PARISHES REPRESENTED: Our Lady of the Assumption; Our Lady of Mercy; St. Ambrose; St. Clare’s; St. Francis de Sales; St. Pius X

FACILITATOR:  SR. ANNE BRYAN-SMOLIN

REPORTER:     LILLIAN CUNNIFF

SR. ANNE:  In taking a look at the new booklet, I don't want you to think it's an impossible thing.  As a matter of fact, I think it's going to be a much smoother process than we're thinking.  I want everybody to sit back and relax, and we'll get this to happen.

Tonight's agenda is going to be a bit different.  We'll do the opening prayer, obviously, and then after the prayer I've asked Fr. Burke and Fr. Noone, who is not here yet, to give an overview of a meeting that we had with the pastors, the parish life director, and myself -- we all met for lunch.  We had this meeting where we took a look at the whole plan and the booklet.

And so, if we could first have an overview of that, and a little bit of a discussion on what will happen.  There are four committees that obviously we all have to address, and then see where we go from here.  It may not be that we then continue to have this meeting where we come once a month this way.  And that's what we need to decide.  We'll decide it together, and then see where it's going to go.  We need all of your input and feedback.

Before we begin any of the meeting, I'm going to ask Mary – Fr. Waldron is not able to be here, and we knew this when we scheduled this meeting if you remember.  However, he has done all of his homework.  Not only has he done his homework, but he has prepared the prayer service for this evening and the hospitality for this evening, also.  So, I'm going to turn this over to Mary, and we'll begin with prayer.  I believe everyone has a copy of the prayer.

MARY NICHOLSON:  My name is Mary Nicholson, and on behalf of Fr. Waldron and the entire community here, we welcome you to Our Lady of Mercy this evening.  And if we can begin remembering that we are in the presence of our loving God.

(The opening prayer was conducted.)

SR. ANNE:  As I said earlier, one of the agendas for tonight is to take a look at the whole plan and what really came about.  I asked Fr. Burke –- and I'm going to continue to ask him -- and Nancy Volks was at the meeting, and you certainly can contribute -- and who else was there – Fr. DuBois is not here tonight -- and neither is Fr. Noone at this point, and he was going to give part of this -- so, we'll depend on Fr. Burke.  He's very capable and competent, and he can certainly give us an overview of the meeting.

FR. BURKE:  If the other participants don't show up, I get a little bit nervous.  So, don't shoot the messenger, all right.

I think what transpired in December -- other than Christmas -- I had a conversation with Sr. Anne, and then the other pastors, and Nancy as Parish Life Director -- is that having gotten this volume of material, that we felt it was important for us to come together as leadership and just to talk about that, to kind of brainstorm to see if we're anywhere on the same page having read all of this material, what has been expected of us, meeting deadlines, and so forth.

So, we got together at the pastoral center and we spent a couple of hours just chit-chatting among ourselves about what the experience has been, and what we are being asked to do between now and the end of June, and then where do we go in the future.  And there were a couple of things that were thrown out at that meeting.

Maybe everyone may not be aware that Fr. Waldron's plan is to retire at the end of June of this year.  And there has been some conversation already between the Pastoral Planning Office and the Office of Administrative Advocate with Our Lady Of Mercy.  And I know that Fr. Noone had addressed this maybe in connection to St. Francis de Sales.

As we begin just looking at what we're asked to do, one of the suggestions that was thrown out is, do we need to at this point to stay together as a large group as the plan has called for, or do we divide into North Colonie/South Colonie, two sub-groups that are working on the same material, the same projects, the same goals and tasks, and would that facilitate coming to a better understanding of what this whole process is about?  No decisions were made as to that decision at that meeting.  We wanted to come back to you and say this is what we were talking about, and get some feedback from you as to how we proceed.

The idea is that there may be better linkages that can happen, or that can happen more naturally, on one side of town than the other, but there might also be wonderful opportunities, as we have discussed along the way in the past year, of doing large group presentations or programs that would benefit all of the parishes.  But are we getting bogged down at times with everybody trying to come together to work on one issue or one topic that's being presented?

So, that's kind of a broad-base, broad-brush summary of where we were.  Maybe Fr. Noone might like to add to that.

FR. NOONE:  Well, I missed the first part of what you said.

FR. BURKE:  The first part was that I was wondering where the rest of you guys were.

FR. NOONE:  I thought it was at St. Clare's.  No.  I think that in the discussion we had earlier, we kind of ran into a situation…..most of you are probably aware that we made an arrangement with the Korean community to assume a responsibility for our Exchange Street church.  That happened at the end of last year.  And normally we would have at that point revised our Mass schedule because we had two weekend Masses at Exchange Street and three at Maria Drive.

