​Perhaps you have noticed the work Pacific Power is doing on the Kennedy Substation across 42nd ave from the church. On January 23, Tony DeFalco of Verde went to the PPL community meeting (held at St. Charles) and proposed a "Good Neighbor Agreement" (click on file below) between Pacific Power and the Concordia Neighborhood Association (CAN), Cully Association of Neighbors (CAN) and Our 42nd Avenue Business Association. In light of PPL's poor community engagement prior to design and construction of this project, Tony has ten proposals in the Good Neighbor Agreement.

At St. Charles, we collaborated with Verde on the install of our solar energy system. A “phase 2” item of that project is solar energy storage that would allow St. Charles to be a hub for power if/when power goes down throughout the area. The first of ten proposals in the Good Neighbor Agreement is that PPL would pay for St. Charles solar energy storage.

It's important to note that this is completely separate from the power substation across the street. It does involve a tower or antenna. The location of necessary equipment has already been identified (school roof, I believe) and the footprint of that equipment is quite small. Obviously, Tony sees an opportunity here for Pacific Power to possibly pay for the solar storage component. If this were to be granted, then Verde would take the lead on the project just as they did with the original. And of course we would coordinate with De La Salle and the remodel. 

Initial response from Sheila Holden at Pacific Power (click on file below) is vague, but positive. Stay tuned for more info.

On Monday, January 6, the faculty and staff of De La Salle North Catholic High School gathered at St. Charles for their annual winter retreat. They spent the day in the church praying, learning, and building community. 

Members of the St. Charles Pastoral Council organized soup and salad lunch for the 50 plus members of the De La Salle team. Lunch was super delicious -- thanks to many parishioners who made soup or a salad -- and was graciously received by all. The partnership is growing! 

A special thanks to Peggy Johnson and Margaret Retz for organizing the lunch, and to Mary Lynn Pierce, Sandy Bossom, and Linda Pashley for their help in serving and cleaning up!

Many, many thanks to all those who helped with our OLG Celebration last Sunday. One of the best ever! The decorations were beautiful, the music was outstanding, the food was scrumptious, and the Aztec Dancing was heart-throbbing! 

The 69th Annual Spaghetti Dinner was a great success on Sunday, Nov 3. See the pictures below. We were happy to celebrate with Bill and Claudia Canard, their 50th wedding anniversary. They were married in St. Charles church on November 3, 19169. 

We are truly grateful to all the volunteers who helped on this year's dinner, including fourteen members of De La Salle North Catholic High School. 

Children – Youth – Social Justice
 
As a parish seeking to live the vision of Vatican II in the 21st century, we must recognize and respond to our call to fulfill our canonical responsibilities of sacramental preparation for Baptism, Reconciliation, Eucharist, and Confirmation; our pastoral responsibilities of faith formation for children and youth; and our social responsibilities to work for justice and continue our engagement in works of mercy in the neighborhood.
 
We are at a crossroads with respect to our ministries for children, youth, and social justice. It’s time to set a new course for these important pastoral ministries.
 
The first step is to listen. Let’s engage in conversation with those who participate in these ministries, care about them, and volunteer to help in them.
 
Please join us after Sunday Mass, 11:15 – 12:45 in the Parish Center
 
Youth Ministry – July 28
Including discussion of:
- implementing sacramental preparation for Confirmation
- implementing effective faith formation for middle school and high school youth
- how to select and use appropriate materials and methods for faith growth and learning
- how to recruit, train, and sustain needed leaders and volunteers
- how to integrate youth into the life of the parish

​​Brief summary of the session. 
Attended by nine people. The conversation was spirited and fruitful. We care about our youth! These statements provide a short summary of the listening session:

• To effectively reach youth, we must also reach their parents and families.
• Not realistic for youth to participate in church if their parents aren’t participating.
• We should listen to youth and their families via survey and direct conversation.
• We must recognize the gifts as well as the challenges of the multicultural make up of our families.
• Programming should be relational, faith-based, communal, and action-oriented.
• We must support our youth in the face of racism and other forms of discrimination that they experience.
• Effective youth ministry needs broad support from the adult community.
• Programming must be broad to appeal to the needs/desires of all youth.
• We should explore the potential of a partnership with Young Life that might provide training, support, and supervision of youth ministry leadership. Leif will look into this possibility.
• A couple of people at the session indicated a willingness to help with youth ministry programming.

