PASTORAL PLANNING
VERNON DEANERY - DECEMBER 6, 2010
FIRST REGIONAL MEETING
GENERAL MEETING
The meeting began at 7 PM with the diocesan prayer for restructuring.
Some preliminary information on the contents of individual folders was given. Then, Dr. John Shine, Diocesan Superintendent of Schools was introduced. Dr. Shine provided some information on the two parish schools in the deanery; St. Edward School in Stafford Springs and St. Joseph School in Rockville.
A summary of the comments on the schools:
St. Edward School was established in the latter part of the 19th century. Currently the school has provision for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Enrollment has been stable for the past three years, holding at about 122 students. The subsidy from the parish was in excess of $160,000 in 2008/9 academic year. However, since then it decreased to about $100,000 per year. The per pupil cost per year is about $900.
St. Joseph School was established in the early 20th century. The school was named a Blue Ribbon School in 2006, under the criteria for the “No Child Left Behind” act. The high point for enrollment, shortly after the school was established, was 256 students. Current enrollment is 109 students. The subsidy from the parish has been about $98,000 for the past three years. The per pupil cost per year is about $800.
Dr. Shine indicated that both schools are functioning well, but that the present situation is not sustainable in the long term. Dr. Shine explained that the major financial burden of the schools is borne by the parishes that own them, even though the schools are no longer functioning as parish schools. In reality, he said, the students in both schools come from several parishes, and both schools have several students who are non-Catholic. This is a very non-traditional situation, while we have maintained the traditional financial structure for schools, which is parish-based.
He pointed out the extraordinary commitment both St. Edward’s and St. Joseph’s have made to their respective schools and to Catholic education. Finally, Dr. Shine mentioned that an “ad hoc” diocesan committee is currently studying ways in which the costs of Catholic education can be more equitably shared among all the parishes of a given area.
Following Dr. Shine’s comments, the meeting continued with an explanation of materials distributed to committee members in their folders: prayer, agenda, October Count for parishes in the deanery, a map of the diocese, a list of suggested parish activities, an explanation of terminology involved in restructuring, the final report form to be used in June 2011, and several articles on the planning process in Norwich and in other dioceses.
Each cluster was asked, at the beginning of the individual meetings, to choose a chair, a note-taker and a contact person. Each parish was asked to send a completed Parish Evaluation Form to the Pastoral Planning Office, so that the forms can be available for the next meeting. Each cluster was asked to send the minutes of their meetings to the Office within the next week.
The General Meeting concluded, and the cluster meetings began following a break.
CLUSTER MEETINGS
Cluster Three: St Joseph, Rockville; Sacred Heart, Vernon; St. Maurice, Bolton
Attending: Members of Parish Committees from all three parishes including the priests from St. Maurice and Sacred Heart
Absent: One member from Sacred Heart
The meeting began with introductions of all members and designations of Chair, Recorder, and contact person were made as follows:
Chair—Joe Augustyn Recorder—Angela Atwater Contact Person—Stephanie Labanoski
Grouping of Parishes
An initial discussion ensued around why St. Joseph was not clustered with St. Bernard’s. Father Stan from Sacred Heart noted that it was decided that the two largest parishes of St. Bernard’s and St Matthew’s should be clustered together. The map of the parishes indicates that the three parishes of St. Joseph, Sacred Heart and St. Maurice were closer to each other.
Presentation of Strong and Weak Points of Each Church
St. Maurice and Sacred Heart have not finished their questionnaires but St. Joseph had its completed form with them.
- St. Maurice committee members indicated that they were yoked with Sacred Heart but are now separate again with a priest who is the administrator. They have lost a lot of their congregation during the yoking process and from the loss of a very popular Pastor. Because of yoking, the parish was down to two masses. Many of the parishioners went to nearby St. Bartholomew in Manchester. The parish strength is that it has nearly 30 active ministries.
- Sacred Heart members indicated that they also have lost members because of yoking with St. Maurice and the decreasing of the mass schedule. However, the church has seen an increase of new parishioners especially young couples with children. Its main weakness is the large condemned church which cannot be torn down because of a nearly quarter of a million dollar price tag for demolition. Its strengths include lots of ministries. For example the hospital ministry has 25 people. Sacred Heart is the Chaplin for Vernon Manor and is on call all the time. There are 675 households with 417 envelopes in circulation. About half of these envelopes come in each week with other coming in at an irregular basis.
- St Joseph indicated that their strengths included the following:
◦ Operates and funds a Parochial School
◦ Only one in the cluster that has daily Mass in the mornings.
◦ Offers Polish services and ministries
◦ Only one in area to have 40 hours devotion and Divine Mercy on Monday evenings
◦ Prominent and convenient location in town with easy access and large parking area
◦ All facilities are in good condition and well maintained. Church heating and cooling systems have been replaced with completion targeted for January 2011.
◦ Continuous Daylight hour access to the Church.
◦ Numerous volunteers in social, spiritual and maintenance support activities.
◦ Solid spiritual and working relationships with the Pauline Fathers who contractually provide priest for the parish.
St. Joseph also indicated that resources that are needed to improve the parish would include more Financial Diocesan support for the Parochial School and help in promoting the school to other Parishes.
Its thoughts in combining resources with other parishes would include:
1. Share rotated use of maintenance or custodial personnel.
2. Combine procurement practices, cost savings in purchasing items as a group.
3. Devise a backup plan to cover each parish when workload demands and absences occur at each parish.
Where Can Parishes begin to collaborate.
The committee only had a brief time to discuss this issue. It was evident that most of the members thought that collaboration around the many parish ministries would be one area that should be discussed.
What should be brought back to the individual parishes about this meeting.
There was discussion around publishing the minutes in the parish bulletin and having members speak at each church to enlist suggestions from the parishioners and to share some of the information. The sense of all the committee was to have members give a verbal report to the parish that it is meeting in clusters and discussing how the cluster can collaborate.
Meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