So, closing our participation in the Exchnage Street church would mean we would rely on the Mass schedule.  But I thought there was no point in revising that in light of Fr. Waldron's retirement, changing that in December and then having to change it again in April, and then maybe having to change it in June, and then maybe having to change it at the end of this process.  I think that would be confusing.

So that, plus an employment issue, brought up the question of whether we ought to look into some sort of scheduling between ourselves earlier than we might have otherwise had anticipated.  And that discussion has gone no further than that.  I think the first scheduled meeting was cancelled because of snow, and then there was another meeting and I'm really not privy to any further discussion that happened at those meetings.

FR. BURKE:  Any thoughts, questions, reactions?

PARTICIPANT:  What's the advantage and disadvantage of a North Colonie/South Colonie separation?

FR. BURKE:  I think one of the things is in terms of scheduling, that North Colonie and South Colonie have two different school districts.  If anybody knows that there's one calendar that dictates everyone's life, it's the school calendar.  That could be a potential conflict.

The other thing, especially in terms of travel or if there is the expectation of priests within this large six parish group to do the coverage, it's very unrealistic to think that you can get from one side of town to the other if you are really going to cover.  And probably the linkages have to be made a little bit differently.

For example, during Advent, Nancy asked me if I would come over to St. Clare's for the penance service -- which was wonderful and I enjoyed it.  But, just out of curiosity, I timed myself and it took me 22 minutes to get from Assumption to St. Clare's.  Well, on a Sunday morning if you were eating up an hour just coming and going, you're not going to make the Mass schedule.  So, I think you have to be more creative in how we would cover the parishes.

But I think, for example, when we get to, like penance services, if all of the parishes can come up with a schedule and say, all right, this is what ours is going to be, the priests assigned within the six parishes can come together and help, then I see that as a real advantage, a real strength.

And I think there are great advantages. For example, Lent is coming up.  If each of the six parishes during the six weeks of Lent hosted and came together and had speakers to come in that everyone could take advantage of, I think we would have a much stronger spiritual and adult education program.

Those are the kinds of things that I see.  There are some things that, on a smaller group level, would be more attainable than larger groups, which would also keep us together and strengthen everybody's parish life.

SR. ANNE:  Could I just clarify this?  Because if you read this over -- and I'm sure that all of you have read over the total booklet -- you realize that one of our tasks is to make sure that we're addressing the six parishes.  We have three options:  close a parish; merge parishes; and link them -- link services.  The reality is that these six parishes are pretty viable.  Now, if you can come up and say we should close ours, I don't know, I'm not here to say you shouldn't do that.  But that doesn't look like that is the expectation for the six parishes.  They're pretty viable parishes.

But the reality is we need to link these parishes, we need to link the services.  Part of that is the sacramental ministry.  And so it just seems that, geographically, it looked like if the linkage was between the North Colonie parishes and, separately, the South Colonie parishes, perhaps the services could be linked in a better way.  We're not saying it has to happen that way.  It's just that we're suggesting to you that could be one of the ways that we address it.  But we have no opinion as to whether or not we link, and that became clear.

I had another meeting after our meeting, and there must be linkages.  We don't even have to merge.  We can keep all six parishes, but there has to be that linkage.  So, we want to do it in a way that the services are being given to the people.

FR. NOONE:  This planning group is supposed to go from six priests to five.  And from what I understand from talking to the Chancery, the situation at St. Clare's [Fr. Waldron’s retirement] is not considered a reduction of a priest.  So, there's going to be another reduction of a priest.  Wouldn't it make it more difficult if you break into two groups as far as Prayer And Worship, to be able to coordinate?  There would need to be help between the North Colonie group and South Colonie group for the Sunday Mass schedule.

You pointed out that it's a 22 minute drive, but that's from one extreme to the other of these six parishes.  There are other parishes that are closer to each other; for example, between St. Pius and St. Francis.  Shouldn't the Prayer and Worship Committee continue to work as a group of six parishes to come up with the best schedule for everybody -- the best Sunday Mass schedule for everybody?  And then maybe other groups can be broken up into two groups of three.

SR. ANNE:  What Dave is saying -- they're having trouble hearing you -- the comment was that should Prayer and Worship be looked at as the six parishes, because that's dependent on the number of priests that are present.  I'm not quite sure that you have that accurate.  We're going to lose Fr. Waldron, but we're working with the group that we have.

FR. NOONE:  Well, if Our Lady of Mercy doesn't have a priest, then that would be going from six to five.  But to cover it, I would think all six parishes now would pitch in to make sure that there's a Mass schedule throughout the six parishes.  So I think there's going to need to be priests from the North Colonie side coming to the South Colonie side to make sure that a schedule can be set up to serve all of the needs of all of the parishes.  That's the only point.  I just think if the Prayer and Worship Committee was made up of two groups of three, it is going to make it difficult.

