Church of St. Mary
Committee for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation
February 11, 2010
5:30 PM
Present: Fr. Steve Binsfeld, Rick Wagner, Gloria Deick, Bruce Becker, Lori McClintock, Diane Watkins. Abscent: Sr. Rita Von Holtum, Joe Beste.
Introduction of new members: We welcomed our two newest members to our committee: Diane Watkins and Lori McClintock. We each took turns introducing ourselves and shared what inspired us to want to be a member of JPIC. We also took some time to share some of our efforts/projects that we've done with the parish in our brief history. We reviewed our committee's philosophy, mission and purpose with Lori and Diane as well as the four main areas of parish social ministry.
Committee Officers and define membership: Next month we will elect a chairperson, a vice-chairperson and secretary. Also there will be more discussion of the number of people we should have on the committee coming from the perspective of effectively formulating projects and getting the work done.
Minnesota Food Share Month (March): We have posters for displaying in school and in the gathering area....also there are envelopes for those who wish to make monetary donations. Rick will put together something for the bulletin for the next two weekends. The food drive will be a coordinated effort with the parish and the school. Some of the posters will be given to Troy Sladek for the school.
Long Prairie Status: We are waiting to hear back from Don Rasmussen to get the names of contact people at their parish so as to go forward with our plans for attending a Spanish mass with the parishioners at Long Prairie in April. Kathleen will be the contact person with Don and will keep other JPIC members informed.
Other business: Rick will f/u with Ken Howell regarding setting a date for a social function to celebrate the work and services of key ministries here at our parish.
We had a spirited discussion regarding the pro-life/abortion issue. Father again stressed the importance of identifying a plan on what we want to do, activities, educational presentations etc and making it part of or get it into our strategic plan for the year. This is an area that Lori is very interested in. We discussed forming a "Pro-life" group. We want to keep this discussion going but again from the perspective of developing a long range plan to assure the effectiveness of the message and our efforts in this area.
Next meeting: March 11, 2010 5:30 PM
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Lingor
Church of St. Mary
Committee for Peace, Justice and the Integrity of Creation
November 18, 2009
Parish conference room: 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Present: Bruce Becker, Sr. Rita Von Holtum, Fr. Steve Binsfeld, Gloria Deick, Rick Wagner, Craig Gould, Ken Howell, Joe Beste, Kathleen Lingor
As pre-determined, tonight's meeting is to be an introspective look at our committee, our structure, what we've achieved, what worked and what didn't since our inception over a year ago.
Below are some summaries discussed by committee members sharing their views on what is needed in order to get our committee back on track.
Importance of going back, looking at what ministries this parish is currently engaged in.
Ask the question what is working? Ground ourselves again then re-look at how we can
build and work with other parish committees and their functions/ministries.
Look to scripture to provide the "call" for each of us to do the difficult task of working for social justice. Give consideration to the issues of today in choosing a specific issue to work on. Use USCCB website and church documents/statements as likely resources.
The four key points of social justice are: Legislative Advocacy, Direct Service, Community Organizing and Global Solidarity.
The need for key people from parish committees, the parish administration and the school to sit down and brainstorm on functions/ministries that we can all work together on. Hopefully this would create a larger, more organized effort on specific topics/ministries that would have input and direction from all.
It might be helpful to look at our committee as one that informs, educates, gathers resources and organizes guest speakers on a specific social justice issue. Again, the issue(s) or topic(s) would be ones decided on by the key people like Fr. Steve and various parish committee members as well as Craig from the school. We would be more of the organizers not the "doers".
Craig Gould reported on how he is working with high school age students on justice and service. He is looking to re-structure the confirmation service hours component and to guide adolescents in moving from awareness to actions on issues of justice. Our committee could aid him greatly by working together to support his efforts in this area. Again communication and coordination are key elements. He has two young people in mind to come to our monthly meetings to provide their ideas and advocate for projects and issues they see as important.
Ken Howell, the liason person from the Parish Council, was introduced. He shared his support of the events we have done thus far. He shared a news report regarding a decrease in the percentage of pregnant women in Minnesota who have access to health care coverage and the resultant effect this has on their health and that of their babies. He pointed out that this too is a social justice issue and how important it is for us to be the vehicle to pass information like this on to the parish.
