PAR Monthly Update

Leadership Minutes - November & December, 2009 and January, 2010
Parish Leadership Meetings
LEAVEN (Laity: Exploring, Active, Vocal, Engaged, Nourished)

Our Parish Leadership meets on the first Monday of each month. Each participant is a member of one of our 5 Coordinating Groups, and those Coordinating Groups meet from 7:00 until 8:30 pm. Representatives from each of the Coordinating Groups serve on our Parish Pastoral Council, which meets from 8:30 to 9:30 pm that same evening. Please consider participating on one of our Coordinating Groups - Administration, Community, Faith Development, Outreach, or Worship - and offering an hour of your time each month in service on behalf of your parish community.

Our next Leadership Meeting will be held on Monday night, March 1, 2010, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, in the Fitzgerald Chapel. Please come to see these Coordinating Groups in action and the work they do on behalf of St. Athanasius Parish.

Minutes from Coordinating Groups
November 9, 2009, December 7, 2009, and January 11, 2010 Leadership Nights

Administration
The Administration Coordinating Group has set a schedule for the establishment of a Parish Strategic Plan, with the goal of having it completed by this Spring. They are in the process of reviewing prior surveys and assessments done at St. Athanasius in the past 6 years, to begin to identify goals.

Community
The Community Coordinating group is working to feature and bless volunteers involved in ministries of the altar at the Sunday Masses before Lent. This includes Altar Servers, Eucharistic Ministers, Ministers of Care, and Lectors. A system to feature pictures of new parishioners in the church vestibule is also in the works.

Faith Development and Outreach
The Faith Development Group has set two priorities for the coming year: volunteer involvement and parish unity. We will ask leaders from different parish events to come to discuss the goals of their events, and evaluate the success of the event relative to these goals. The group has also started to plan an intergenerational and spiritually nourishing Lenten Parish Mission.

Worship
The group is working on identifying acoustical problems within the Church and improving that system. The group continues to plan "Tours of Our Church", a series of 10 minute tours to be given after Mass, and has identified 5 topics for the tours: The Sanctuary, The Windows Part I, The Windows Part II (Choir Loft and Altar Windows), The Sacristy, and The Architecture of St. Athanasius. Docents will be recruited and information compiled, with implementation targeted to take place in March. Follow-up for the Catholics Come Home campaign, and revival of our Greeters ministry, are items to be addressed.