SR. ANNE:  Well, let us all be honest with each other.  It's a give and take.  It is not going to stay the same.  And I can't let you go on thinking that.

FR. BURKE:  Fr. Konopka considers himself as part of the number in this group.  His liturgical assignment is to do this cluster, all right.  And I know I'm not supposed to use that word.  I'm dating myself.

One of the other realities that we brought up -- that I brought up particularly because it's in my own back yard -- I have the Sisters of St. Joseph.  I am also the Chaplain for the Sisters of St. Joseph and I say Mass there almost every day.  The Franciscans usually say Mass there on Friday.  But that's another entire entity that needs priestly service -- anointings, and  burials, and jubilees and so forth.  We don't have any baptisms, but we have everything else.

But that then also opened up the conversation on the North Colonie side of town. The fact that we also have Our Lady of Hope right behind St. Ambrose, we have St. Coleman's also over in Watervliet.  Those are all entities that have to be worked in that are not included in this plan.  If you read it frontwards and backwards, it's not there, but they do exist.

PARTICIPANT:  So, is that part of this planning or not?

FR. BURKE:  I think it has to be.

PARTICIPANT:  What about the nursing homes?

FR. BURKE:  I don't think that there needs to be nursing homes in the sense that we go to Colonie Manor and say Mass.  The religious houses, particularly the Provincial House because of its size, are the direct responsibility of the Bishop to provide sacramental ministry for the Sisters who are living.

PARTICIPANT:  In relation to that, is it expected that they would have Mass every day?

FR. BURKE:  It has not been fully discussed.  But certainly we would have Mass on the weekend.  So, if we were building a Mass schedule, that has to be included.

PARTICIPANT:  I remember reading in the booklet what a linkage was, but now I can't find it.  So, can you refresh my memory as to what you mean by linkage between parishes?

FR. BURKE:  My understanding is that linkage is where two parish communities relate in a loose federation.

PARTICIPANT:  It's on page 27.

SR. ANNE:  We need to look at linkages, not just in the sacramental area.  We need to look at linkages as far as finances, as far as grounds and upkeep, et cetera.  So, I'm throwing out things like that because it's a much broader thing.  And that's the responsibility of all of us within this group to look at the total picture of each one of the parishes.

PARTICIPANT:  That was one of my questions when I started reading the information and we were talking about splitting and committees.  If you don't know how things are going to relate, if that decision is made, how can you make other determinations if you don't know -- you know, like if this parish and St. Francis get linked, then how do you know how you're going to share administrative costs, finances, everything like that, when you can't make those other determinations?

SR. ANNE:  But you have to decide as a group how these are all going to be made.
PARTICIPANT:  But not do it in individual little committees.  You have to do that upfront and then go to your committees and say, okay, this is how these two parishes are going to be linked, now how are we going to make it work. You know what I'm saying?

PARTICIPANT:  I think what Carla is saying is that, before all of the other committees can start making plans and proposals, we have to come to a conclusion exactly which parishes are going to be linked, and what the configuration is going to be before anything else can be started.

PARTICIPANT:  So you know where you're going.

SR. ANNE:  I think that's one of the ways that we looked at North Colonie and South Colonie, so the linkage is North Colonie’s three churches, and South Colonie’s three churches.  That doesn't mean that there's not a share of other things.  But as a linkage -- as a sacramental linkage, and perhaps even as an administrative linkage -- we thought it would be easier to look at.

FR. NOONE:  There might be more or less linkages.  For example, the first thing that comes to my mind would be, say, for example daily Mass. It might be much easier for us at Our Lady of Mercy and St. Francis to link a daily Mass than it would be for us to link with St. Clare's.  That might not be practical.  So, that might be a close linkage between the two of us.

On a broader linkage, I can see if we were to combine our maintenance staff into one maintenance staff that served all of our three parishes in South Colonie, so they worked as a team -- I mean, you'd have to work out the details in terms of the individual needs of each parish -- that might be a broader linkage.  So, I think it could be a mix of closeness in some ways, but distance in some other ways.  Does that make sense?

SR. ANNE:  These are just things that we threw out because we were trying to identify possible linkage.  There could be very creative ways of being linked that are in your head right now or will come up in our discussion that will also follow.  We're just trying to clarify it.

PARTICIPANT:  I think one of the things to keep in mind is that a linkage doesn't mean like a total linkage between two parishes.

SR. ANNE:  But that's a good distinction because we're not talking merger, we're talking linkage.  Unless you want to talk merger.

