Pastoral Council
May 2025 Pastoral Council Meeting Summary
Financial Report: The weekend collections for March were $321,852.17. These were the highest ever and were over $100,000 more than that time last year.
Social Justice and Charitable Outreach Commission: The Missions Subcommittee reported that 267 people participated in the Community Volunteer Day in March. Those responsible for organizing it say that next year a clearly communicated cut-off date for signups will be needed for the sake of volunteer allocation. Most sites couldn’t handle the number of people who wanted to serve there. Overflow volunteers packed 600 meals for the homeless in our community. The Delta Disciples semiannual project held in March was a success with 33 volunteers participating. 23 were from St. Joseph’s and 10 from Our Lady of the Lake in Lake Village. These included Fr Daniel, Fr Joseph Friend, and Dcn Joel Brackett (now ordained) and six male youths. The next International Mission-Belize is scheduled for February 8-14, 2026. Christ the King Church in Little Rock will be partnering with St. Joseph. The Missions Committee hosted one of the three Lenten dinners recently with the proceeds going to Bethlehem House. Around 220 persons attended and 15 volunteers organized the event. $2,177 was sent to the Bethlehem House and as a result the Missions Committee will again be slotted for another Lenten dinner next year. A core team of St. Joseph Mission members visited the Divine Mercy Medical Mission which was occurring at St. Andrews Church on March 14. These members met with Fr John to gain his blessing for bringing the DM Mobile Unit to St. Joseph and he fully supported the idea. It’s set to come on March 13, 2026. Seven workdays were conducted by the Handyman/H.E.L.P teams which helped four HELP clients and three non-profit organizations. There’s also ongoing work at the Refuge, the one-time motel being remodeled for use by the Conway Ministry Center.
Parish Life Commission: The past Lenten dinners were discussed. Over 750 people were fed and over $10,000 was raised for the designated charities. The commission members have decided that the announced dinner times next year will be from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. instead of the previous 5-7 times. The possibility was discussed of swapping out a gumbo meal for a Chili Night. The Commission hosted the farewell reception for Dcn Joel Brackett on May 14th who has since been ordained. The date of June 20th was set for the parish Arkansas Travelers game in Little Rock. One hundred tickets will be ordered and an email and Facebook message will announce that the tickets are first come, first served. There will be a waiting list and then request that persons not using their tickets return them so they can be made available to those on the waiting list. The Volunteer Appreciation Banquet, which was so successful last year, will held for its second year on November 5.
Education and Formation Commission: In the St. Joseph School Report, there were many events April and May in the runup to the end of the school year. Ms. Crystal Rehm was hired to be the Library Media Specialist for the next school year. High school graduation was held on May 11. Many of the 31 graduates are college bound to such schools as Arkansas Tech University, Harding University, Hendrix College, Oklahoma City University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of Arkansas, the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the University of Central Arkansas, the University of Dallas, and the University of Missouri.
Stewardship Commission: It’s planning for the traditional Stewardship Month in October. It will be focusing on ministries within the parish, particularly ones that have new leaders such as Youth and Adult Faith Formation. The Commission is also in the process of recruiting new members.
New Business: The Council Members looked at the proposed budget for the 2025-2026 Fiscal Year. The final budget figure is at $2.5 million dollars. It’s not been that high before but it’s a pretty safe number based on how the parish is trending financially. As it stands, most ministries should be getting what was requested. With that, $25,000 a month will be transferred to savings. The Council approved the proposed budget which goes to the Finance Council for review and comes back to the Council for final approval.
Old Business: Father John talked about the late Pope Francis’ synodal process of listening to one another and how we as a parish did that in recent months with a series of listening sessions regarding a vision for our parish’s future. Three questions, which rose to the top from these previous sessions, were asked of the Council members. They broke up into small groups and attempted to answer them and passed on their conclusions before the end of the meeting. The questions were: 1) “Good music is essential to good liturgy. What are the things we do well musically and what things might we improve upon?” 2) “There are many young families in our growing parish who we must keep engaged. How can we support them in their faith journey?” and 3) “How can St. Joseph be more welcoming to those who are looking for St. Joseph to be there home?” Father concluded that we’re not near writing the vision yet. When the Council meets again in August, he said it will begin trying to sort all this out. “This not a strategic plan, Father said. “This is not ‘Here’s what we want to do, here’s the steps to do it, and here’s a time line.’ We’re not going to write a document like that.” In essence, Father says this will be more of a vision of what we’d like to focus on and hopefully accomplish without a time line or specific path since things change. It will be more of a general idea of what we’re doing good and where we want to go.
