Saint Stanislaus Parish

Bingo
Bingo is held every Thursday night in the School Gym / Cafeteria.

Seniors Club News
The Senior Club is for those 55 years of age or older. Their activities include trips, prayer days and various other social gatherings. Our Seniors Club will reconvene on September 14, 2010, at 1 pm in the Parish Center, for the first business meeting of the year. The September social meeting is Thursday, September 23, a Pot Luck luncheon in the Parish Center lobby meeting room. The October business meeting is October 12; the October social meeting, a Halloween Masquerade Pizza Party, is Thursday, October 28.

Parish Festival
The Parish Festival committee of volunteers coordinate and run the annual Parish Festival. The Festival runs for 5 days during the month of August.

New Beginnings
New Beginnigs is a non-denominational social group open to all who are widowed. The group provides fellowship in a variety of social activities and travel. Meetings take place on the third Thursday of the month from September through June usually beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Parish Center. Our November meeting is a pot luck dinner, and begins at 7:00 p.m. Our February meeting is a pizza/hoagie night, and also begins at 7:00 p.m. Our June meeting is usually a picnic on the second Sunday in June.

Please contact Pam Mohl at the Parish Center, 215-855-3133, for more information.

Pastoral Council

The Pastoral Council is a consultative body convened to foster full participation and collaboration of the entire parish in the life and mission of the parish and of the Universal Church. This is accomplished by:
• Planning, developing and recommending parish pastoral plans
• Reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of existing parish programs
• Reflecting on Archdiocesan pastoral priorities and recommending how they can be implemented in our parish
• Recommending policies, procedures and programs to assist in the implementation of our mission statement and parish pastoral plan
• Informing the pastor of the needs, concerns, gifts and resources of our parish

The pastor presides over the Council which is composed of elected and appointed parishioners and parish staff members appointed by the pastor.

Altar & Rosary Society

The Altar & Rosary Society is open to all Catholic parishioners. It’s purpose is to foster devotion to the Rosary, and to provide care and upkeep of the Altar and all things pertaining to the Sanctuary. The Society meets in the Parish Center on the third Monday of the month from September through June at 7:45 p.m.

Catholic Charities Phone-a-thon

Volunteers telephone parishioners during the first two weeks in May, requesting financial donations for the annual Catholic Charities Appeal. Telephones in the Parish Center are used in this endeavor.

Decorating Committee

This ministry adjusts the decorum of the Church to coincide with the Liturgical Year. Special decorating occurs during Advent and Lent.

Gardeners

This group of parishioners helps maintain and beautify the grounds of the church spring, summer and fall.

Hospitality Committee

This committee hosts monthly socials after Mass and works on special events throughout the year.

Newsletter Committee

The newsletter committee publishes NewStan, our parish newsletter, quarterly. This group conducts interviews, writes and edits the articles.

Parish Center Receptionists

Our Parish Center is staffed daily with adult volunteers and paid high school students who answer the phones, greet visitors and handle general clerical work like sorting mail and recording requests for Masses and flowers.

For information on these organizations, call Pam Mohl at the Parish Center, 215-855-3133.

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY FOR TECHNOLOGY

EMAIL AUTHORIZATION

GOING GREEN

A NEWSWORTHY REPORT

SAFE ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM AND POLICY

SCHOOL HANDBOOK

As a Stewardship Parish, there are many opportunities for parishioners to assist the St. Stan’s Home and School Association raise funds for the school. Please consider how you can help!

Gift Certificate Program

Purchase certificates at the following times and locations:

Daily in the School Office, 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays

Thursdays in the School Lobby from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM and 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM.

Sundays 8:15 AM to 11:30 AM in the Main Street Church Vestibule

The Gift Certificate program is offered by area grocery and department stores. When you participate, you will earn money for the H&S Association, and you will receive a share of the proceeds, which you may use to offset tuition at any Catholic school or at St. Stan’s PREP program. For every $50 in certificates purchased, you receive one Scrip dollar (Macy’s certificates yield even more Scrip dollars!). Certificates are available for Acme, Giant, Redner’s, Super Fresh, Lansdale Meats, Main Street Pizza, JC Penney, Macy’s and Kohl’s.

Register Tapes
The Home and School Association earns rebates from register tapes from ACME and Redner’s. Save the blue register tapes from ACME. For Redner’s, obtain a Save-A-Tape card from the Customer Service Booth. Then, when checking out, hand your card to the cashier. Some items like tobacco and dairy products will be deducted from your eligible purchases. Redner’s will not accept register receipts unless the Save-A-Tape card has been used, so please take the few moments necessary to obtain a card.Valid register tapes can be dropped of at school, the Parish Center, or placed in the containers in the Church vestibules.

Box Tops for Education
General Mills is helping schools across the country with a box tops for cash program. Here’s how it works: clip the “box tops” coupon from participating General Mills products, Betty Crocker products, participating Yoplait, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Totino’s, Progresso, Old El Paso and Gold Medal products. Please place your box tops in a labeled envelope and drop them off at school or the Parish Center, or in the containers in the Church vestibules.

Ink Jet Cartridge Recycling
Old ink jet cartridges can be recycled and earn St. Stan’s $1 each! Seal your cartridge in a zip-lock bag and send it to school, or drop it off at the Parish Center or in the containers in the Church vestibules.

