COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT/ MEJORANDO LA PARROQUIA-COMUNIDAD.

St. Therese

Lean Meeting Notes

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Those in attendance:

James Zimmer, Sara Buscher, Ellen Vissers, Doug Maki, Larry Brazner, Nancy Bourassa, Greg Pethan, Jean Pethan, Andy Somers, Father Bill Hoffman, Sister Ann Arthur, Dick Schreiter

Notes by:  Bill Kime

Doug Maki reported on his contact with a professional in marketing for the voice of the customer.  Doug’s conclusion was that we would be better served by staying simple and working internally.  He does not rule out contacting professionals at a later time.  For now we should go forward and keep it simple.

Jay and Pam Cornell are traveling.  Greg will work with Jay to get an update about contacts with Mark Mogilka.  Jay was working to get advice for our survey from Mark.

Survey (outside):  Key contact: Greg Pethan

We were in consensus that Greg should form a sub-team to further define and refine the outside survey.  Suggestions for Greg and his team:

-          Still working on wording and content

-          Subcommittee of 4-6 people

-          Use subcommittee to make adjustments to survey

-          Meet Saturday November 29 (we had this tentatively scheduled for the larger group anyways)

-          The survey needs to accommodate our Hispanic population (bilingual)

-          The sub-team should test the survey sampling 24 to 30 people.

-          When we solicit volunteers for the survey keep in mind to give them advance notice of 10 to 14 days

-          We should have the ability to summarize the data:

o   Preferred language

o   Age category

o   Number of people in family unit

o   Name

-          Should have a script:  Doug Maki volunteered to work with Greg about what was done during the Advancing the Mission surveys.

-          Let survey participants know that personal information will be treated confidentially

-          Should note if they are going to another parish

o   Why

-          Would they like to offer any anonymous comments

-          Keep a focus on the issue of communications

-          Keep It Simple (KIS)

Note:  Dioceses is establishing a web site to be used by all parishes.  We will need to keep an eye on this to see how it fits into what we are doing.

Parking Lot idea:

Do a Power Point presentation to the parish after a Mass to detail our avenues of communications:  web sites, bulletins, mailings etc.   Perhaps 6 months out?

Name ideas (brainstorming):

We discussed the issues related to a name for our committee.  The term Lean is liked by some, others are concerned about it relationship to Manufacturing and failed implementations.  We experimented with other names.

Some words ideas were thrown out relative to what we are trying to do.  Keep in mind we started with people who felt our parish was slipping, or even on the verge of failure if people did not get active.  We have gotten together to try to stop the sliding and actually improve the parish we live in.

Using the word lean:

Learning

Evangelizing and

Assisting

Neighbors

Listening

Evangelizing

And

Nurturing

Simply:

Parish Improvement Committee

Other:

Vision

Advancing the Mission

Advancing the Vision

MEAN

Forward

VIA:  Vision In Action

            Voice of the Parishioner

            Making this your parish

Vision in Action

            Via: Voice of the parishioner

            Via: Making this your parish

Lean Team - Office Survey

Subcommittee project; committee members: Ellen Vissers, Sara Buscher, Deacon Patrick Whitcomb. Interviews done by Ellen.

Final recommendations:

1. Have lay people stand up at Mass and explain an activity and ask others to join. (Hispanics do this periodically at their Masses.) People who are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a project are the perfect ones to ask others to get involved.

2.  All bulletin info needs to be in English and Spanish.

3.  To get some of the pressure off Fr. Bill & Carlos, the receptionists could answer more questions; this would also make people happier than getting the message that someone will get back to them. Weekly staff meetings might have to be expanded a little to relay more details, or quick emails to the rest of staff as things come up during the week. If flyers are going out to parishioners, one should be posted in the office as well.

It may be helpful to have extra voice mail/answering machines to record basic Q&A in Spanish for callers who do not speak English. Longer run goal should be to hire staff who are bilingual as current staff retire or otherwise leave our employ.

4. Email information to all parishioners who provide their email addresses to the office.

If Word Perfect documents are attached, use the Save As option to save them in Rich Text Format to make sure they will also open in Microsoft Word. Those sending documents to the office, should be asked to use the Save As option in Microsoft Word and then select Rich Text Format.

