And The Truth Shall Set You Free
(Please read the post "Vision is Important"and its comments before reading this post.)
The following are questions that many people have about our parish. Please feel free to enlighten us in the comment section, if you can give insight into these matters.
1. Why has it been necessary to now bring in paid facilitators to mediate meetings and programs?
Within the past year or so we have paid two different facilitators to guide the development of the Mission Statement, chair the Architects' Meeting, and run Charting Our Future. (Yet we have more paid staff than ever before in the history of the parishes.)
2. Why have questions about the use of the The Celebrate Our Legacy fund gone unanswered?
Many people on the original committee say that 15% of 'the interest' raised by that campaign was designed to be used to pay for architect studies and a partial salary (for a couple of years) for a Youth Minister. The "Youth House" on 8th Street was purchased with money not allocated for such a purpose.
3. Are we in financial trouble?
St. Peter's seems to have always been fiscally responsible and Salem and Kirby had a surplus (over $180,000 combined) before being closed. What has cost so much in the last three years that would deplete these funds so quickly?
4. Is the Diocese pressuring Father Kent to build a new church for Wyandot County?
A Pastoral Council Member, with many Diocese ties, has been involved with the Clustering Process etc. for many years. He was told by one of the key figures in the Diocese (with a witness present) that we should ultimately have a church in each county. Father once asked "What if the people want one?" So, how do we find out if the people truly want to build and pay for a new church? Do we have a few people who will shoulder the financial burden of such a project?
5. Is "Charting Our Future" a program that we need right now?
We hired a facilitator from Toledo for $ 13,000 to lead a program that is supposed to guide us into the future. Some of my initial questions were: Why couldn't PastoralCouncil( nominated by people in the parish, then selected by Father) brainstorm about programs and then implement them? Why was it necessary for this program to be seen coming from the "people" and not specifically from the staff or Toledo? Why was the term 'marketing' used in early presentations? Why did we need someone from Toledo to tell the staff that they need to set up group meetings in people's homes to answer the "tough questions"? There seems to be a shell game included with this project. Why all the secrecy? Unless there is more to this program than simply wanting more programs for the good of our parish?
posted by Karen @ 6:01 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Remember,
"Silence will not rebuild trust or contribute to the effective proclamation of the Gospel."
1. We hired outside people because either the people we already have in charge don't know what they are doing or they need help because Toledo wants them to build a new church, and they really don't know how to do it.
2. No one has told us exactly what happened to the Celebrate Our Legacy Fund because they know now that they shouldn't have used the money, but oh well, its gone now! What would we want them to do? Sell the house? That would mean that they would have to say they made a mistake.
3.Yes, we are hurting for money. He told two men of the parish at that meeting that the money you talked about was gone. Where did it go? Figure up how much we pay in salaries in a year.
4. I think the Diocese has plans for one church in Wyandot County. Father is supposed to be obedient to his bosses. So, sure, there's pressure.
5.No, we probably don't need that Charting our Future program. It sounds a lot like those other programs from the diocese that always wants money, a lot for them, and a little for us. I think that Mr. Smith really isn't doing anything that some of the people couldn't do.
6.Your next question should be, Who is going to pay for next year? I am not worried about building a new church. If they can talk enough rich people into paying for something we don't need, then fine. But where is the rest of the money going to come from?
The house purchase was a deception and this money should be replaced from the general fund. The Celebrate money was for youth minister salary. This was stressed at time of campaign. We have been deceived. No wonder the money is drying up. People have lost their trust in the management.
Can only hope we all got the same message from the first paragraph of Sunday's gospel reading. Might want to read this again!
We had good stewardship within our church until the volunteers were eliminated. So don't talk to me about good stewardship.
Ceph,
Yes, I agree with you about wanting to know the answers to these questions. Now,the $64,000 question is 'Who are the people who know the truth?'
oaeceph
Answers to Celebrate Our Legacy appear in the questions & answers section furnished to all who worked on the campaign.
"What will be funded with the Youth Program component of the campaign?"
Answer: Ten percent of the campaign dollars raised will be used for seed money to FUND A PAID STAFF MEMBER to focus on expanded programs for our youth. We will fund this position for several years with campaign donations. As our youth programs expand to outlying parishes, contributions from sister parishes will help to support it.
No mention of buying a facility in the info furnished to us.
Nourishing Our Parish requires certain attributes from all.
Integrity translates into acting consistently with one's belief, telling the truth, keeping promises and standing up for what is right.
Responsibility involves taking ownership of personal choices, admitting mistakes and failures, serving others to make the world a better place.
Forgiveness is expressed by letting go of one's own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others.
Forgive but don't forget less you stumble into the same pit again.
This works in business and we have been told that the church is big business. Comment came from Toledo.
Socialism, ideally, involves the concept of each person giving according to his abilities, and only receiving according to his needs. (A nice concept, and ironically very Christian!)
A newly created socialist country took away a 40 acre field from a village and told them that they were to all help take care of the field. They would then all share in the bounty from that field. Two years later, after disappointing harvests, the government divided the field into fifty small plots and let the people farm and reap the harvest off of their personal portion. The village had a bountiful harvest that year.
Now, some would say that those villagers were selfish and petty, unwilling initially to work together and share what they had. But the government found out that when they allowed people to 'own' their piece of the community, the community as a whole, was actually strengthened.
I agree there were no problems with stewardship until we were told our services were no longer needed so that paid positions could be created. Let these people earn their salaries, because so far I do not see that they have. We went from volunteers to paid positions and not only have the programs declined and the numbers participating in them, it has cost money that we are now told we are short on. It has also become complete confusion, especially in the youth programs. Those running the programs could be successful if they took advice from those who have had success with them for ten or more years.
Also, the money will not return to the parish until confidence returns to those in charge of spending it. Apologizing from the pulpit means nothing if the behavior and spending does not change. When individuals try to hide decisions from the congregation, it doesn't appear that the behavior is going to change. We would all love answers to come from the people who know. However, the people who know don't want to take the time to answer these questions and/or give different answers to different people regarding the same questions. I believe that "honesty" is a key attribute in being a Christian. I am reminded of the Jack Nicholas character from "A Few Good Men" and people who don't think we can "handle the truth". However, I tend to follow the Tom Cruise character "we deserve the truth". And, until all cards are laid out on the table for parishioners to "handle" and decide on their own what is best and where their money should go, there will be no unity and no increased cash flow. We have intelligent people in this parish who have a right to be told the truth. If there is nothing to hide this should not be difficult. So, how about it? Is there someone out there that can dispell all rumors and tell facts? Since people are being accused of spreading rumors, step up to the plate "people in the know" and get the facts out.
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