Come Visit Us
Register Now for the 2009-2010 School Year

The Saint Stanislaus Parish School program begins at three years of age and continues through grade eight. You are welcome to come and visit our school. Please call Mrs. Rosemary O’Tormey to make arrangements for your visit. (School office: 215.368.0995) We will be happy to give you a tour and an opportunity to visit the classrooms.

The registration process for the 2009-2010 school year is underway. Please call or come in to register. We need the birth certificate, baptismal certificate, and immunization records for all new students. The school schedule and registration fees are as follows:

Pre-School (Morning Sessions – 9 to 11:30 a.m. or Afternoon Sessions – 12:30 to 3 p.m. available)
• Three Year Old Program: Tuesday and Thursday
• Four year Old Program: Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Kindergarten (Full Day Program – 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., or Half Day Program – 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. available)

Grades One through Eight (8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.)

Registration Fees
Three and Four Year Old Programs (per child): $100
Three and Four Year Old Programs (w/siblings enrolled in Grades 1-8): $70
Kindergarten (per child): $125
Kindergarten  (w/siblings enrolled in Grades 1-8): $85
Grades 1-8 (per family): $150

The mission of Saint Stanislaus Parish School is to join with families in sharing the traditions of the Catholic faith with our children. We are “Called to Serve and Committed to Excellence”! Please come in and find out more about our school.

We are proud to announce that five of our eighth grade students were inducted into the Saint Stanislaus Chapter of the National Junior Honor Society. Congratulations to the following students, Class of 2009, and their families:

Reena Conception, Thomas Coyle, Meagan Kiernan, Kirsten Saraceni and Jeffrey Wysocki.

At the same ceremony, the following seventh grade students were tapped as candidates for the 2010 National Junior Honor Society:

Colleen Andris, Alex Cassel, Victoria Cosenza, Nicholas Cunningham, Anne Fillenwarth, Mary Kate Firestone, Kevin Kiernan, Sean McMonagle and William Pezzuti.

We salute the accomplishments of our students. Congratulations and keep up the good work! All students are encouraged to use the gifts and talents that God has given to become all He has created them to be.

Father Mike had an optimistic outlook about the parish: “For our future, I hope we grow in understanding and in action in these areas of parish life. I can see us continually rising to the challenge to keep fresh and alive—not giving in to the tendency to rest on our laurels. Church is a living body.

“One future task that we share with the whole American Church is that of welcoming new Americans, people from cultures that are so different from standard, middle-class American culture,” he added. “We have to make sure that their Church is a home for them.

“At Holy Infant, we have people from Asia, Africa and Europe,” Father Mike explained. “We need to make sure they feel a part of the parish so that we no longer think entirely in terms of ‘they’ and ‘we.’”

When Father Mike called the people forward, Holy Infant parishioners echoed that call to one another. Marshall Robers, member of the parish’s pastoral council, points out that the parish adopted the pineapple, a longtime symbol of hospitality, as the parish’s symbol. “Parishioners feel connected to the parish as a whole,” he says, “rather than merely having a close friendship with a few people.

“Stewardship goes hand in hand with this overall hospitality and sense of belonging, since parishioners willingly give of themselves when they are within a nurturing environment,” Marshall explains. “Once stewardship and hospitality have been embraced, the overall opportunities for faith development increase dramatically, since parishioners are connected with each other and growing in faith together, not only at events targeted for faith development but also within the ministries in which they participate.”

There is a movement in the Church in America that is unprecedented. The evangelization that is taking place plays out in a variety of forms. The model of Church is changing as numbers of active Catholics decline and the priesthood is undermined by crises.

Yet never before has there been such a unique energy to make Church. What is significant is that there are as many ways to create an evangelized parish as there are faith communities to fill them. St. Michael in Findlay, Ohio, and Holy Infant in Durham, North Carolina, are different in many ways: large vs. mid-sized, Midwest vs. South, megamodel vs. a smaller intergenerational faith community. Yet each parish has discovered a working solution to creating a vital, living community of faith.

There is no template in evangelizing the Catholic parish. Every one is a unique faith family. The demographics, the leadership style of the pastor and staff, the cultural and ethnic character of the members—all this and much more determine the means through which a faith community will invite and sustain conversion for its membership.

The days in which a formula could be imposed on a Catholic congregation are over. While Catholic dogma and doctrine remain steadfast, the manner in which a Catholic parish catechizes and evangelizes is developed through a vision that is its own.

These two Catholic models of evangelization offer great hope for the future of the Catholic Church in the United States. Invigorating the People of God, the Holy Spirit has been quite busy building up the Church, not in cookie-cutter fashion, but in ways peculiar to the talents and needs of the people.

Within both communities, it is apparent that this Spirit provided all the gifts necessary to create and fulfill a healthy vision of Church. There are gifts sufficient to do this work and, just as Jesus promised, we have not been left orphans.

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Father Norman Langenbrunner, a parish priest in Cincinnati, Ohio, has written for Catholic publications as well as for The Gettysburg Experience. Jeanne Hunt, advisor for catechesis and evangelization at St. Anthony Messenger Press, preaches parish missions and gives workshops on adult and family faith formation.

Part 4 of 4 parts. The full article can be found at St. Anthony Messenger.