Over the past several weeks, I have asked for your feedback on several essential decisions for our Parish Family. As many of you may have figured out by now, I hope the focus of St. John is to be welcoming, collaborative, engaging and open. I personally feel that the only way to create that type of environment is to be inclusive and transparent, which is why I have made communication such an important part of our parish. There are some decisions that should be made together, not in an authoritarian manner. These recent requests have given all of us an opportunity to be part of the solution to issues. Many of you have answered that call and have provided valuable feedback and suggestions that will make the future of St. John even brighter. Here are the results of your feedback:
Musician and Liturgist: Gary Prettyman has been chosen as our new Musician and Liturgist, and he has accepted the position. Gary was extremely well regarded by all of us and your feedback made the decision even easier.- New Name of PLC: Our current Parish Life Center will be renamed as to not create confusion with the new Life Center, whose construction planning is already underway. Your feedback provided a unique option that was not considered by the staff, and it was so good (and was the “write-in candidate that even won a majority of the vote), we are going with it: Parish Activity Center, or PAC. This is a perfect representation of this building, where so many activities will continue to be housed, from Faith Formation to ballroom dances, receptions to meetings.
Hymnal vs. Missal: This is the most contentious feedback, with our Parish Family seeing the value in the current Hymnal, but desiring to have a more readings-centric Missal. We are negotiating with our publisher now to see how to best resolve this issue, but it is certainly looking like we want to move back to the Missal.
Thank you so much for all your active participation in our Parish Family! It is only together that we will accomplish God’s work on Earth.