Present: John Mitchell, Fr. Arock, Carolyn Large, Becky Estep, Flo Lancaster, John Larmour, Ann Mitchell, Leo Brown. Called to order at 7:00pm by the Chair.
The meeting opened with a hymn, scripture reading, and prayer.
John Mitchell welcomed John Larmour as a new participant to the committee and guest speaker Leo Brown of Real Life Radio. They, along with Ann Mitchell, were presented lapel crucifix pins.
Leo shared with the group his faith journey to the Catholic Church. He then spoke to the ongoing problems common to many Catholic parishes of declining attendance, membership retention, and lack of support and participation in parish events. He then shared the results of research he and his group had gathered on these problems. These results lead to a program that addresses these problems.
The program is now under development. The program would address many areas: discipleship, hospitality, small groups, changing of attitudes, Faith “seed planting”, re-educating and re-Evangelization of the parishioners in the pews. The program has been presented to Bishop Gainer and he has approved a pilot program. The two parishes chosen for the pilot programs are Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary and Good Shepherd. Fr. Noll and Fr. Howell are already in discussion regarding the proposed program. Further information on the progress of the pilot program will be forth coming.
Discussion and a Q&A period followed. Consensus of the group was that more information on the pilot program will be needed.
The next meeting will be January 16, 2014.
Meeting was adjourned with prayer at 9:00 PM
Respectively submitted, Ann Mitchell
Postscript 12/09/2013: A task force from Mary Queen and Good Shepherd has been established and will make further recommendations in January 2014.