An evening with the Parish Consultors

The table in the Parish House didn't look this nice tonight, but the food and the friendship, and the camaraderie were just as beautiful. We had a great meeting of our Parish Consultors to discuss the restructuring of our Community Outreach (COR) program. As you know our parish tries to practice the principles of Stewardship. One of the main practices of being a Stewardship Parish is that we commit a percentage of our income from our collections to helping individuals in need with emergency assistance. Over the past few years, we've distributed about $40,000 each year to help individuals in dire need.
We have some new realities to take into account these days in our parish. We have new expenses: co-sponsorship of Pope John XXIII school in Ocean; sharing in the cost of Pastoral Ministry at Monmouth Medical Center; the raising of taxes in Tinton Falls; the rising cost of energy; all of these are new, and expensive realities for our parish.
Also, the possibility that our parish will be re-configured by the Bishop as a result of the Deanery Study is a reality that calls us to prepare for a possible new reality for the Church in this area.

Tonight's meeting was an exercise in sharing wisdom in how to continue to practice good stewardship as well as to be creative and realistic in maintaining our COR practices.