Dear Parish Family,
We are excited to introduce Marvic Welch, who will be fulfilling the lion’s share of the duties Rose Noble had as Finance Manager. Marvic comes to us with a recent background in bookkeeping and project management and teaches online business classes at a local college, having done so for other colleges for over a decade. Previously she worked for many years at Winkelman’s, a retail company, where she managed the finance and accounting functions. Marvic has been married to her husband Kevin for thirty two years and has three boys, ages 20, 19, and 18, who are all adopted from Guatemala. Marvic is excited to be taking on this new responsibility at St. John and is looking forward to meeting you. She encourages you to stop in and say hello if you are in the office.
Marvic and Rose have been working hard to ensure a smooth transition and will work together this Monday and Wednesday as well. We surely will miss Rose, but she will not be too far away, working with Fr. Bob Pienta at St. Joseph Shrine in Brooklyn. We of course tried to have a big reception for her, but all who know Rose know that she prefers to keep things quiet. While respecting her wishes, we’ll still find a way to honor her at the end of the month! Thank you again for your twenty years of dedicated service, Rose!
Popular Town Hall Meeting!
Our Town Hall Meeting about the upcoming “Witness to Hope” campaign in January had about a hundred parishioners present! We heard more about how the upcoming diocesan campaign would work and what a combined capital campaign, in which we would concurrently raise funds for our major projects at the parish, would look like. We discussed a number of concerns such as whether or not Heritage Hall was necessary, how attainable is the goal of $2.5 million, support for our Catholic school, and the other projects in consideration.
It was emphasized that this month’s feasibility study is just the beginning. While the diocesan portion of the campaign is something all the parishes in our diocese is taking part, the decision about how to best approach our parish needs is still to be determined. Nothing has been set in stone. This why we were asking for all the parishioner input this month, as it would be foolish to try to accomplish any projects that have no support. Thus, all the parishioners input from the one-to-one interviews, the hundreds of in-pew surveys, and the feedback and questionnaires from the Town Hall need to all be tabulated and summarized, and then the Greater Mission firm will present a report that will be essential in determining whether or not a combined capital campaign is advantageous for our parish. Greater Mission will complete that report by the end of this month.
What was clear was that we needed a follow-up Town Hall. Even after the Town Hall was officially adjourned a couple of hours later, there was still much discussion. Many were asking the architect, Jason Covalle, further questions about Heritage Hall. Thus, after the meeting with the Diocesan Building Commission, we will schedule a follow-up Town Hall some time in December to update everyone on both the Greater Mission report on the feasibility study and to ask further questions and review the conceptual plans of Heritage Hall. You can also view those provisional plans on our website. Please express any questions or concerns to me and any pastoral council members.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Chas