Fr. Steve commented on how relatively easy it is to be charitable but that working on social justice issues is difficult. Changing systems is tough to do. He agreed that going back and re-looking at how we began, picking apart what worked and why certain things did not work, would be helpful in re-focusing our efforts.
We discussed Migration Sunday, January 3rd, with the week of January 4-10th focused on this topic. Rick and Rita will be attending the migration/immigration presentation at St. John's tomorrow night and will bring back what resources, posters etc that the diocese will be using in raising awareness on this. We agreed that at the very least we would be able to pull together something for a bulletin board display as well as educational pieces in the bulletin.
We discussed meeting times. It was decided to change next month's meeting to Thursday, December 10th at 5:30 PM in the parish conference room. We will hold the meeting to one hour only. (Kathleen will check with Sonnie to assure that the parish conference room is open and reserve it.)There was also discussion about using technology as a possibility to conduct meetings. More specific discussion is needed on this topic.
Even though there is an element of frustration regarding the events we have worked on up to this point, we were reminded that these efforts did make a difference to those who attended them. Again, the importance of working with other's on the various parish committees and devising an overall parish plan to deal with the issue chosen would be a worthy effort.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Lingor
Church of St. Mary
Committee for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation
October 14, 2009
Present: Gloria Deick, Sr. Rita VonHoltum, Rick Wagner, Kathleen Lingor. Abscent: Bruce Becker, Fr. Steve Binsfeld, Kay Stepan, Joe Beste and new member Ken Howell. NOTE: Rick received notice that three of our members have resigned their position on this committee. Mike Syverson, Joe Korkowski and Melinda Megel.
Enrichment: Rick shared the CD he made and presented at the final soup supper on September 29. It was very well done. We discussed the possibility of sharing this with other parish committee's......maybe part of their beginning prayer/enrichment??? Rick will talk to Fr. Steve and Laurie about sharing the CD with a larger parish audience.
Review of September "Peace" events: Our general consensus was that our evening and noon soup events with guest speakers were well received. Verbal feedback primarily centered around attendees expressing that they had their views enhanced and/or changed from the presentation and material shared.
The cost of the September "Peace" events was $819.81. The parish paid for the soup...$185 and the rest was donated. Included in this total are donations to Wayne Whittman, Sr. Jeanne Wngentner, Patty Kaka and the School Sisters of Notre Dame for the loan of the wood sculpture "In Solidarity".
Discussion: With the resignation of three of our members, a discussion took place about the need to re-evaluate what we are about; what our goals and role should be relative to the broader picture of what is happening in the parish. We expressed a need to have a discussion with Fr, Steve about readjusting our meeting times to possibly better accommodate his schedule so that his valuable input is more readily available when we are discussing and planning events. Rick will get in touch with Craig and discuss possible student involvement on and with our committee. When we set next months meeting, Craig will be invited to attend. Rick will put a summary piece in the bulletin regarding our September "Peace" events/discussions.
Food Shelf: We discussed that we as a committee will take the lead in organizing the parish in gathering items for the food shelf in the month of November. Rita will put an informational piece in the bulletin the next two weekends. Kathleen will take care of the poster and signage. We discussed organizing a trailer to transport the food items at the end of November. We will finalize that portion of it at our November meeting.
Ministry Fair: Kathleen will set up the booth and carry the banner at the 5 PM mass. Rick will ask Mike S. to carry in the banner at 8 AM, Gloria will man the booth at 8 AM. Sr. Rita can do the 10 AM if needed.
October Domestic Abuse Awareness month: Will display our poster in the commons area.
Next meeting: Rick will get in touch with Fr. Steve and a meeting time will be determined. He will notify the rest of the committee as to the time.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Lingor
Church of St. Mary
Committee for Peace, Justice and the Integrity of Creation
August 4, 2009
Parish conference room: noon to 2:30 PM
Present: Rita Von Holtum, Kathleen Lingor, Gloria Deick, Joe Beste, Kathy Langer, (Catholic Charities), Ben Caduff, intern with Catholic Charities.
Rita led us in reflection and prayer. Reflection: we focused our thoughts and prayer in remembrance of the Slave Trade and it’s Abolition and offered our input regarding our views of the many ways in which our world practices a type of slavery.
