The parish staff gathered for a working retreat August 15-17. Those present were: Leif Kehrwald, Fr. Elwin Schwab, Mayra Torres, Kathryn Bernert, Julie Hommes, Fernando Madrid, and Gabe Triplett.
 
Fr. Jack Mosbrucker facilitated our discussions for Day 1 and Day 2. (Day 3 was spent coordinating the parish calendar for the 2016-17 program year.)
 
Here is a brief summary of our discussions for Day 1 and Day 2.
 
Issues
We identified issues that need to be addressed this year. Our list included (not prioritized):

• Calendar and parish space bookings
• Baptism Prep – who will staff
• Call to Protect – who will staff
• Pastoral Council – staff presence at meetings
• Multi-cultural issues – translation, other
• Staff communication
• Parish communication
• Faith formation across the lifecycle
• Relationship building
• Facility rental issues
• Music

 
As we discussed these issues, we took the attitude that we wanted to question any and all assumptions about how to do effective parish ministry in the 21st century.
 
Five Years
We then brainstormed factors, characteristics, and hopes for St. Charles and the Cully Neighborhood five years hence. After brainstorming, we prioritized issues. Two issues emerged quite strongly:

1. Lifelong faith formation for the whole parish community; faith formation for adults, youth, children, and families.
2. Liturgy that reflects the current makeup of the community and the neighborhood

 
We then spent in-depth time talking about faith formation at St. Charles. We listed the program items that reflect the current situation:

• Faith formation typically is focused on children & youth
• Atrium classroom
• Sacramental prep
• Children’s liturgy of the Word
• Confirmation
• Youth Groups (Jr & Sr high)
• Adult Ed series
• RCIA/RCIC
• Latino Bible Study

 
Next Steps
With these items in mind, we developed some “target” statements; goals that we should strive for:

• Faith formation is lifelong, there is no graduation
• Faith formation is multi lingual and multi cultural
• Faith formation is both gathered and non-gathered – facilitated by becoming more digitally enabled
• Faith formation can be aligned around a single, rich theme so that all ages receive more or less the same message at the same time
• Faith formation is integrated with other ministries of the parish, particularly liturgy

 
Leif has worked with many parishes and churches on developing a whole community approach to faith formation that is lifelong, intergenerational and digitally enabled. He will bring a detailed plan and timeline to the parish staff by Aug 31. The staff will then bring ideas and recommendations to the Pastoral Council and other key leadership groups.
 
The staff will also engage in a similar discussion process to address the second key priority around liturgy.
 
Stay tuned! We’ll keep you up in the loop on our thinking and planning.

​Acting on the decision of the Parish Administrative Council, this week we had the two large Cedar trees on Killingsworth removed. We are sad about this, but there really was no other choice.

The issue is safety.

Because of the way the trees have been gouged by the power company, some arborists have told us the trees are not completely viable in the face of a severe storm.

And, as you may know, the roots have buckled the sidewalk, driveway, and parking area. The city has cited us for this and we are required to repair the sidewalk and driveway. This involves excavating around and under the roots, as well as cutting some of the roots, further compromising the trees. As a result, no arborist would guarantee the viability of these trees after roots have been cut. Safety is even more at risk.

Our neighbor just to the east has a pre-school on the property, in the shadow of those trees. For several months, they have expressed their concern for safety of the children and have requested — demanded — that we remove the trees.

This decision was not made lightly or in isolation. We have consulted with several arborists, representatives from the archdiocese and the city, those who understand the legalities involved, and others. Input was consistent: for the sake of due diligence; for the sake of safety of all involved the trees should be removed. 

The city requires us to plant replacement trees, and we are happy to do so. The replacements do not have to be the same kind or in the same place. Soon, we will make those decisions.

Thank you for your understanding.