Sacred Heart held the first of its Parish Meetings on “Yoking” on June 3, 2008. Here are Rella’s notes from the evening.
Parish Yoking Meetings
Sacred Heart Church – June 3, 2008
Mass Possibilities
• Accommodate early birds with an early Mass
• Accommodate late risers with an evening Mass on Saturday/Sunday
• Sunday evening Mass in other parts of the country are very popular with the 20 and 30-something crowd, although other age groups do attend.
• For families with young children, a 5pm Mass is impossible. Also, “bookend Masses” (i.e., early and late Masses) are hard on families with young children.
• Weekday Masses – currently St. Maurice does not have weekday Masses. They do have Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every Wednesday. Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion open and close Adoration.
• Hopefully, the new Mass schedule will be in effect by the beginning of July. A joint meeting of the two pastoral councils will coordinate efforts to come up with a new Mass schedule. (A suggestion was made that the pastoral councils present new Mass schedules to their respective parishes and that the parishioners vote on the preferred schedule. A survey, however, could be conducted, but voting would not be beneficial.)
Suggestions
• St. Philip & St. Jude parishes pray for each other at their Masses. Perhaps this might be something Sacred Heart and St. Maurice parishes might want to do.
• Invite St. Maurice parishioners to Sacred Heart picnic on June 8 and to the anniversary Mass and banquet on June 29. Fr. Stan will bring invitations to the St. Maurice meeting on June 4.
• Visiting St. Maurice would be a great way to begin the process of working and worshipping together.
• A “Yoking Bulletin Board” in a meeting room at both parishes would keep all parishioners informed of activities in both parishes.
• Some parishes have a joint section in their bulletins informing parishioners of upcoming events.
• It was suggested that Fr. Stan allow time for fellowship to occur after all Masses. His presence after Mass to meet with parishioners and enjoy fellowship with them is very important.
• It was suggested that a pot luck supper be held in order to bring both parishes together.
Questions
• Inquiry re: staff at St. Maurice – Fr. Stan reported that, to the best of his knowledge, the parish has a secretary, assistant secretary, groundskeeper, education minister, music minister, youth minister. Most of these are part-time workers or volunteers.
• Inquiry re: financial implications – Bishop Cote instructed Fr. Stan that Sacred Heart parish would issue Fr. Stan’s salary. St. Maurice is to pay ½ of the pastor’s salary and reimburse Sacred Heart parish every other month.
• Inquiry re: the allotment of Fr. Stan’s time between the two parishes – Fr. Stan estimates that he will initially need to divide his time approximately 60 / 40 – 60% with St. Maurice and 40% with Sacred Heart because he will need time to get to know the St. Maurice parish. There is also time needed to do some technological updating.
• Inquiry re: the parish envelopes if attending the other parish – Fr. Stan indicated that all envelopes would be returned to their proper parish. This would work only with envelopes – if cash is dropped in the basket, there’s no way of knowing if the person is a parishioner of St. Maurice or Sacred Heart.
Information
• St. Maurice has a Knights of Columbus council.
• St. Maurice supports a school for girls in Haiti.
• St. Maurice’s faith formation classes occur once a month in intergenerational classes. Confirmation Preparation occurs within the intergenerational program.
• St. Maurice does have fellowship each Sunday with each Sunday having a different focus – i.e., coffee fellowship one week, pancake breakfast another week, intergenerational faith formation on another week, etc.
