I am pleased to share with you the audio of our monthly parish family townhall gathering. As always, you may watch the video here – and I’ve included the timestamps below for reference & easy access – but the best way to navigate the video is to watch it on YouTube and use the timestamps there.

The tenth of our monthly parish family townhall gatherings. Held on the fourth Friday of each month and at a different church within the Catholic communities of the Olympic Peninsula, these gatherings are an opportunity for the pastor to provide updates on the state of the parish family and for parishioners to ask questions, receive answers, and offer feedback as we discern how we will become one parish family as part of Partners in the Gospel.

• 00:00 – recording start
• 00:03 – opening prayer
• 00:48 – introduction of special guest – Elijah Morgan, director of planning mission effectiveness from chancery
• 03:01 – updates on the parish family
• 16:54 – updates from Jason on Partners in the Gospel
• 21:16 – update from Father Ed
• 25:35 – talking about the realities of priest supply if/when one of our priests becomes unable to serve
• 30:54 – is the backlog in the United States visa process still overloaded or has that gotten better?
• 34:03 – how would our Spanish-speaking community be represented on the Parish Family Advisory Council?
  • some conversation follows about how the Parish Family Advisory Council, Pastoral Councils, and Finance Councils will morph over the course of Partners in the Gospel

  42:46 – are our finances going to continue to stay with each parish?

  • some important distinctions are made and explained between general funds and group (ie, designated or restricted) funds
  • some exploration of not only the challenge of sharing our funds but the benefits
  • 50:53 – a practical and spiritual caution about efforts trying to game the system in order to prevent sharing of funds

  58:44 – how do I get the balance for the flower account?

  • a conversation about getting the balance for any restricted account

  1:00:37 – could we have our own bulletin here?

  • distinguishing between each location having their own bulletin versus each location publishing their copies of the parish family bulletin

  1:08:21 – is there an archdiocese purchasing contract that we could take advantage of?

  • talking about those areas where we do leverage archdiocese-wide contracts and how that has limits

  1:12:17 – do you have any vision for the future around missals, hymnals, and worship aids – particularly with regards to bi-lingual communities?

  • talking about the last-minute decisions made last summer versus more deliberate future planning a year in
  • particular conversation about when (hint: not soon!) and how decisions will be made around choosing hymnals

  1:30:35 – can we get bilingual parish calendars?

• 1:31:30 – can we get someone to do the translation of the whole bulletin into Spanish?
• 1:34:28 – can we ask about the covers for the hymnals?
• 1:38:00 – how do I go to confession when I can’t make it into the confessional?
• 1:40:30 – closing prayer