I hope your summer is going well, and that you are finding time to relax and rejuvenate. As I write this note, the Catholic world weeps and grieves on the death of Father Jacques Hamel of Normandy, France. The 84-year old priest was brutally killed while some of his parishioners were held hostage during their morning Mass on July 26. We join our prayers and sympathies to the rest of the world, crying for peace, justice and religious persecution. Despite the violence and unrest that we have heard and witnessed in the world recently, there are still so many things to be thankful for, which affirm God’s abiding presence in our lives. This brings greater hope that goodness and God’s kingdom always triumph in the end.
As you might already realize, our bulletin issue this weekend is thicker than usual. It’s because it’s one of two special issues for the year. You will find in this bulletin the fiscal year-end financial report for July 2015 thru June 2016 (as well as a five-year comparison of results) and highlighted key events and activities of the various ministries of the parish from January thru June. We have accomplished unplanned improvements in our facilities, while keeping everything in budget and without sacrificing the quality of our service and ministries. For the past two years, we have ended our fiscal year with a sizeable income that goes directly to the maintenance fund. At the start of each fiscal year, my prayer is not really to have an “income” because we are not in a business for profit, but just to raise the money needed for our annual budget. But it’s still a wonderful and reassuring feeling when, at the end of the fiscal year, we still have money to spend for important maintenance improvements without dipping into our savings. I thank you for your generosity and for advancing the Kingdom of God here in our community. I am very grateful for the staff for being prudent stewards of our resources, taking to heart the call to frugality without sacrificing efficiency and the quality of the ministries. We will be having some major improvements in our facilities in the next few months like the replacement of the roof of the annex side of the church and also the updating of the pews and the kneelers, which have been falling apart for a number of years now. I am happy to announce that we will not be doing any kind of fundraising to pay for these
improvements because we have saved enough money to take care of these major updates.
I am in the process of reorganizing the staff right now, consolidating some ministries for greater efficiency and focus. Part of the process is the evaluation of our key programs, ensuring that we are responding to the needs of the community and furthering the mission, not simply “maintaining” it. There will be some changes in our Youth Ministry this year as Mary Kiefer, our parish Youth Minister, leaves her position this August for a teaching post in one of our Catholic schools. We thank her for her solid leadership and for confronting the challenges of youth ministry with grace, patience and determination. As we thank her for her service to our parish, we also pray for success and joy in her new endeavors. I will keep you posted as to the developments of the staff reorganization.
As many of you have commented, we have seen a resurgence or a renaissance in our adult faith formation. I am deeply impressed with the response from our community to our adult faith formation offerings. We will continue to build on what we have started and explore more ways to further strengthen this area. One of our major events in the Adult Faith area this Fall is the upcoming conference in the first week of October with John Bergsma, one of the leading scriptural scholars in the US. Our two big women’s and men’s groups used his book this year in their study of the scriptures. Father Anthony and I will be closely involved in Adult Faith events this year.
I am still directly in-charge of the RCIA program this year in close collaboration with Mike and Peggy Flanigan and the rest of the RCIA team. Mike and Peggy have been
excellent to work with in keeping this program fresh, personal and faith-filled. We are excited to continue the structure that we put in place last year for this crucial program. Father Anthony and I will also be giving classes together with some of the team members for this year’s RCIA.
Pastoring our local church here on this side of Beaverton has been wonderful and is filled with tremendous blessings with the help and collaboration of so many people in our midst. We are very blessed to have a dedicated and committed staff that keeps things moving and growing. I am grateful to the members of the Pastoral Council, led by Kevin Hassett, for keeping our mission and pastoral ministry relevant to the needs of the time. The
administration of our parish and school has been smooth sailing with the sound counsel and “loving scrutiny” from our Finance Council led by Diane Punchocar. We are
really blessed with amazing people, who bring their unique gifts to advance God’s kingdom here in our community.
I can go on and on with some other things, but let the photos and reports of our key ministries take you where we have been this year with a firm hope and reliance to the Holy Spirit as he bring us to new opportunities and avenues in this new fiscal year. After all, this is God’s Church! – Fr. Cary