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PARISH COUNCIL FORMATION COMPLETE

After two years of planning and following several meetings of the three Parish Council Commissions, the first meeting of the St. John Fisher Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) is now scheduled for Saturday, June 5th. The Commission representatives were chosen by their respective memberships; the at-large representatives were recommended by either the Commissions or the Parish Staff. The members are:

Tom Broderick (at-large)
Janet Joyce (at-large)
Kara McElligott (Spiritual Life, Worship & Human Concerns)
Diane Nichols (Christian Formation & Education)
Julie Fitzgerald Quaid (Parish Life)
Jim Rabbitt (at-large)
Mike Ralphson (Christian Formation & Education)
Jack Rooney (Christian Formation & Education)
Norine Vestal (Parish Life)
Peter Wasik (Spiritual Life, Worship & Human Concerns)

Sr. Jean and Fr. Bob are non-voting members of the Council, although "non-voting" is a bit of a misnomer, since all Council decisions are arrived at, not by vote, but by consensus. Consensus is a process of discernment, discussion and reflection where the final decision is one that all may not totally agree with, but with which all can feel reasonably comfortable, and where no one feels as if he or she "lost" or was not heard.

The purpose of this first meeting will be to provide an opportunity for all the members to get to know one another and to discern agenda items to be discussed at the next meeting in late August or early September. At this meeting or the next, a Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Recording Secretary and Corresponding Secretary will be chosen. The Council model created by the Formation Committee provides for the PPC to hold either closed or open meetings as well as Town Hall meetings to solicit the ideas and suggestions of a wider group. However, all parishioners should feel free to contact individual members with ideas or suggestions at any time. Somewhere along the way, the members will decide the best way to make more detailed contact information available. It's also important to understand that the PPC is an advisory body with an important role to play in creating a vision for the future of St. John Fisher and facilitating communication throughout the parish, but with a very limited role in relation to Canon Law, Liturgical norms or Archdiocesan policy.

We're grateful to all those named above and to all the Commission members for their generosity in accepting this call to service in our parish. Their gift of time and talent can only strengthen and enrich St. John Fisher in the years to come.