April 2020 Minutes

Pastoral Council Meeting

Monday, April 20, 2020 (via ZOOM)

Members Present:   Julie Harman, Steve Gregoire, Lou Angles, Libby Hernandez, Kevin Nordhues, Arsenio Arciga, Dan Bacon, Patrick Schaub, Hugo Mendoza.

Members Absent: Marla Neal

Guests: Father Mike & Deacon Chuck

Opening prayer by Deacon Chuck. Julie opened the meeting at 7:07 pm. Minutes from March 2020 meeting were approved.

Dan Bacon – lead points of discussion for returning to our worship space for Mass. Various council members added their comments during this discussion…

• Clay County Extended Stay-at-Home until May 15^th
• Large venues will be allowed to open with strict physical distancing (We need to look up a definition of “strict physical distancing”)
  • We talked about staggering families in the pews
  • If the church gets full, we talked about having people live-stream from their cars and allow them to come in for the Eucharist.
  • It was discussed about having a separate mass for elderly parishioners, but Father didn’t seem to think that would work logistically
  • We talked about parish seamstresses making masks for others.
  • Tape off the floor so that people remain 6’ apart when going to communion. People in the pews will just have to estimate the distancing between families.
• The diocese will likely have some guidelines that they will be passing down for masses.
• Kevin mentioned that the “Opening Up of America Again” was to happen in 3 phases and that he understood that “facial covering” would be required when one was in public. Dan asked Kevin to please check into the facial covering requirement.
  • Kevin’s internet research indicated that on the federal level, that at this time, there is no official facial covering requirement. Various US cities are requiring facial covering when a person is in public, but with no official type indicated. Facial covering ranged from N95 masks to a simple bandana wrapped around the face.
• Collection baskets will still not be passed. We’ll put them out in the Narthex.
• We talked about the RCIA folks on Pentecost Sunday, but Father mentioned that it would likely be its own separate mass.
• Father mentioned that we really need to have a lot of hospitality when we come back together to help our parishioners feel welcomed.
• Father mentioned continuing the live-stream of the masses for those that may not feel comfortable about coming back to mass.
• It was also discussed that we might continue live-streaming even longer.
• Next meeting – Although our normal next meeting date would be May 11^th, we talked about meeting earlier on May 4^th either via Zoom or just meet and remain 6’ apart in a bigger meeting room to re-discuss our options for our opening weekend masses. The meeting date will depend on protocol expected to be turned out by the diocese.RC is scheduled to do the opening prayer
• Closing Prayer – Father Mike