Committees

Two Churches, One Parish Family

Councils and Committees

Many people wonder how one becomes a member of one of “those” Church committees. They are wondering how they can become more active in parish life and are not sure how to start. Many people are under the impression that you have to be asked by the Pastor to be a committee member or invited by someone in the group. Would you really be able to just show up one night and be accepted? The answer to that is yes and no.

The councils are different than committees. The Pastoral council is to be partially elected by the parish and the rest are appointed by the Pastor. The Finance council completely consists of members appointed by the Pastor. These 2 groups Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) and Parish Finance Council (PFC), are advisory boards to the Pastor. If you are from the old Georgetown Parish you may not have noticed any PPC elections in the past couple of years. This is because when we ask for people to run the turn out has been so low that Father Carroll has met with the person and in most cases “appointed” them to the Councils. This fall with the new parish we are going to be running PPC elections and appointing more members to the PFC. Both the PPC and the PFC need council members. Please pray and look inside yourself to see if this is something God is calling you to do. You might have the point of view that may be missing to have well balanced councils.

Committees are a bit different. Committees have been commissioned by the PPC and the Pastor to fulfill a specific need in the Parish. Each committee is to have about 9 parish members on it. Some, like social committee, will hopefully have many sub committees to handle specific events but the basic committee is to be made up of 9 parishioners. When you look in the back of the bulletin you will see that we have plenty of room for new members. When you join you are asked to serve a three year term. This gives you a year to get things figured out and two years to really do something. At that point you are free to find another ministry to be involved in or if there is an opening you may join for another 3 year term. This keeps the group fresh and keeps people from getting burned out. Father Carroll wants to make sure that the committee members are Catholic, attend Mass regularly, and contribute to the Parish. If you are interested in joining a committee please email (rectory@parishmail.com) or call the rectory 978-352-2024 and let us know.

Members of both councils and all the committees have to attend VIRTUS – Protecting God’s Children, sign the Code of Conduct agreement, and do annual CORI’s. Even though they may not be doing their ministry in the presence of children they will be helping to make decisions for those who do and need to be fully versed in the rules and regulations that volunteers must adhere to. 

We are looking for more members for each of the councils. Please pray and look inside yourself to see if this is something God is calling you to do. You might have the point of view that may be missing to have well balanced councils. Father Carroll wants to make sure that the council members are Catholic, attend Mass regularly, and contribute to the Parish. If you are interested in joining a committee please email (rectory@parishmail.com) or call the rectory 978-352-2024.