FR. CHILDS:  I just want to speak on behalf of Fr. DuBois who can't be here tonight, but he was at that meeting earlier last week.  What he wanted me to convey to the group is that he is, as I think much of our parish is, in favor of the division in terms of a North Colonie and a South Colonie.  Which in relationship to an e-mail sent out by Fr. Noone would then require the division of those other committees, Prayer and Worship, Finance, Administration, and Christian Service, requiring a double set of those.

Also, in regard to one of the questions raised in the e-mail concerning where would sacramental preparation fall, in terms of our understanding, that would best fall under Faith Formation, as opposed to Prayer And Worship.

Also, there was a large chunk of sub-topics under the general administration category that I think we do agree should be divided up, or at least looked at in a different lens.

And then, finally, questions that he asked me to raise would be when, where, and how are those sub-committee meetings going to be getting underway, who would be recording them, who would be the secretary, how would they then be brought back to either this full large group which would still continue if it would, or the large group representing each of North and South should that become a reality?

And I think that one of the other things he was aware of that we all probably are, is that there's a significant time crunch for a lot of this.  Because here we're into the midway part of January, and they want things due by a certain date in June.

SR. ANNE:  One area of clarification.  I hear what you're saying, that we're in more or less of a time crunch.  But let me say something.  We will do the best we can do, and maybe we'll get this done quickly.  But I would like to change one word that Tony has just thrown out.  It cannot be a “division”.  This is a cluster, and it still is a cluster.  So, what we're suggesting is two sub-groups with North Colonie/South Colonie, not a division, all right?  Because, potentially, after we look at North Colonie/South Colonie, maybe there could even be some linkage on other levels.  But we were called to be in one cluster, and we don't have the right to be able to break the cluster.  So, we're still one cluster, all right?

PARTICIPANT:  When I was talking before, I was thinking financially.  Churches, even though they were linked, they could remain independent financially.

PARTICIPANT:  I guess I have one concern, and that is regarding the number of clergy that would be in North Colonie versus South Colonie.  And I'm not opposing that we do this, but I see some potential problems with Fr. Waldron retiring at the end of '08; there is no pastor at St. Clare's; that would only leave one full-time priest in South Colonie as opposed to --

(Several people in the group began speaking all at the same time.)

Oh, I'm sorry, I had a misunderstanding.  Anyway, that is my concern.

SR. ANNE:  And the reality is that we have nothing to say about Fr. Waldron retiring.  We know he is going to retire.  However, no decision can be made until after all this planning process is over.  So, it's not like there is somebody that's going to resign and whatever.  And perhaps it's a good timing for all of this.

Let me share a conversation that I didn't get a chance to share with the people that I met with for lunch.  But I did meet again with Jack Manning after this and I said, "My group has really done a whole lot of things that they don't know they've linked yet".  You've linked some things.  So, what we need to do is to -- in the sections that you'll be working with, go back over and see the things that we have linked, and see how we can propose to keep those linkages going.

The comment was:  We don't need to take six months if we don't need it.  You're probably going to say we need it.  His comment was that you can do it in two and hand us the linkages.  We don't care.  Do whatever is going to work for you.

So, I think if we really and truly look at these four sections, when you take one section and look at the parishes that are in that linkage, and look at ways that that linkage can happen, we need to also talk about how we're going to continue the meetings.  Tony's question coming from Frank DuBois is really important.  The group's responsibility will be for the group to meet, and they have to work outside of this.  So, it's not like the next time you come together is the next meeting that's scheduled for February.  So, we may not meet in February if we don't want to.  It's up to where we all go, and what we think we need to do.

FR. BURKE:  At that meeting, I thought there was a suggestion that was raised that each of the sub-committees would have a chairperson.  That chairperson would be responsible for bringing the recordings of that meeting to another meeting with the parish leadership and Sr. Anne, which would prevent doubling up on meetings every month.

SR. ANNE:  That was another option…..that within your group you would have a chairperson like Fr. Burke says, and that chairperson will meet like the six of us that met the other day for lunch with Jack Manning.  But we'll extend the group now to also include the chairs of the committees, and we'll kind of work together from there.  So, it doesn't necessarily mean that we will meet next month.  That's the thing.

FR. BURKE:  But people may want to as well.

SR. ANNE:  They may want to, but it doesn't mean we have to.

FR. NOONE:  I think that's something that the group has to decide.  We don't decide ourselves.

There is a possibility that -- you know, there's one format that the parish council has even suggested that parish council and the parish committees all meet on the same night and begin with prayer, and then they all break up and have their meetings, and then come back and have a final report.  Now, that's certainly a possibility that we would all still meet on the same night and break into committees.

However, on the other side, one of the concerns brought up in our group meeting was that means that the people who are on, say, Administration, the only thing they would ever really hear is about administration…..they wouldn't know what is happening in Liturgy or those other two committees.  So, that would be the downside of that.  So, I don't know how we would work that out.

