Fr. Joël Cyr's Column for October 2008, continued

God the Father speaks to His children under the ministration of His Church, the Body of Christ. The building up or the building down of the Body of Christ is through membership or dismemberment.

Due to the shortage of priests and the shortage of active lay Catholics, Bishop Richard Malone has mandated that the churches in the Diocese of Portland, Maine be structured into clusters, thus the reason for Cluster 5 of St. Benedict and Christ the Divine Mercy parishes. The Cluster Pastoral and Finance Council have been deliberating for the past two years on how to right-size the Catholic Church in this geographical area. Here is one of the many data that we are presently living with:

• We know that (in round figures) of the 2,000 Catholics in the cluster, 700 come to church on the Saturday vigil and Sunday mornings.

With figures like that we know that something has to be done. For the past year, the Finance Council has been working with me on a financial strategy. Our strategy is to downsize our properties so as to have less expenses in their maintenance. You will hear talk about and see structural changes in some of the church sites in the near future, for example:

• the sale of the Parish Center in Millinocket,
• the structure of new office space in the Millinocket Church,
• the selling of the rectories in all of our church sites,
• making all of our used buildings more energy efficient in all church sites (i.e., new boiling systems, new electric systems, new power systems, insulation, etc.),
• the making of the upstairs level at St. Peter’s Center the living quarters for the priest.

Thoughts of more financial savings are being talked about, such as during the severe winter months, celebrating Masses in the parish halls and closing the churches for those months, except for Christmas Masses.

We are also looking for ways in which we will become more financially sound. Beginning next year, Christ the Divine Mercy has opted for a mailing envelope system to be mailed to all Catholics. We will be educating you, dear parishioners, to be holy stewards. You will become aware of how to use your talent, time, and treasure. As for treasure, presentations on offertory increase will be offered, talks on the Catholic Foundation of Maine will be given, the sale of properties will be invested in the long term diocesan investment programs, and capital campaigns will be engaged.

These are but a few ideas that have been shared at the Cluster Finance Council. We encourage you, dear parishioners, to think and to talk with us to formulate a viable future for the three church sites. Last year, I presented a strategic financial plan to the finance council. This year is its implementation time according to a timely and reasonable fashion.

This year I will be working with the Cluster Pastoral Council to set up a pastoral strategy. We are committing ourselves to set up in each church site five commissions in recognizing the responsibilities, programs and activities so that the Catholic Church here in this area is what it is suppose to be. We will always act with patience and persistence so as to persevere in telling anew the story of Jesus the Christ.

May the Holy Spirit move you to be a member of the Body of Christ by finding your niche in the House of God.