Last week during the homily, we presented to you our new Vision, Core Values, and Aspirational Values for Our Lady of Mercy Parish. To help us implement these, we need to add a few new members to our Parish Pastoral Council.

The role of the Pastoral Council is to help bring forth the vision of the parish. The focus of the Pastoral Council is to develop broad, visionary strategy for the whole parish over a longer-term period. The council prayerfully discerns how God is calling the parish to fulfill its vision and provides direction on how the parish can best achieve this in a continual process. The Pastoral Council meetings will be every two months for a strategic, workshop style session with the Parish Leadership Team. The Parish Leadership Team is Fr. Don, Fr. Mark, Phil Britton, Zara Tan, and Mary Jo Trapani. These meetings will be on a Saturday morning or afternoon, or Sunday afternoon.

We need people on the Pastoral Council who have the gifts, interest and availability to do big-picture parish strategy work. The ideal Pastoral Council member:

• Has a daily prayer life and is a participating member of Our Lady of Mercy, with an eagerness to carry out the parish vision, and is 16 years old or older.
• Is a passionate visionary thinker and planner. Has skills to address the driving question, “Where are we going and how will we get there?”
• Is committed to the importance of welcoming and inviting parishioners and people in our community to know Jesus, be formed in an ongoing was as a disciple, and sent out on His mission.
• Is excited about what the parish has been doing the past couple of years and the direction in which we are moving.
• Has an availability of time and energy and easily works with groups.

If you fit this description, please consider submitting your name and contact information to frdon@olmercy.old.diocesanweb.org as a possible candidate for our Pastoral Council by October 25th. If you know someone else who fits this description, please encourage them to submit their name as well. A discernment meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 12th at 7:00PM. Please prayerfully consider whether joining the Pastoral Council may be the way you are being called to help bring forth the vision of our parish!

Have a blessed week!

Fr Don