PARTICIPANT:  That's just raising a question about North and South Colonie, the communication between the two groups.  When, at the end, it has to be a combined report, would there be times when, say, the Administration committee from North Colonie would meet as a group?  That type of thing.

SR. ANNE:  It doesn't mean that we won't continue to meet once in awhile as a whole group either.  We have lots of options here.

Are there other questions?  Let me just get a feel.  Because you have heard us say clearly -- and this was clearly stated again -- that we need to at least link.  There has to be the linkage.  It doesn't seem like a much –- I don't want to say faster -- but would it facilitate the process if we looked at the two groups, North Colonie and South Colonie?  You're saying “no”.

PARTICIPANT:  I just have one question.  We spent a year with all of us working together.  We spent a year together trying to identify strengths and priorities from each parish in all kinds of areas.  And when it comes to this critical step of defining linkages, suddenly geography becomes the only consideration -- not the only, but perhaps the strongest consideration.  I'm not opposed to geography.  It makes sense.  But was nothing else considered for linkages?  With all of the work we did for a year, were there no other linkage opportunities – small parish/large parish, strong religious education program, strong marital prep program -- there's no other decision-making, no other criteria beyond geography?

SR. ANNE:  Remember what I said, and please remember this, this is still one cluster. We still need to come back.  We were looking at that as a way to facilitate at the present time.  And it doesn't mean that that linkage wouldn't also then be looked at again as the whole picture.  But it was a way to be able to address it.  At this point, we're looking for a process to be able to do it.

PARTICIPANT:  When Fr. Waldron and I met on Sunday, and he was trying to describe to me the actual process of the meeting schedule and what was happening, I thought what might be the easiest is if all of the committees set their own schedule.  We can have a recorder document everything.  But then, based upon our current schedule, just send one representative from your committee -- I was thinking with all six parishes attending the meeting like they are now.  But the recorder doesn't have to go.  Once you've got the notes in front of you, you've been there.  You can rotate the assignment as to how many people need to come to another monthly meeting.  And then we're going to find out what's happening on the North side, and they can find out what's happening on the South side.  So, once a month we could come together and pool all of our ideas together and then bring it back to your respective committee that you've been working on, and then work on it in a nice small group.

PARTICIPANT:  I thought you said before that the linkages didn't just have to be two parishes, but that some of the things would include all six parishes.  As that gentleman just said, a strong marriage program, or even the bereavement committees.

SR. ANNE:  Absolutely.  It does not negate that at all.

PARTICIPANT:  How would you know –- like if you're in the South Colonie side, and you're dealing with those committees, how would you know that there's a really strong program on the North side that's going to be beneficial to your group?

SR. ANNE:  Does anybody else want to address that?  My comments would be that we have been working together for several months, and all of our parishes are represented here.  So, those groups will address it -- we have a really strong program, and we can do this and this – and then you would link up.  And that's why there have to be representatives on every single committee from each parish, so that we look at it that way.

PARTICIPANT:  If we form our committees, that's where we'll get our information concerning what we're going to be doing when it comes out of each committee.  It doesn't have to be together.  I understood that, for example, the diocese will give financial information on each church to the finance committee so they can have facts to work with to do the recommendations.  I don't think we can decide anything now.

SR. ANNE:  I believe that there will be reports that give information like that.  The reports have not been sent out, I don't believe.  (A lot of conversation at the same time.)  The finances have been sent out?  Each parish has the finances?

FR. CHILDS:  Those reports were sent to each parish, and they should have been reviewed by each parish and then sent back to the diocese by the end of December if there were any corrections, I think.

PARTICIPANT:  They revised the deadline for parishes to send back the financial data.

PARTICIPANT:  If we broke up into the sub-committees, do we know approximately how many will be on each sub-committee?  Would they be workable committees?  Like, in other words, the Christian Service committee, how many would be in that, and would it be workable so they could kind of talk back and forth to each other?  And I'm sorry, I can't remember your name, but I thought his point was really good.  Also some parishes maybe do have financial -- more finances than others, and have these wonderful programs that everyone could benefit from.

I also think that we do have a great wealth with the Carondolets [the Sisters of St. Joseph].  We have a lot of other community things that are available, too, that could be part of our programs.

PARTICIPANT:  We did address the number of people per committee, and I think our thought was that around three from each parish would be a workable number.  I know that we kind of talked about that at St. Clare's.

SR. ANNE:  Would it seem like a good spot right now to see how we could be able to move toward -- some of you I know have already been contacted and told what committee you've been assigned to.  Others have not.  We have the use of this church -- this beautiful church -- and we also have what we call a blue room.  Now, I'm not from here so I don't know where that is, but we will find it.  What if we have North Colonie stay here, and South Colonie go there?  And then when we get into these groups -- these are the four as you know, because you have read over that book I'm sure several times -- these are the four committees that we need.

