Visitation Pastoral Council Newsletter Article June 2010

Last fall you were introduced to the members of the newly formed Visitation Pastoral Council. Since this introduction, members have attended additional training and have been meeting once a month for 90 minutes to meet the Diocesan directive of submitting one goal along with supporting objectives and strategies to the Diocese as part of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan.

A frequently asked question is how is this council different from the Parish Council of the past? The Parish Council included member representatives from each of the parish organizations. Promoting the interests of the parish was a focus, but it was from an organizational perspective rather than from a spiritual one.

The Pastoral Council is concerned with the spiritual growth of the parish. We work in conjunction with our Pastor to identify the needs of the parish and the opportunities for spiritual growth within our parish. We offer suggestions and propose priorities.

Members go through a discernment process rather than an appointment or election process. Decisions are formed through consensus. Members pray and study individually and together for the wisdom and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We hope our Mission Statement helps to explain our purpose:

We the Visitation Pastoral Council, led by the Holy Spirit, continually dedicate ourselves to address the question “what does God want for our Parish?”

The Council serves as an advisory and visioning body that assists the Pastor to guide and shepherd parishioners.

 Our commitments include developing goals and objectives that reflect the teachings of Christ and make our Parish more responsive to these teachings in a rapidly changing world.

We envision a Parish where the community participates and exhibits their Christian faith and values 24/7.

Members will be serving for a specific length of time, with a maximum length of service of two consecutive three year terms. In order that the council can avoid a complete turn-over, the current membership will begin rotating approximately one-third at a time annually after the first two years. (Of course, this means one-third of the first group will end up serving a four-year term.) We urge every member of Visitation Parish to give serious thought and prayer to becoming part of this council at some point in time.

We hope you have seen the bulletin notice regarding the availability of pre-printed index cards as a way to communicate with the members of the council:

In an effort to understand the spiritual needs of our parishioners, in the context of what God wants for our parish, the Pastoral Council has designed a pre-printed index card. To contribute, please ask any member of the Pastoral Council for a card. An e-version of the card is also available on the Parish website. Please include contact information so that we may get back to you. The completed cards may be returned to any council member or enclosed in an envelope addressed to the Pastoral Council and placed in the collection basket. We look forward to hearing from you!

Current Council Members are:
Facilitator: Tony Coticelli
Co/Facilitator: Lou Barbuscio
Recorder: Karen Kohut
Co/Recorder: Arlene Haas
Convener (refreshments and furniture set-up): Camille Licandro
Assistant Conveners: Denise Mould and Valarie O’Neill

Spiritual Formation Team: Lou Barbuscio, Fr. Will, and Deacon Dave
Members: Joe Licandro, Eric Zanetti, Paul Rollis, Brandon Underwood
Ex-Officio Members: Fr. Will, Vicki Cottrell, and Deacon Dave

You can identify us by the buttons we will wear to mass and church events – they reflect the design seen next to the title of this article.

You may notice that two of the original names published are no longer on this list:

• Shortly after the council formed, Michael Bocchino was called to his heavenly reward. His presence is sorely missed. Our sympathies and prayers go to his family. Rest in the Peace of Christ Michael.
• Bill Leck served for several months before he found that for personal reasons he was unable to continue. He was instrumental in helping us lay the foundation for our work and served on the Values and Goal subcommittee. We are grateful for his contributions.

In May we welcomed one new member: Brandon Underwood. We look forward to the contributions he will make to our council.

Like other groups, we do work from and agenda and form various subcommittees to meet our goals. We are guided by the model described in the Diocese of Trenton Publication: Led by the Spirit as well as a workbook received at the introductory workshops we attended. Our work is supported by the Diocese as well, through on-going training programs and special meetings with other parishes in the Diocese where ideas, problems, and solutions are shared.

The Pastoral Council has also adopted a self-evaluation form to help us stay on track and evaluate our progress.

Our directive from the Diocese is that we choose one goal from seven to work on first. The seven choices published in the Led by the Spirit document are:

• Sunday Mass
• Living as Disciples
• Growing in Faith
• Leadership
• Charity and Justice
• Youth and Young Adults
• Ethnic Diversity

We have chosen to work on Growth in Faith as our first major goal. As this article goes to press we have formed subcommittees to consider various facets of this goal so that we may form objectives related to this goal and specific strategies to attain them. Once these are submitted to and approved by the Diocese, they will be published for the members of the Parish.

We are embarking on some exciting work. While we, the Pastoral Council, are at the forefront of this work, we will not succeed in meeting any of the goals without the help of our fellow parishioners.

It has been exciting for all of us to be part of this effort on behalf of our parish. We hope and pray that we can meet the expectations entrusted to us. Please look for our progress in the bulletin and in this newsletter. And look for ways that you can help – formally or informally - as strategies are proposed for meeting our objectives.