St. Benedict the Abbot Church issued the following announcement on Sept. 13.

We are in the process of forming a permanent Pastoral Council (PC) for St. John XXIII Parish and wish to invite all parishioners to consider joining and sharing their talents and abilities to move our faith community forward together in the coming years. According to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, ‘The PC is the primary parish structure to establish and maintain a vibrant, active parish and its main purpose is to examine, consider and draw conclusions concerning the pastoral matters of the parish in order to recommend a course of action to the pastor.’ The council, once formed, would assist Fr. Bob in forming a ‘Pastoral Plan’ to positively affect four areas of parish life—Catechesis, Faith Formation, Evangelization and Stewardship—all of which are centered around celebration of the Eucharist. The council will initially be composed of the Interim Parish Council members who helped Father Bob with the merger process over the past year in addition to new members for a total of 7 to 10 people who are willing to serve for a period of three years meeting about once per month.

A Pastoral Council primarily is a planning committee. Therefore, leadership and planning skill sets are helpful in addition to being a motivated, active parishioner. Membership on the council should be seen as a calling by the Holy Spirit to serve parishioners in St. John XXIII Parish. Therefore, membership is not a matter of either appointment, popularity, or election but rather of prayerful discernment by each parishioner who feels he or she is being called to serve as a council member.

This is a unique opportunity for our newly formed parish community. If you are interested in serving our parish in this ministry and using your God-given talents to further the mission of our Church by becoming a member of the Pastoral Council, we ask you to prayerfully reflect upon the characteristics noted below then submit your application for consideration. Your application will be reviewed, and you can expect to be invited to at least one discernment session later this fall to meet current council members, pray together, manage expectations, answer questions, and allow you to further consider whether or not you want to continue to pursue participation as a council member in this ministry.

 If you feel prompted to join the PC of St. John XXIII Parish, please apply using the application below. You may also nominate someone who you believe demonstrates the qualities being sought to serve our faith community. It is our goal to have the new Pastoral Council in place by the end of this calendar year 2020.

Original source can be found here.

Source: St. Benedict the Abbot Church