FR. NOONE:  Before we do that I think we have to decide about the issue that Tony brought up, that one committee I think has altogether too much to handle.  I think Finance has got maintenance, it's got personnel, human resources, and I forget what else.  I think it's too big.  I think that may need to be subdivided into whatever categories seem to be the best connected.

SR. ANNE:  Then perhaps it's for that committee to go through those and say perhaps this committee would address this a little bit better than we can, and we can delegate.

FR. NOONE:  You can't turn it over to Liturgy, you can't turn it over to Faith Formation.  It has to be a sub-committee of that committee -- not a sub-committee, but within Administration there has to be Administration 1 and Administration 2.  One committee is going to handle personnel and whatever else –- personnel and finance.

SR. ANNE:  I agree.  And perhaps we need to have a few more members on that committee then.  After the committees come together, that's another option to look at.  The Administration Committee could make that determination and add more people.

FR. NOONE:  Then that makes it too large a committee.

SR. ANNE:  But if they were subdivided and had certain responsibilities assigned to the two -- you know, subdivide the responsibilities.  Then that's a workable way, too.

We need four committees.  Prayer And Worship is one, Faith Formation, Christian Service, and Church Administration.  Those are the four committees.

PARTICIPANT:  It's not like we're creating a whole new committee with looking at different areas.  We're taking the areas from the recommended areas, and just saying let's have two committees because –-

FR. NOONE:  That's up to the Administration committee to decide how they want to split it up, and how they want to delegate the responsibilities.

SR. ANNE:  And I think the important thing is how to subdivide what responsibilities.

PARTICIPANT:  Well, I'm not sure we have enough people then.  Because we would have the same number of people doing twice the number of responsibilities.  It seems like we do need more people, even if we have sub-committees.

SR. ANNE:  There  are nine people per committee, and perhaps if we have people with expertise in that area, then those people will also come onto your committee.

PARTICIPANT:  I'm a little confused. There are four committees?  So, there's going to be eight committees.  There's going to be North Colonie and South Colonie, is that what you're saying?

SR. ANNE:  We are going to work that way.  There will be four committees.  But we have now looked at North Colonie and South Colonie, and they're going to look at the linkages that can happen within these four committees.  We're one cluster, and we are going to come back together and look at ways that we can be able to do this.  But it makes it much easier to be able to look at the linkages in the two groups.  I need you to keep thinking about that, too…..one cluster.  We don't have the right to break this into two clusters.

FR. BURKE:  One of the things that I think we have to keep in mind is that there is a model that is already working within the six parishes.  And I'm not the best one to address this, but I would say that people who are here for Faith Formation, Religious Education, that group of people, they meet together regularly, they discuss programs, they discuss what textbooks are out, what are the strengths, the weaknesses of the various programs, they evaluate, they come together, they meet on a monthly basis, they are working around the year on that.  And they keep a wonderful contact, they float between parishes, they have Christmas parties -- and once in awhile I get a cookie out of them -- but I bring that up because I think it's a working model.  And I think it's something for us to keep in front of us, that this is not scary, this is something that people are already doing and it's working quite well.  We just need to advance it to the level of, all right, let's take Prayer And Worship in six parishes and how is that working, and is it going to work best if three and three link one way, or they do certain programs together throughout the year.  That's all I think we're really trying to achieve here.

SR. ANNE:  This is your last chance.

PARTICIPANT:  I think there's a great benefit for people talking and communicating together.  So, I'm appealing to having one, say, Faith Formation committee, for example.  Because, as Father mentioned, that's almost working now with six parishes.  But when they meet, the group can decide, through talking and conversation, what things work best as a North Colonie, what things work best as a South Colonie, what things might work across all six parishes.  But it's going to be very difficult to do that if we're having half of the group meet South and half of the group meet North.  Why not have the whole committee meet together, and let the committees subdivide the night that they meet?  One can meet in one room or on the other side of the hall, and then come together and discuss, say, Faith Formation in terms of the sacraments of initiation, what might work best; would it be North/South, would it be all of us together?  And I think that same model would work very well for all of the other committees.

SR. ANNE:  Now you're back to one committee instead of North and South.

FR. CHILDS:  It might not be a bad idea to perhaps put it to a vote as to whether or not we want to -- without using the “d” word (“division”)--

PARTICIPANT:  I have a solution.  Why don't you just let the committees get together and decide on their own whether they feel that they can be more productive together or more productive being split into North and South Colonie?  Wouldn't that make more sense?

SR. ANNE:  Those of you who are in favor of having one committee, and letting that committee decide whether you would like to stay as one committee or subdivide into North Colonie/South Colonie, can we just see a show of hands, please?

