Parish Council Meeting Minutes from February 17Th, 2015

Parish Council Meeting Minutes from February 17th, 2015

Present: Fr. Phil Persico, Fr. Frank Bassett, Dave Gerbosi, President, Bob Beitscher, Fran Berger, Mary Coleman, Dot DiMaggio, Joelen Donohue, Janan Lane, Ana Marie McCullough, Maureen McLoughlin, Ken Noonan, Art Prudhomme, Melissa Tillson,

Opening - The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by Parish Council President Dave Gerbosi and

Fr. Phil offered an opening prayer.

1)Fr. Phil began the meeting with deciding how long the newly elected members would be serving on the council with dealing six cards from a playing deck – two Ace’s, two twos and two threes. Each card that a newly elected member picked represented the term limit. Ace’s were one year, two was a two year term and three was a three year term.The outcome was Bob Beitscher and Melissa Tillson will be serving three year terms, Art Prudhomme and Brian Morrow will be serving two year terms and Mary Coleman and, Joelen Donohue will be serving a one year term. These terms will end at the end of Ordinary Time in the Fall with the beginning of Advent two new people will run again to serve on the Parish Council.

In June Dave Gerbosi’s term as president is complete. At which time the Parish Council will ask one of the six new members at large if anyone has an interest in the position. If more than one does than there will be an election within the Parish Council. If no one is interested than we will put the names in a hat to elect a president and council secretary.

Dave brought to the council a question as to whether HNJ will be having Summer Camp and Fr. Phil informed the council that Stephanie Ryan who ran it in the past is unavailable. Also, Fr. Phil has been asked by the town but is hesitant due to the fact of the problems going on at present with unattended children at Basketball games. Someone has stuffed the men’s room toilet with paper that the toilet had to be replaced and graffiti on the wall.

2)Reports of Ex-Officio Council Members

a)Finance Committee presented by Fran Berger.

1Mid-Winter Ball netted $13,001

2Unemployment insurance- According to the present findings UI is for only twenty six weeks for those former school employees and Congress has not elected to extend it at this time. With that said the HNJ School obligation would than end approx. in February unless there were changes made by Congress

3The budget for the Church will be worked on in March

4Collections have been maintaining ten thousand weekly between the first and second collections

5The HNJ Festival will be returning on September 4th through the 7th with the first meeting to be held in March

6The Cardinal’s Appeal to date has been $15,000 pledged and $11,000 collected. Fr Phil would love to increase the amount of parish families contributing from 200 to 230.

b)Religious Education presented by Janan Lane

1On March 12th the Confirmation exam will be given to the Eighth Grade Students. This exam has changed from essay to multiple choice on the Gifts and Prayers of the Holy Spirit and its meanings, Prayers and Sacraments to name a few topics

2On March 19th the Confirmation interviews will be conducted with parents present and at that time the child’s test results will be handed out.

3On March 28th One of the RE Fourth Grade Classes will be doing a presentation of the Stations of the Cross

4Waiting to hear from Bishop Lagronegro for the 2015 Confirmation dates

5Communion will be on May 4th and May 10th with the May Crowning on May 11th

6 The 8th Grade Confirmation Students gave out bags with lists of food on the 1st and 2nd of Feb and collected the food on the 8th and 9th for the “Feeding Our Neighbors campaign that Our Parish donatedONE TON of food to the Westchester Food Bank and ONE TON of food plus $1,000 in donations to the Shepherd’s Flock Ministry.

c)RCIA presented by Ken Noonan in Pat Bisesto’s absence

For the Easter Vigil 2014 there will be the following

One given the Right to welcoming for Baptism

Three being baptized

One receiving Communion

One receiving Confirmation

d)Social Concerns presented by Maureen McLoughlin:

1Clothes Collection- anotice was put in the bulletin re: men’s clothes collection for the upcoming Youth Group Midnight Run. We are also collecting blankets, sneakers, backpacks and new men’s socks and underwear

2Food Bank for Westchester –Approx 35 parishioners volunteered at the Food Bank on Sunday, February 9th. We bagged sweet potatoes and labeled cans. All the bagged and boxed food will be sent to food pantries in Westchester

3Food Bank- Our next date is Sunday, April 27th, from 12-2

4Valentine Crafts- Approx 35 parishioners helped to make crafts for 5 local nursing homes. Most of the RE classes made and donated valentines, as well as many parishioners. We were able to give each nursing home resident several valentines each, plus the crafts. We got great feedback from the nursing homes- they loved it all, and appreciated everything. We are planning on doing it again next year! Many thanks to Janan for having her classes participate.