5. Re-survey Time/Talent/Treasure in the parish.

Need to have ONE bi-lingual form.

To get people to fill out surveys right away, have a coffee & donuts session where they can sit down and fill it out immediately, or take a few minutes right after Communion (would work better for the Hispanics.)

6. Expand the bulletin by keeping the current shell, but stuffing additional pages into it. This expanded information could be single sheets, or in the form of a newsletter. Convert all to PDFs and email to as many as possible, label the remainder and do Sunday pickups in the back of church, then there should be a fairly small number that would need to be mailed out to the remaining members.

7.  We suggest some team-building activities for the office staff; Sara Buscher has contacts for a professional who could do this for us at no charge.  

8. Look at getting our website up to speed and combining the two we currently have into one  Maybe the Time/Talent/Treasure survey would turn up someone who is a webmaster? 

FYI:  Buildmyownsite.com hosts web sites up to 75 pages for $25 a monthfor nonprofits.  (To see some sites that use this, go to www.wispact.org  and  www.communitybenefittree.org  )

ST. THERESE PARISH - MEMBER COMMUNICATION PILOT SURVEY SUMMARY

Sunday, November 30, 2008

6:00-7:30 p.m

 Participants: Doug Maki, Dick Schreiter, Jay Cornell, Greg & Jean Pethan

Number Called: 30

1. What is your preferred way of obtaining parish news? (select top 3 choices)

Bulletin 20

E-mail 7

Announcement in Church 6

Word of Mouth 4

Phone 2

Website 1

Other 1 Direct Mail, Lifeline, Newsletter

2. Do you own or have access to a computer?

Yes 15   No 9

3. Do you currently have access to email (work, home, friend)?

Yes 13   No 9

Would you be willing to share your email address with us for future use?

Yes 9   No 2

E-mail address: 9 people shared their email addresses

4. Are you aware that St. Therese has a Website? www.communityofsttherese.41pi.com

Yes 7  No 15

If yes, have you ever visited the website?

Yes 2  No 11

If yes, rate 1= very satisfied / 5 = very dissatisfied

1(1) 2 (1) 3 4 5

Comments: Checks website for mass schedules; shorten website address

5. Are you satisfied with the availability of the parish information?

Rate 1 = very satisfied / 5 = very dissatisfied

1(11) 2 (7) 3 (6) 4 (1) 5 Total 47/25 =Avg. 1.9

6. Are you satisfied with the content of the parish information (i.e. special events,

mass schedules, fundraisers, committees, religious education, etc.)?

Rate 1 = very satisfied / 5 = very dissatisfied

1 (15) 2 (3) 3 (4) 4 5 Total 33/22 =Avg. 1.5

Comments:

7. Are there special requests/needs you would like from St. Therese?

Comments:

a. Father Bill doing a fantastic job; great job uniting cultures

b. Need more information in bulletin on committee activities in parish

c. Bring communion to shut-ins

d. Take bulletin to shut-ins

e. Request EFT (electronic funds transfer) for payment

f. Disappointed with music in church

g. Miss the Lifeline

2007    “80 years anniversary”

             “80 años de aniversario”

revised from an article published in The Compass, as written by Joanne Fleming, a Compass Correspondent

Translated into Spanish by Carlos Herrera. Traducido al Español por Carlos Herrera.

EN INGLES:

St. Therese Parish records show that it was incorporated on Feb. 14, 1927, under the legal name, "St. Therese of the Child Jesus."

The parish history says land for St. Therese was purchased in July, 1923. Its boundaries were Morrison Street to Wisconsin Avenue to North Durkee Street to Summer Street in Appleton, Wis.

Fr. John O’Donovan, OFM Cap. of St. Joseph Parish, was appointed to organize the new parish in 1926. The first parish building was built in 1927 for $86,860. St. Joseph donated $30,000 and St. Mary Parish, also of Appleton, donated $15,000. Fr. Hauch was named first pastor. The first floor served as the church.

St. Therese School with eight grades opened in September, 1928, with six teachers from the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity in Manitowoc. There were 329 students.

Work on a church and rectory began in 1938, with the first Mass said in the new structure in 1940.