(The group raised hands.)

Those of you who think that the option might be facilitated by having two, a North Colonie and a South Colonie, and then the linkage between the two of them and come back together -- because remember it's not separate, okay.  So, North Colonie and South Colonie, those of you that are in favor of that, can we see the hands?

(The group raised hands.)

So, it's about 50/50.  You're not helping.

FR. NOONE:  You realize we have a committee of 18.  Is that a workable committee, to be a committee of 18?

PARTICIPANT:  Sister, there may not be a committee of 18.  If it's a smaller, simpler committee, maybe we don't need more than one person from each parish for that committee.  For Administration, we may need more as they subdivide.

SR. ANNE:  A reason that we're separating, John, is because we had said at that meeting that each parish would have three reps; we wanted to link all of our representation.

PARTICIPANT:  I think, for tonight, I would kind of like to see the faces of the other people who are on the committee from North Colonie just to see who they are.  And then at that point at least I'll have met them.

SR. ANNE:  But you're South Colonie?

PARTICIPANT:  I'm South Colonie.  And then, you know, I have no problem with us working independently, and then coming together.  But I certainly would at least like the opportunity to meet.

SR. ANNE:  Would it facilitate the process if we had the four committees in this group meet in this church, and then have the group talk together?  Would that help?  I'm aware of the fact that it's almost 8:00 o'clock, and we do need to move with at least starting the process so that we can see where we go.  So, let me throw out the option of staying right here right now with the four groups.  And then, as the groups meet, we'll get a piece of paper with North Colonie/South Colonie names, et cetera.  We'll do that.  But talk tonight about where we go, and what happens.  You know, you're not starting all over.  You've done a lot of this work already.  So, it's pulling it together, it's summarizing, it's not starting all over.  Let's see how it goes for the next 20 minutes.

PARTICIPANT:  At St. Pius, we don't have all of our people who are going to be assigned to the committees here tonight.  They're not all part of the “Called To Be Church” core group.  We have some other parishioners who will be involved, but they're not here.

SR. ANNE:  Is that true for all the parishes?  Other people are saying that all of the people are not here.  So, would it then facilitate tonight's meeting to say if we break into the groups and that group then decides how -- you know, who's the chair, how they're going to get everybody together, when is the next meeting, how they're going to meet, what happens?  And then we'll talk to you in a few minutes and see where you all are.  Would that work for tonight?

(At 8:00 p.m. the entire group was split into four groups:  Prayer and Worship, Faith Formation, Christian Service, Church Administration.  Individual groups met for 45 minutes, then the large group meeting resumed at 8:45 p.m.)

SR. ANNE:  As you all come together -- and I realize that some of the groups are not totally complete -- there have been some suggestions as to meetings.  But I've been informed that some of you have already established when the meeting will be; is that correct?  We will go through the lists to make sure that there are people on every list from each parish.  And there are some people obviously that are missing from these groups tonight.

(Four lists were gathered by the reporter to be included with the minutes of the meeting.)

Some questions were being asked.  One, I know that the binder came at a time that was very difficult because it was Christmas, and there were all kinds of things happening, and family responsibilities at that time were numerous.  But I would hope that you would take the time to read that booklet.  Obviously, some people have not read it and it's really helpful.  Someone asked me to clarify it to this group; so, let me clarify it.  If you read it all the way through -- and many of you have, and I'm not trying to single out those of you who have not -- you will read that, if we do not establish the linkages, the diocese will do it for you.  So, the truth is we want ownership in these six parishes so that people who are looking at the parishes are making sure that the needs of people in this area are being met.  So, the challenge is for all of us to own that, and not to just sit back and say we don't have to get it done.  It's pretty clear, it's pretty black and white what's on those sheets that they've given us a time frame, but if we don't take the responsibility, then they will take on the responsibility.  I just throw that out because I was asked to clarify it.

Are there any other kinds of questions or clarifications, or what are you sitting here thinking about right now besides the fact that you didn't have time for your refreshments?  No questions?

PARTICIPANT:  I just want to comment that our committee is wonderful.

SR. ANNE:  We're happy that your committee is wonderful.

PARTICIPANT:  So is ours.

SR. ANNE:  And that's a wonderful way to start, to start with a wonderful committee.  I would like to say something.  I truly believe every person in this room is.  I really do.  I have a lot of respect for what I have watched happen over the last year, and I just think that you really are.

Any other clarifications or questions?

PARTICIPANT:  Yeah, a camel is a horse designed by a committee.

SR. ANNE:  Statements like that come with creativity, so I don't want to put down anything here.  I want anything to be able to come out and let it happen.  Committees can be helpful if you all put it together and see where it goes.  You know, nobody says we can't have a good time while we're doing it either.

Anybody else have questions, clarifications?

