bring everything up to code. We must bring the kitchen and restrooms into compliance with city regulations. Fr. Patrick explained how the center renovation is financed. One half of the money, $225,000 will come from money the parish has in the bank. The parish will take out a loan for $225,000 with the intention of using money from the Our Faith Our Legacy funds that come back to the church. Once we begin the parish renovation in May, it will take 4 months to complete.
Cares/Concerns in Parish:
Advent Mission in December for 5 days.
Potluck dinners have been very successful. It was suggested we have a potluck dinner three weeks before the bazaar. At the dinner, committee members can talk about the bazaar and where they have needs. This idea was tabled but we will continue the potluck dinners but not until the fall.
Dennis stated that people respond to the requests of the priest. He suggested that Fr. Patrick make a personal push on issues that mean a lot to him like he did for the Spaghetti Dinner. People notice and they get excited too.
Fr. Patrick said that Parish Directory was submitted for publishing. It was submitted the week before Palm Sunday.
Future agenda:
Bazaar concerns and cares. Maybe JJ can come. Mark will call.