The school had a ninth grade for two years from 1948 to 1949. A convent for 19 sisters was built in 1949. "Now this is new Catequetical Center opened in 2005.

An addition to the school was built in 1954. In September, 1957, the parish subdivided to form St. Pius X Parish. The school had 1,200 students.

The parish subdivided again in 1963 when St. Thomas More parish was formed. St. Therese opened an activity center with gym and cafeteria in 1966. In 1969, it closed its seventh and eighth grades. The school closed in the mid-1980s, Fr. Gilsdorf said. The church was renovated in 1987.

In January 2002, the Fox Valley Hispanic community joined St. Therese as members.

The Hispanic ministry brought in 400-plus families, added to a parish membership of 550 units.

The parish celebrated its 75th anniversary on Sunday, April 28, 2002. Bishop Robert Banks celebrated a 2:30 p.m. Mass with the congregation. Former St. Therese pastors and area priests were invited to the celebration and to concelebrate the Mass with Bp. Banks.

A part of the ceremony included the ringing of carillon bells that were donated anonymously in honor of Thomas Flanagan, a founding member of the parish. The carillon bells were installed in January 2002 in the church bell tower and were dedicated on Feb. 10, 2002.

The carillon bells can play more than 1,000 pieces and ring the Angelus daily at 8 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. They also play a hymn at noon and are used for funerals. The early morning Angelus is traditionally rung at 6 a.m. but was changed out of courtesy for the neighborhood.

Parish records show that St. Therese also had carillon bells installed on its 25th anniversary in 1952. The earlier carillon bells were dedicated to Fr. Mathias Hauch, the first pastor, and they could play 25 selections. They also could be rung manually from the organ console.

IN SPANISH:

Los archivos de Santa Teresita muestran que la iglesia fue incorporada el 14 de Febrero de 1927, bajo el nombre legal de Santa Teresa del niño Jesús.

La historia de la parroquia dice que el terreno para la iglesia fue comprado en Julio de 1923. Sus límites fueron de la calle de Morrison a la Avenida de Wisconsin y de la calle North Durkee a la calle de Summer en Appleton, WI.

El Fraile John O’ Donovan, OFM capellán de la Parroquia de San Joseph, fue requerido para organizar la nueva parroquia en 1926. El primer edificio de la Parroquia fue construido en 1927 con $86,860 dólares. St Joseph donó $30,000 y La Iglesia de St Mary, también en Appleton, donó $15,000 dólares. El Padre Hauch fue nombrado el primer pastor. El primer piso sirvió para uso de la iglesia.

La escuela de Santa Teresita inició en Septiembre de 1928 con 8 grados, seis maestras de la orden de las hermanas franciscanas de la Caridad Cristiana en Manitowoc.  Tuvieron 329 estudiantes.

El Trabajo en la Iglesia y rectoría empezó en 1938, con la primera misa dicha en la nueva estructura en 1940.

La escuela tuvo el noveno grado por dos años de 1948 a 1949. Un convento para 19 hermanas fue construido en 1949. Ahora se utiliza como Centro de Catequesis a partir del 2005.

Se construyó un añadido a la escuela en 1954. En Septiembre de 1957 la parroquia se subdividió para formar la parroquia de San Pius X. La Escuela tuvo 1,200 estudiantes.

La parroquia se subdividió de nuevo en 1963 cuando la Parroquia de  Santo Tomás More fue formada. Santa Teresita abrió un centro de Actividades con Gimnasio y cafetería en 1966. En 1969, cerró sus 7mo y Octavo grados. La escuela cerró a mediados de los 80’s, el padre Gilsdor lo dijo. La Iglesia fue renovada en 1987.

En Enero de 2002, la comunidad Hispana del Fox Valley se incorporó a Santa Teresita como nuevos miembros.

El ministerio Hispano trajo 400 familias más, que se añadieron a las 550 unidades de miembros de la parroquia.

La parroquia celebró su 75to. Aniversario el Domingo 28 de Abril del 2002. El obispo Robert Banks celebró la misa a las 2:30 pm con la congregación. Los pastores  de Santa Teresita y los sacerdotes del área fueron invitados a la celebración para concelebrar la misa con el Obispo. 

