PARISH APPRECIATION PARTY
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Beginning at 6:00pm
through 9:pm (and beyond?)
in the Parish Center!
Everyone who does anything to support the parish is welcome to gather as we celebrate what it means to be the community of faith called St. Ann Parish.
PLEASE RSVP to Pat Marstall at the rectory (314-385-5090) by Monday, June 1st.
Number of Adults coming: ____
Number of Kids ages 6-11: ____
(Kids 0-5 are no charge so we don’t need to know)
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Perhaps many of you remember the old Porgy and Bess tune “Summertime.” It begins with those iconic words: “Summertime and the livin’ is easy…” That is partly true for me. There is certainly a slightly different rhythm to the days. The Newman Center slows down a LOT. My weekly meetings with my principal are done. The “All School” Masses stop until the fall. So things are a bit slower.
However, this summer finds three major things on my to do list. 1) Stage one and two of the “Beyond Sunday” Capital Campaign starts first. 2) Assembling the Confirmation Team and beginning that preparation. 3) And the “Parish Planning Process” for the Archdiocese of St. Louis rounds out the top priorities. It is this third one that I want to begin to put on your radar.
As a part of the process of looking at future utilization of priests in parishes, the Archbishop has asked each parish to go through the identical process. A small team, which I am assembling, will answer a series of questions, come to a consensus on the rankings, tally up the numbers, and then make a recommendation as to which of the seven possible staffing options might best fit our parish profile. Then a variation of that same process will be opened to the entire parish, giving folks time over two meetings to process through the questionnaire and then give their input to the committee for final evaluation.
Once this is done, then our parish profile with our recommendations for priest staffing (prioritized according to the top three) is sent to the Archdiocese, to be kept on file as needed in the future. This report is due on the Archbishop’s desk on November 1 of this year.
(FYI – PLEASE NOTE: This is not a process about closing churches but one about utilizing our priest resources in a realistic and healthy manner….)