Reopening for Mass. Reopening for Mass at St. Charles will occur sometime after Multnomah County enters Phase 2. This will allow for a greater number of people to attend. Strict conditions will still apply: physical distancing, masking, sanitizing, no singing, no Communion Cup, no Exchange of Peace, and more.

As of July 9, officials in Portland area counties announced that they will continue to postpone applying for Phase 2 reopening while public health officials wait to see if the July 4th holiday caused a spike in cases.

We will continue to offer the Zoom Service for those who are not yet ready to worship in person. In the meantime, if you wish to attend a weekday Mass, contact Leif at lkehrwald@stcharlespdx.org and he will put you in touch with a neighboring parish.

​
Reopening the Parish Office. The Parish Office has resumed normal hours: Monday thru Thursday, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and Friday 9:00 am to 12 noon. Some staffers will continue to work from home on some days.
 
These procedures are being followed for the sake of keeping our staff and community safe:

• Hand sanitize upon entry to reception area
• Face coverings to be worn in reception area and common work area, and throughout the facility. (Staff are not required to wear mask while in her/his office room, but should put mask on if another person comes in.)
• Physical distancing (6 ft.) required at all times
• Do not enter another person’s office unless invited
• Daily cleaning and sanitizing of the general office area will occur. (Protocols for sanitizing will be posted.)
• Doors to remain open

 
 
Reopening for In-person Meetings at the Parish. In-person meetings can now take place. These protocols must be followed:

• Date/time of meeting must be scheduled in advance through Leif (lkehrwald@stcharlespdx.org)
• Meetings will take place in the Parish Center only, while it remains available prior to construction. Afterward, another meeting room will be designated.
• Meeting must pertain to parish ministry. We are not hosting outside meetings or private parties at this time.
• An accurate roster of attendees must be turned into the parish office immediately at the conclusion of the meeting
• Hand sanitize upon entry
• Facemasks to be worn by all
• Physical distancing (6 ft.) required at all times
• Meeting space must be sanitized at the conclusion of the meeting. Protocols for sanitizing will be posted.
• Doors to remain open.

Today we received an update from Pacific Power on construction and deployment of the electrical substation at NE 42nd and Emerson. The new contact person is Cheryl Carter, and she can be reached at Cheryl.Carter@pacificorp.com. Here is her update:

• Installing poles:  We are planning to begin work on installing the steel transmission poles near the substation starting Monday, 6/8.  This work will take approximately two weeks.  We have obtained a street closure permit from PBOT for Emerson, between 41st and 42nd.  During part of this time a crane is required for lifting the pole sections.   I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience the work may cause the neighbors.  Please call me immediately if you have any concerns at all.
• Substation Energization: We are looking at energizing the substation in mid-to late July.   We will notify the neighbors a few days prior to any planned outages that may be required when we energize the substation. 
• Landscaping:  I have attached our landscaping plans for around the substation.  We do not have a timeline for installing the landscaping at this time, but hope to have an update soon.  These plans were shared with the immediate neighbors a few weeks ago.
• West wall:  Our current working plan is to install the same type of wall on the west side as the existing north wall, just inside the west fence line that is 16’ tall.  The wall needs to be permitted by the City of Portland so their feedback on design as well as input of the acoustical engineer still need to be taken into account.  The acoustical engineer will be able to make recommendations on the design for noise reduction.  We will work with the immediate neighbors once the design is available to share.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we have not had Mass, or received Communion. While some parishes have re-opened for Mass on a limited basis, we have not done so at St. Charles. We continue to rely on our Sunday Zoom Liturgy of the Word.

At a recent meeting of the Liturgy Committee, it was discussed that we should poll the St. Charles community to see if there are people who really want to attend a weekday mass for the sake of receiving the Eucharist. The conditions and guidelines for attending mass are:

• Attend at your own risk
• No more than 25 persons
• Sign up in advance with name and phone number
• List of attendees would be handed over to the State if requested
• Sanitize hands going in
• Physical distancing required at all times
• Facemasks to be worn
• Communion with bread only
• No singing, holy water, exchange of peace
• No congregating before or after

If you would like to attend weekday Mass under these conditions, please indicate on the form below.

​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