October 28, 2020
By Darlene Bonang
What are we working on and what’s going well?
Staff have reorganized into 3 teams: Pastoral (which is Mission), Operations (provides resources to support the Mission) and the Clergy (doing clergy stuff).
Here’s a little more information about the various teams:
- Pastoral Team – led by Fr. Anthony have had to shift to online platforms (Mass, childrens and youth ministry and Alpha). Becca was the main driver, but now that she’s on mat leave, Fr. Anthony is leading this team this year.
- Clergy Team – Led by Fr. Toochukwu For our 2 pastors and 2 active Deacons this is the first time for them to work as a team. They are working very hard to put together preaching series such as the one for October – Building Blocks. Wasn’t that great work??
- Operations Team – We have a full team that is being led by Robert MacDonald (interim). The biggest challenge for this team is having to adjust to Covid. This has affected Reopening of the office, Ministry meetings on site, Daily Mass (which resumed this week).
When Covid hit, Becca and I had to make lots of adaptations which forced us to readjust our roles. We quickly became aware that we had a gap in Communications – especially with so much focus moving towards online interaction. Now that we’ve hired a Communications Coordinator, we look forward to great things. May I introduce our new Communciation Coordinator, Ana Darcie.
Now a little update from our Finance Council:
Our collections are down, understandably due to the pandemic, lockdown and low attendance at Mass.
However, because of the Government subsidy, our finances are in decent shape ….
We thank all parishioners for their financial support and encourage those who have not signed up to PAR to do so as it helps them to continue supporting the church even when they can’t attend Mass. And it helps us to budget better.
Our Pastoral Council has been working hard to put together a 5 year plan to kick off next summer, 2021. This group, led by Sandy Graves, is still in the research stage.
We recently restarted daily Mass and ministry meetings onsite so we’re getting back to normal slowly. Also, we’re allowed to sing at Mass again.
Alpha is well underway, preparing for our weekend away knowing that the Holy Spirit always shows up. I invite you to pray for all of our guests and our team as we head toward that weekend.
We have been having online morning prayer which is growing gradually and attracting people from other countries through Facebook and zoom. I invite all of you to join in to check it out – the link is on our webpage.
By the way Christmas is going to happen this year (even though it’s Covid times). Some things may look different from previous years but we’re doing our best to make it a faith-filled experience for all – whether that be online or in person.
These have been very challenging times for all of us; and we want you to know that we are praying for all of you . We hope to be a good support for your ministries while you lead through this unusual time.
We know that we aren’t always able to get it right – but we’re human!
Christ the King Parish 