The agenda for our meeting today focused on the Peace liturgy and discussion groups we are planning to hold one day a week for four weeks in September.
We reviewed our proposed plan with Kathy and Ben and they actively participated in lending their expertise, knowledge and suggestions. The following items are ones we, as a committee, thought beneficial.
Change the time and re-look at the brown bag lunches. Kathy’s experience said that if
we want to get people to attend on their lunch hours we need to include food and reduce
the time to 50 minutes (12:05 to 12:55 PM). We thought this was a good suggestion. Food would be Subway sandwiches (enough for about 25 people) and on the first lunch/discussion, we would buy the ingredients for additional sandwiches until we have a better handle on the numbers attending. Either a free will offering will be advertised or will just ask for a specific amount.
Also, two things happened since our last meeting that will change the schedule and format somewhat.
Rita contacted a Wayne Whittman, who is a well know speaker with the Veterans for
Peace in St. Paul. He is willing to come out and do a presentation for our opening
event on September 8th. Rita will do his bio and get the info to Fr. Steve for putting
in the flyer. September 9th, Joe Beste and Rita will use a segment from the DVD
“Soldiers for Peace” to guide the discussion.
September 16th:Discussion: “Our Heritage of Justice not Just Us”-The Church in the World. Kathy Langer is available to come out to lead the noon discussion group.
She will present statements from key church documents relating to peace with a focus not only on the last 50-100 years but will present the Church’s response for several hundred years on civilization conflicts….give the attendee’s a perspective on how the Church has responded throughout it’s history.
September 23rd: Discussion title: “See with New Eyes”…discussion led by Sr. Rita.
To include the shifts in our vision of the world and the prophetic mission given by
Jesus Christ.
September 29th: “In the breaking and sharing of Bread, the people of St. Mary’s will be
peace builders in our lives, our community and the world”. 5 PM mass with soup supper
to follow. Place the prayer cards with the flags of the nations of the world on them at
each place. The prayer cards will have instruction on the back of the card to pray for
specific people and needs of the particular country each day for the following week…..
same as last year’s card. We discussed putting tent cards on each table with one or two
key questions pertaining to how each person there views themselves as peace
builders. Sr. Rita will compose the questions and we will talk to either Joe K.,, Bruce,
Rick or Mike to lead the group in sharing their input. Also, Sr. Rita will compose a
prayer, like the petitions portion of the mass or a litany, where printed copies for all are not needed. Our response will be “O God of peace and justice hear us”.
One exciting piece is that Sr. Rita has borrowed a wood carving entitled “In Solidarity” from her mother house in Mankato. The wood carver is Mary Anne Osborne. She has it on loan for 2 months. She and Fr. Steve are working on where and how it will be displayed and how we can get its message out to our parishioners.
Kat will be responsible to coordinate getting the food for the events. Anna Solheid from the Parish Life committee called and said some of their committee would like to help with the two evening’s that we are serving soup suppers. I will get the soup, bread, butter, coffee and will let people know where we will need help to serve or “go-for” duties.
Rick, Bruce and Joe K. will be asked to take charge of the PA system which will be needed for September 8th, 16th (noon presentation by Kathy Langer) and 29th.
We discussed a schedule for getting the word out on this event. Here’s the suggestion:
August 15-16 weekend: The Flyer as a bulletin stuffer.
August 22-23 weekend: Rick to do a bulletin JPIC piece. Sr. Rita suggested something
she put together on the slave trade.
August 29-30 weekend: Hand out peace prayer cards after weekend masses. Kat will
get volunteers for the 5 PM mass…will need a committee
member to get volunteers for the 8 & 10 AM masses.
Notice in the bulletin announcing the program for September 8
and September 9th lunch discussion.
September 5-6 Notice in the bulletin repeating the September 8 and 9th events
and also announcing the event for the 16th.
September 12-13 Notice in bulletin repeating the September 16th event and
announcing the September 23rd event.
September 19-20 Notice in bulleting repeating the September 23rd event and
announcing the September 29th event.
September 26-27 Notice in bulleting repeating the September 29th event.
Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 19th at 5 PM, parish office.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathleen Lingor
