Committee Meeting Minutes
Date: April 20, 2008
Attendees: Barbara Tshudy, Pat Smith, Phyllis Schwartz, Kathy Cardos, Jeannette List,
Chuck and Lourene Reynolds
Kathy Cardos opened the meeting with a prayer. She also volunteered to run the meeting.
Father Ralph - The Gormans reported the April collection was $488.
Prison Ministry - The Prison Christian Growth Group had a successful appeal the weekend of April 5/6. Sixty people filled out interest papers; three from St. James. They have been having orientation sessions since then. There is a state-wide core meeting next week which Pat Smith will attend. Pat Smith also reported that none of the female prisoners showed up at the last gathering at Lanc. Cty. Prison-They have a successful Alpha program which they prefer. She is considering joining the gathering team which ministers to males (There is a 9-1 male-female ratio at LCP).
Crispus Attucks - The next meal is scheduled for May 24 (just Saturday this time). Looking to the future, Rob Blott reported the next two dates after that (which are also Saturday only) are August 9 and December 13.
Pro-Life - Phyllis reported there are 22 people from St. James planning to attend the benefit dinner for A Woman's Concern on Thursday, April 24, 6 p.m. at Willow Valley Resort. The keynote speaker this year is Bishop Rhoades!
The Mother's Day Flower Sale is coming up the weekend of May 10/11. This also benefits A Woman's Concern. We will again be offering fresh pink, white or red carnations at $1 a stem. A sign-up sheet was passed around for volunteers to man the flower stations and a request for additional volunteers will be placed in the bulletin.
St. Mary's Meals - Kathy reported the next meal is this Friday, April 25. They are planning a ham dinner.
Habitat for Humanity - No report available.
Fair Trade - The December sale yielded a profit of $179.72. It was agreed that $100 will go to Beads of Peace to help them offset the cost of shipping rosaries, medals, etc. overseas. The balance will stay in St. James to offset our cost of shipping rosaries, prayer cards, etc. to Beads of Peace in Wyoming for the year.
Easter Project - Linda reported many youth and adults came to help sort the food, package it, and deliver to the ten families. After our ten families got their boxes of food (which were decorated!), there were enough groceries left to augment seven more families, as the Warwick Comm. Chest had the hams, but no extras. At the end there was $194.46 in excess funds collected from our generous St. James parishioners. Linda indicated she would use some of the money to purchase Easter basket sundries on sale after Easter. The rest will be carried over till next year.
Beads of Peace - Pat reported the donations of rosaries, booklets, etc. continue to come in.
Operation Rice Bowl - Rose Barnas and Rel. Ed. volunteers and parents had a successful bake sale to add to the total collection of $1,573.70 from St. James parish!!
Catholic Worker House - Jeannette List reported CWH received a donation of furniture recently which is being stored at St. Mary's for the time being. They held a week of the Lanc. County Council of Churches shelter during Easter.
Andrew Chol - It was exciting to hear from Jeannette that Andrew found his mother at a refugee camp in Africa and was able to see her. He would like to work at moving her out of there because conditions are terrible. His two younger sisters are both married. His two brothers want to come to the States. A note for serious concern, though, is that he thinks he contracted malaria during his stay in Africa. Jeannette is working on getting him to go for medical treatment.
RCIA Presentation - Barbara Tshudy has agreed to present the Social Justice Network to our recent RCIA graduates on Tuesday evening, April 29. Thank you, Barbara!
Building the Spirit of a Caring Community - Chuck Reynolds and the committee as a whole would like to see St. James parishioners come together and get more involved in parish social justice. We feel a first step in that direction would be an environment where parishioners may socialize with no commitment to join anything. As a beginning we would recommend coffee and a snack in St. James Hall after the 9:00 Mass when the hall is available. We have all seen families talking in the hallways while dropping their children off after Mass, and we've also seen other parishioners lingering in the narthex socializing. We feel it would be a perfect time to continue that socialization. After a period of time, we could have the different groups and ministries in the parish take turns preparing a breakfast during that time. The group would also have a representative there to greet parishioners as they come in and offer them information about their group. Kathy Cardos also suggested an educational “Movies and Morals” morning or evening where the parish would be educated on a particular social issue. Barbara Tshudy will present the suggestions to Parish Council.
The next meeting is SUNDAY, MAY 18 at 6:00 p.m. in Our Lady's Center.
Respectfully submitted,
Phyllis Schwartz