 
Children’s Faith Formation – August 4
Including discussion of:
- implementing sacramental preparation for First Eucharist and First Reconciliation
- implementing Liturgy of the Word for children during Sunday Mass
- implementing effective faith formation for children post First Communion
- how to select and use appropriate materials and methods for faith growth and learning
- how to recruit, train, and sustain needed leaders and volunteers
- how to integrate children into the life of the parish
- other
 
​Brief summary of the session.
Attended by nine people. The conversation was animated, filled with lots of ideas, and lots of care and concern for our children. It was a bilingual discussion – English and Spanish. These statements provide a short summary:

• Parents are reluctant to participate, presents a challenge for effective faith formation.
• We should communicate a clear schedule to parents and promote the program widely.
• Program(s) need to be well-organized.
• Three general age-groups: 1) First Grade and younger = Children’s liturgy of the Word, 2) Second Grade = Sacramental Preparation, 3) Third – Fifth Grade = Religious Education
• Find the right time for classes – is after Mass on Sunday the right time?
• Importance of food, fun, and prizes to enhance learning and growth.
• Possible that younger children (Grades  4 – 5?) could be trained to be altar servers.
• Get input from parents via survey and direct conversation.
• Sacramental Prep – conduct several bilingual parent sessions for each sacrament (Reconciliation and Eucharist)
• Sacramental Prep – Jane Evans and Jeanne Moser will lead and coordinate. Will create a detailed plan by Sept 1.
• Children’s Liturgy of the Word – Mary Evans will lead and coordinate. Will create a detailed plan by Sept. 1.

Social Justice Ministry – August 11
Including discussion of:
- how to maintain our associations with key agencies, e.g. Living Cully, MACG, CCHD, other
- how to fulfill our commitments with respect to housing advocacy and immigrant justice
- how to effectively steward dedicated funds (CCHD grant, immigrant justice fund)
- how to recruit, train, and sustain needed Justice Committee members
 
Brief summary of the session.
Attended by nine people. The conversation was animated, filled with lots of ideas, and lots of care and concern for our future efforts in social justice. These statements provide a short summary:

• SJ ministry must be connected to work of Multicultural Committee, but not run by Multicultural Committee
• Would like to raise up multicultural leadership, particularly Hispanic
• SJ action should be linked to SJ education to the whole parish – how does the action connect to the Gospel, and to Catholic Social Teaching?
• SJ ministry should permeate all aspects of Parish Life
• Need to be good stewards of the CCHD grant ($5000)
• Interest in simultaneous translation technology
• We must maintain relationships with other agencies (MACG, Living Cullty, etc.)
• Consider engaging in relational development listening/dialogue process – perhaps at the beginning of mass
• Consider how to connect with and build relationship with DLS
• User readerboard more effectively
• Ask residents of Oak Leaf what they need now, for ongoing support.
• There is stipend $$ to support and affirm a Coordinator of SJ ministry. Need to find that person.
• Coordinator will help determine role of SJ Committee

Questions? More info? Contact Leif Kehrwald at 503-351-9889, lkehrwald@stcharlespdx.org.
 
Stop – Look – Listen

We had a terrific celebration of Pentecost on June 9. Many, many people helped out with this year's celebration including (but not limited to): Kathy Brown, Huong & Manh Nguyen, Shirley McClendon, Nispet Johnny, Zaida Schmich, Rosa Barajas, Aztec Dancers, Linda Pashley, Launnie Littowinski, Margaret Retz, Barbara McCormick, Yanet Reta, Haban Reta, Frank Nwagbo, Sr Phyllis, Fernando Madrid, Tony Mapapalangi, Joe Schiwek, Dado Duran, Laura Peraza, Mahari Reta, Marianne Mauldin, Sherry Wagner, Cinderella and Juwisanne Cesar, Linda & Egbert Kunrath, all our musicians and decorators. A very special thanks to Barbara Hays and the Multicultural Committee for taking the lead on this year's celebration.

Listen to the entire mass
Listen to "An Immigrant's Story"

Congratulations to these children who were baptized on June 2:

• D’Mac Michael, Jeremiah Michael, Jacob Michael, Sarayah Tebelak – children of Maverick Tebelak and Daify Michael.
• Amato Gilliam, child of William Gilliam and Lupe Mapapalangi
• Semira Lynae Branch, child of Carl Branch and Assomption Tebelak

Please rejoice with these children and their parents and godparents!

On Sunday May 19 we had the 3rd Annual Joint Mass and Celebration with the Eritrean Community. During mass, they lead the music for three songs -- opening, offertory, and closing. They also read the first two readings in their native language. After mass, they provided a wonderful and exotic meal for all. During the meal we all sang the GIFT song and prayed the GIFT prayer. Then Fiori Redie gave a short, but lovely presentation on how much it means to all of them to worship at St. Charles. It was a great celebration for all.