PARTICIPANT:  Did all of the other committees set dates?

SR. ANNE:  Did all of the committees set dates to meet as a committee?  Prayer and Worship?

ANSWER:  Yes.

SR.ANNE:  Prayer and Worship did.  Faith Formation, did you set a date?

ANSWER:  No.

SR. ANNE:  They did not.  And Christian Service, did they set up a date?

ANSWER:  We were going to do the same date as “Called To Be Church”.

SR. ANNE:  We were going to try to do it the same day as “Called To Be Church”.  So, what you're suggesting is that you meet for the first hour, and then we meet as a whole group the second hour.  That's what that group is suggesting?

ANSWER:  Yes.

SR. ANNE:  What about Administration, did they set a date?

ANSWER:  Yes.

FR. CHILDS:  I have a question regarding a memo you sent out November 8.  Will we still continue to meet according to the dates --

SR. ANNE:  That's the next question, Tony.  Are we going to continue meeting, or do you want to replace this large group meeting with your committee meeting, and then every so often we get together as a group.  Where are you in that?

FR. BURKE:  For the Prayer and Worship Committee, we felt it would be important if we continue to meet in the large group and then each of the sub-groups, the four groups, would meet independently.  So that if something comes up, we are all here, you can do that cross- fertilization of the committees.  For example, one of the first things that we talked about between two groups, Faith Formation and Prayer and Worship, was sacramental preparation.  And so, immediately we could cross between the two groups and resolve questions of how that was going to go.  I think that would be really helpful if, for at least the next couple of months, we stay on that calendar and we're all here together.

SR. ANNE:  Okay.  The proposal at this point is to let us continue, at least for the next two or three months, to meet as a group.

PARTICIPANT:  Is that part of the format of the regular scheduled meetings?

SR. ANNE:  It's up to us to decide what we want.  There is no more specific format.

PARTICIPANT:  There's no set agenda for those meetings?

SR. ANNE:  No, there is no set agenda.  The agenda could be that we come together and that we have the sub-group committees perhaps for the first hour, and then come together and talk.  But we would also have the record and, as Fr. Burke said, you could be able to reference it and talk to each other.

Is that an acceptable solution for everyone…..that we continue meeting for at least the next two months, and then we can toss this back out again?  So, for the February meeting, the first part of the meeting we'll start with the prayer, and then we'll break into the four sub-groups.  You all know where we're meeting now, and everyone knows the directions.  And then the second part will be a big group again.  Is that acceptable?

PARTICIPANTS:  Yes.

SR. ANNE:  Any other questions or comments?

FR. NOONE:  Just as I mentioned in the beginning that, back in November, we transferred the responsibility for our Exchange Street church over to the Korean community.  Now, that was something that had been hanging over the parish's head for a number of years, what to do with the Exchange Street church?  There were many good reasons to hold onto it because it's part of our legacy, it kind of helped that end of the parish, and gave it an identity.  We had a very traditional church, and a very modern church.  People could choose a wedding in a traditional church, and people who had been long-time parishioners could come back and be buried in the old church.  We always had our Good Friday service in the older church, because a smaller group gathered.  So, there are a lot of reasons for holding on to it, and a lot of reasons for letting go of it.

And finally the opportunity presented itself.  And to be honest with you, for the 20 years I've been there, my fear was what's going to happen if we have to close this church?  It's going to be hell.  Well, it didn't turn out to be hell at all.  It was a very, very good experience. ,And I must say, personally -- and I told the parish council this last night -- personally for me, psychologically I feel so good now.  I have one parish in one building.  And that's a very good feeling for me.  I've been bi-locating, and now all of a sudden everything is all in one place.  So, the thing I feared, this change that was going to be traumatic, the thing I feared never really materialized; in fact, it turned out to be a blessing.

So, as I look at this prospect, I have a feeling that the end is going to be a blessing.  What we're afraid of, and have a lot of anxiety and concern about, is going to be a blessing.

SR. ANNE:  Thank you for sharing that, Dave.  That's really helpful.

PARTICIPANT:  Before I came tonight, I felt that I personally kind of needed a little help from the Holy Spirit because I was not quite sure where I was going to land on the committee.  I'm very happy to be on the committee I am on.  And I talked with two or three from our parish, and I honestly feel that the Holy Spirit is working here tonight on our committees.  I don't know if you feel it, but I feel it strongly.

SR. ANNE:  Anybody else?  Comments, thoughts?

Then let us agree that, on February 12, we will meet here at 7:00 o'clock.  We will begin with prayer, then we'll break into smaller groups, and then the bigger group.  Let us prayerfully bring tonight to a close and know that we're grateful for all of the sincere working together that happened tonight.

(The meeting concluded with singing Holy God We Praise Thy Name.)