Now before you roll your eyes...
As you will hear at Mass this weekend, online giving is finally here. Now before you roll your eyes, please understand that online giving is only being offered for those who want it. Just like there are people in our parish who speak bulletin and people who speak email, there are people who buy things on the computer and people who don’t. All of our Religious Education families register online and the vast majority pay the fees online. So here’s the online giving story in a nutshell. If it is more convenient for you to use it... then give online. If you like the church envelopes that you grew up with, don’t worry, they’ll keep coming. I want to thank our Parish Center staff for their hard work setting up the online giving program. Flora and Patty are getting so proficient at the computer that I am afraid that IBM is going to try and steal them away. As the kids say... “You guys rock!” That means you are really good.
The End of the Year Appeal
This year we printed the names of those who have contributed to the end of the year campaign, and many people thanked us for doing so. Starting this week, we will only print the names of those who have contributed since last Sunday. We are only $7,250 short of reaching our goal of $80,000 to fix the gym roof. Thank you for your generous support of this important project.
Your Contribution Statements
Our staff and the office volunteers are in the process of getting your contribution statements ready to be mailed out.... no small task, to be sure. Please note that this year, for your convenience, we also posted your contribution to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal to the total listed on your statement.
Pastoral Council
We had a great Pastoral Council meeting last week. It was held in the School Media Center, and we used one of the new smart boards. Here are the items we discussed:
· We demonstrated the online giving program and a new component of our Parish Management System called Ministry Scheduler. We are finally becoming able to enter in all of the volunteer offers which you made on the blue ministry sheet in the fall.
· We spoke about some new parish groups forming and parish leadership training for the leaders of these groups.
· We began planning for Fr. Peter’s Ordination this summer.
Coming Up... Catholic Schools Week
We are privileged to have a Catholic School in our parish. All you have to do is walk down the hallway and it becomes so crystal clear how important each and every one of those little ones are and, just how important all the little ones of our parish are no matter where they go to school. As you all know, through our parish subsidy to our school, our parish pays tuition just like the school families pay tuition. It is a check that I don’t mind signing at all. Please consider taking some time to tour our school during Catholic Schools Week. I promise you’ll leave with a smile.
Fr. Peter’s Mom
It was “someone’s” birthday last week so Fr. Peter’s Mom came to be with him. I am sure you will meet her at some of the Masses. We are happy to have her visiting here at St. Paul. I know you will welcome her with open arms. You guys always make our Moms feel most welcome.. Thanks.
Unsung Heroes
A parish our size has a lot of people who help out without ever getting recognized. As many of you have noticed the bulletin has gotten larger recently with lots of good articles and even some word searches... We put them in for the kids but I hear that “the young at heart” enjoy them just as well. The inserts don’t magically appear in the bulletin; we have a veritable army of beautiful ladies who help us out on Friday mornings... We call them the stuffers... and sometimes they sit for a couple of hours... enjoying each others’ company and stuffing the bulletin. Our stuffers are…Sadie Breton, Barbara Camilleri, Roz Durante, Terry Jambard, Lorraine Lynch and Marge Mangone. If you see them, please thank them for the generous gift of their time to our parish.