 Fr.
Tom's Tomes July 2, 2006
This weekend marks my first anniversary of being pastor of St. Columban’s. I have been challenged and have enjoyed my time during this first year. There have been many challenges which include not only being pastor and principal but also the task of learning and assessing the parish needs and the parish needs of the future. On becoming a pastor of a new parish the rule of thumb is to wait a year before any major changes are made. I can say that I personally do not see any major changes which I intend to make at this time. However, and this is always a dangerous word, I am going to begin to make some minor changes which I hope are for the good of the parish and to assist me in my role as pastor. The first change I would like to begin this weekend is the development of a parish council. I am aware of the fact there has been a parish council in the past here at St. Columban’s. Last year when I arrived there was not an active parish council. I would like to begin to create a parish council for St. Columban’s. My experience has been that parish councils usually have not been extremely effective in some of my previous assignments. I struggled at Holy Rosary in Clinton trying to figure out what to do with a parish council. During the last year of my stay there I decided to start a new parish council there. The first thing I did was to ask for interested persons in the parish to submit their names to be on the parish council. Then I assembled the people and we began to use a book whose title was Revisioning the Parish Pastoral Council. Never before had I undertaken the time or opportunity to work with a parish council to decide what was their role. I found people who were on the council enjoyed this very much. So from my experience this is what I am proposing. I am going to ask all who would like to be on the Parish Pastoral Council to submit their names and a little bit about yourself to me or get them to the parish office. I would like to have all the names of interested people by July 24, 2006. Then we will meet sometime in the last week of July to discuss the Parish Pastoral Council. All who are interested in being on the council will be welcomed. I run the risk of having too many people on the council but for the beginning I would like to have too many instead of not enough. It is important for all who are interested in being on the Parish Pastoral Council to know and understand that the role of the parish pastoral council is to support the ministries of the parish and to be interested in creating new ministries to assist the people of the parish. We need people who are interested in the future of the parish as well as those who are willing to invest time and energy in helping to create and begin new ministries to reach out to help the people of the parish. In my mind and the way I will operate the Parish Pastoral Council will not be dealing directly with the budget, the buildings nor the day to day operations of the parish. The Parish Pastoral Council is not an ax grinding committee but a group of people willing to take time to pray, to explore, to think and to respond to God’s plan for the people of St. Columban’s. It is an opportunity to look at the needs of the people of the parish and see how we can bring the love, hope and power of God to the people of our parish, Chillicothe, Livingston County and to this area of our diocese. Please take the time to think and pray to see if God is calling you to serve on our Parish Pastoral Council. Thank you and God bless you. |