5St Patrick’s Day Crafts- We will be doing crafts on Monday, March 3, from 3:30-5:30. Note-not our usual Thursday this Month only

6St Patrick’s Day Party- I had been hoping we could have a party for nursing home residents at Rosary Hill and/or the Hebrew Home, but so far I have had a very limited response. Will wait one more week before I decide if we will be able to do it.

7Camp Sunshine- About 8 or so parishioners are interested again in going this summer. We are hoping to here in a week or two.

E) Liturgy Committee presented by Ken Noonan

During Lent there are a number of services a study group

1Ash Wednesday on March 5th Masses will be at 7:15 and 9am and Liturgical Services at 12, 4 and 6:30pm

2All during Lent Morning Prayer will be combined with 9am masses Monday through Friday

3On Mondays from March 10th through April 7th, Fr. Nana will conduct Holy Hour from 7-8pm, the meditation will be on the “Our Father”.

4On Tuesdays, from March 4th through April 15th there will be A Bible Study Program featuring the Great Adventures Bible Study by Jeff Cavins at 10am and at 7:30pm Books for the series may be purchased at theRectory ($20). A notice will be put in the bulletin to register with a tear off notice

5On Fridays, on March 14th through April 18th the Stations of the Cross will be at 7pm

6On March 7th, HNJ Youth group will conduct the stations will begin at 6pm with a Fish Fry to follow please see details below

7On Tuesday, March 26th the video, “Francis, Pope for the New World” will be shown at 10am and 7:30pm in the church.All are welcome

8On Holy Thursday the footwashing will be done and Ken has sent letters to each Parish group looking for volunteers

F) Rosary Altar Society-The Rosarians will be having a bake sale the weekend of March 8th and 9th There isn’t any new business since there aren’t any meetings in January nor February and meetings will resume in March on the 26th at 7pm and all will attend the video on Pope Francis .

G) Youth Group Fr Phil presented for Alexa Iuna

1 On March 2ndthere will be a Charity Karaoke open to all members

2 On March 7ththe youth group will be serving at the Fish Fry run by the Bingo Boys

3 On April 4ththe youth group is scheduled for a Midnight Run to NYC

4 Next year the Youth Group will be opened to the other parishes in our cluster

5 The Youth Group will sing at mass on the 1st Saturday and 3rd Sunday of the month

3)New Business:

Fr. Frank stated the he will be using a program to monthly schedule the Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors and Altar Servers beginning in February and will be emailed to all or mailed to those that do not have email.

Fr. Phil reported:

a)Nothing new with all things made new and Fr Phil is collaborating with the other parishes in our cluster

b)Fr Nana will again have Holy Hour on Mondays,

c)Stations of the Cross on Fridays,

d) 9AM morning prayers during Lent

e) During Holy Week HNJ will have tennebrae instead of 9am Mass. This is chanting lamentations and readings

f)Fr Phil will be meeting with three parishioners to get a Parish website underway.

g) Our longest running counter, Paul Frey has retired from the counters and Larry Lonergan has joined

h) Larry Whartenby has outlined St. Faustina’s prayers for the bulletin that will be included until Divine Mercy Sunday, April 27th

i) Fr Phil explained that there isn’t a mission team in the Archdiocese and asked Ken to look into finding a team to host a Mission

j) Fr Phil and Pat Bisesto will look into a Bible program which would be done in both the afternoon and evening to serve the purpose of adult catechesis

k) Our Cardinal’s Appeal goal this year is 97.5K and that we should shoot for the moon and fall among the stars. Also that only 200 families out of 2000 registered families contribute. In 2013 we only raised 54K and he would appreciate it if more families gave to the Appeal. Out in pew collection is March 23rd and 30th

l) There are a number of repairs that are needed to be done- the skylights and masonry over the Altar need to be done soon and the gutters

m) Modernfold needs to be contacted because the folding doors are not sliding well

n) On April 28th Holy Name will be hosting the area conference

Fr. Phil ended with a prayer.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:35PM and the next meeting will be April 28that 7PM in the Fr Dave Library

Respectfully submitted

Francine Berger

Parish Council Secretary