Gratitude for our Ministry Leaders

St. Clare Parish is blessed with many generous volunteers who chair and/or lead our wide variety of ministries. Our parish staff and I are so grateful for the ways they help organize our many volunteers who sign up for these ministries.

One set of leaders I want to acknowledge is our Parish Pastoral Council. We meet 5 times a year for visionary conversations about the strengths and growth opportunities for our parish. I often ask them valuable questions such as “What else can our parish be doing to serve the poor?” and “How are we doing at keeping Jesus’ Mission as our priority?” I also share with them important reports from our staff, school, and finance council.

When “parish councils” were first created in the 1970’s, they were more involved in parish management and issues that are now served by our professional staff. The Church’s guidelines asks that the Pastoral Council be more focused on the bigger issues of mission and the spiritual life of the parishioners. If you have any questions or suggestions for them to bring to our next meeting in February, feel free to contact them or me. Presently our Council Members include:

Jackie Burke, Michael Crupe, Deacon John Gomez, Amber Hardy, Will Kinsella, Dawn Lurk, James Pavlisin, Bruce Rackers, Jim Sabella and Rita Zinn

God’s Peace be with you,
Fr. Jim Deiters

P.S. Issue of ringing phones at Mass
A good number of people asked me to address this issue as the distractions seem to be increasing recently. The best solution is that everyone leave their phones in their car to be more fully present to worshipping God at Mass. If you feel a need to have your phone with you, please make a more conscious effort to have it silenced. A motivator: I suggest that if your phone goes off, make an extra $100 donation to the poor in an envelope next weekend.