Una parte de la ceremonia incluyó el concierto de sonidos de las campanas de Carrillon que fueron donadas anónimamente en honor de Thomas Flanagan, un miembro fundador de la parroquia. Las campanas de Carrillon fueron colocadas en Enero de 2002 en la torre

Las campanas de Carrillon pueden tocar más de 1000 piezas y el Angelus diariamente a las 8 am y 6 pm. Ellas pueden tocar un himno a medio día y son usadas para funerales. El Angelus era tocado tradicionalmente temprano en la mañana las 6 am. pero fue cambiado en consideración del vecindario.

Los archivos de la Parroquia muestran que Santa Teresita también tuvo campanas de carrillon  instaladas en su 25to aniversario en 1952. Estas campanas de Carrillon en el inicio fueron dedicadas al Fraile Mathias Hauch, el primer pastor y podían tocar 25 selecciones. También podían ser tocadas manualmente desde la consola del órgano.

Act can free you from the pain that holds you captive, some say

By Cheryl Sherry
Post-Crescent staff writer

The Rev. Dottie Mathews never will erase memories of being abused by three close relatives beginning at age 13.

Nor can she forget the man she first saw as rescuer, who later perpetrated and compounded the abuse during their marriage. It was a time she describes as tragic and horrific, not only scarring her but also her three children.

Mathews has, however, chosen to forgive.

"The fact that I chose to move forward in my life has nothing to do with absolving any of those people who used and abused me," the 55-year-old Darboy woman said. "In my mind, it is not in my power to tell them it is OK. It is not OK and it never will be. …

"But what I came to know is that those people stole big chunks of my life from my early teens to my late 20s and I did not want to give them any more of my one precious life by focusing my energies on them or becoming engulfed in anger. … They've gone on in their world. For me to continue to allow them to define me is something I was unwilling to do."

What is forgiveness?

Today is Easter Sunday, when Christians celebrate Christ's resurrection from the dead. Christ set a noble standard when it comes to forgiveness.

Forgiveness, as defined by Webster, is the act of giving up the resentment held against an offender.

While forgiving someone who has done you wrong is essential to mental health, forgiveness can be a difficult thing for people who aren't clear about its purpose.

"By forgiving someone, you are saying that you will not hold what they did against them," said Appleton clinical psychologist Rob Burkham. "That means that you will work to let go of the anger, bitterness and blame that ties you to them in an unhealthy way. It is a process to forgive someone and it takes time. It is a process of changing your thinking and feelings about what the other person did to you. It is a process that can lead to more peace for you, even if the other does not accept forgiveness."

Carlos Herrera, Hispanic ministries coordinator at St. Therese Church in Appleton, points to Jesus' sacrifices, the ones being celebrated today by Christians, as a path toward finding forgiveness even in the most difficult of circumstances.

"If we forgive each other we are also part of the new power of love that the Lord risen has given us," Herrera said. "Therefore we will be apostles of the resurrection, with joy, hope and forgiveness."

Mathews said she's a testament to those words and the need to find forgiveness in your heart before joy and hope can return to your life. Around the time she turned 30, Mathews came to the realization that no matter how worthless she believed herself to be, she needed to begin making decisions that would permit her to be the parent her children, then ages 6, 4 and 2, needed her to be. So she left her husband.

Mathews' road to forgiving those who hurt her took more than 20 years and involved taking responsibility for her life.

"My healing involved years of counseling, diving into spiritual practices, shedding buckets of tears, borrowing hope and strength from a community of support when I became shaky — but with all that I trudged forward and moved toward accepting that my past will never not be my past," she said. "The only thing I had any control over was the future I might live."A skilled counselor helped Mathews know she did not bring those past events upon herself. "But that's what children do," she said. "When I realized I didn't make those things happen to me I remember that being very freeing."

Since then her spiritual progress has been steady, so steady that in 2006 she was ordained and now serves as assistant minister at Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Appleton.

Benefits of forgiveness

The need to forgive is often intertwined with other struggles in life, said family therapist Lynda Savage, owner and director of the Center for Family healing, a mental health outpatient clinic in Menasha. Savage also is founder and director of Practical Family Living, a nonprofit Web and radio Christian outreach.

Forgiveness, however, is not the first subject she introduces when meeting with new clients.

"One needs to hear the person's genuine concern and hurt, anger and loneliness before you say forgiveness is part of your healing, a part of your adjustment, a part of your goal of getting through this," Savage said. "Forgiveness is a part of the process of understanding letting someone off the hook and no longer blaming lets you off the hook and become more free to get unstuck from their pain and hurt."

Forgiveness, Savage added, is not trusting or agreeing with the offender. "It's not saying I agree with your actions that hurt me. It's agreeing we all fall short of perfection and that we all need forgiveness."

The practice of forgiveness not only has been shown to reduce anger, hurt, depression and stress, it also leads to greater feelings of hope, compassion and self-confidence. Practicing forgiveness leads to healthy relationships and physical health.

"Living in a state of un-forgiveness is living in a state of stress," Savage said. "And when you are living in a state of stress your body is emitting all kinds of things that we call hormones that are the fight or flight kind of hormones. …That type of stress is hard on your body, hard on your heart. … It's a physiological thing as well as a spiritual thing."

Acting out bitterness

In 2006, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University conducted a study on whether child abuse and child neglect caused crime. The findings suggested criminal behavior increases not only with the incidence of maltreatment but also with the severity of maltreatment. Until a child comes to terms with the experience, accepts it and learns to forgive the abuser for what they did, they will never be able to disassociate themselves from the experience.

Many of the troubled and at-risk teenage boys who live at Rawhide Boys Ranch south of New London have been hurt by life, said clinical supervisor Mark Tegtmeier. "They come out of some difficult family situations such as abuse, neglect, family conflict; there are a lot of addictions, a lot of blended family issues as well as many others."

Rawhide is a Christian-based organization that works to equip at-risk boys to become responsible young men through family-centered care, treatment and education. Therapeutic treatment addresses their emotional needs.

"As they work with us, they come to a place where they make a conscious decision to forgive a parent or a family member who has deeply wounded them in some way," Tegtmeier said. "Sometimes that entails sitting down and writing a letter. It may even be a letter to someone who is deceased, but it's a conscious decision on their part to let go and to release, to overcome bitterness and resentment or hard feelings that may have developed as the result of some injury or offense that was caused to them."

Forgiveness, Tegtmeier said, is essentially wiping the debt clean. "You're saying that that person is released and you are letting go. It's a very freeing experience for those that do. A lot of the boys realize they can have peace in their hearts and they can stop feeling revenge or retaliation toward someone that's hurt them. It's a tremendous feeling of release and just a liberation that they experience."

A softer side

There is no universe in which Mathews' abuse or the suffering of others is acceptable, "but it is up to me to say I don't have to carry it around anymore," she said. "I don't have to be identified as their victim anymore. But it took me a lot of years and a lot of tears and a lot of counseling and enormous love for my children, which was the motivator.

"There's a Buddhist writer, Pema Chodron, who says when you can touch the center of your sorrow and let it soften you then can be useful in helping to heal the world. Don't hide from it. Don't deny that it happened, but really go there and touch it and realize this is the truth and allow it to soften you.

"I can't erase my experiences, but I have a choice — are they going to harden me toward the world or soften me? My choice is how do I be soft now. How do I turn this into an open heart that allows me to be compassionate toward the world?"

Forgiveness, Mathews said, is "acknowledging my past will never not be my past, so tomorrow I can move on. And that one I can do something about."

213 E. Wisconsin Av. Appleton, WI. 54911

PADRE ELIAS NIEVES. MARTIR DE DIOS.

MARTYR OF THE CHURCH.

 
Celebrating in Appleton, WI.

1.    El Sábado 8 de Marzo a las 5:30 pm. Tendremos Misa en Santa Teresita conmemorando el martirio del  Padre Elías Nieves Inmediatamente después tendremos convivio, drama, música y baile, a las 6:45 pm en Monarch Garden. Entrada por adulto $5. Dlls. Niños Gratis. Tacos del Jaripeo $2 cada uno.

              We will celebrate our 5:30 pm Mass to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Fr. Elías Nieves Following the Mass there will be Tacos and celebration at Monarch Garden. Entrance, per adult $5.  Children do not pay. Tacos $2.00¡Infórmate y participa!  More information 920-739-0794