July 2, 2006

Dear friends in life and in ministry . . .

It looks to be a pretty good day weather wise. In Bath we missed the terrible flooding and constant downpours that effected many areas of the Southern Tier of New York State.

After Mass and preaching and "officiating" at the renewal of vows of some friends, my son Chris and I will be heading for Chautauqua to celebrate our 39th anniversary on July 4 th. A wonderful thing happens each year at this time. People all over the country shoot off fireworks to celebrate our anniversary. It makes us feel so special.

This week's bulletin includes a report to our parish by the Church Renovation Committee with a "Try it before you Buy it" proposal that would allow our choir to move from the choir loft and into the Assembly. We've put a lot of work into this report because of our belief in the importance of communicating fully and transparently - especially on hot button issues such as this.

Our Faith Formation and Youth Minster Mary Carol Wall has written another of her very inspiring "Musings" columns on her faith-filled journey with breast cancer. It appears on page one and three of the bulletin below.

Have a good Independence Day and week. Serve one another well.

Ray

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Bulletin: July 2, 2006

Bulletin Insert: July 2, 2006

July 2, 2006

I hope that you will take time to read thoroughly the Report from the Church Renovation Committee that has been inserted into today’s bulletin. I gave a power point presentation on the Report at the Town Meeting on June 14. Since many of you were not present, and any talk of Church Renovation is an automatic hot button, its important that we make the extra effort to communicate well.

Remember that one of our challenges is to reach consensus on a proposal before moving to the next step of making it a reality. Hopefully the “Trial Proposal” offered by the Committee will help us to reach consensus which is by definition more than a majority vote.  Our first step is to answer any questions you may have concerning the reasons that we are even considering renovations to bring the choir from the choir loft and into the Assembly. Hopefully after you read the proposal, we can provide further opportunities to engage in meaningful and constructive conversation before setting a date to try out the proposal for a month or two.

Speaking of CHANGE, this is the first weekend of our Summer Sunday Mass schedule. Our Sunday Mass will be at 9:30 a.m. through the Labor Day weekend.

Enjoy a great July 4 holiday. I’ll be rejoining Pat at Chautauqua to celebrate our 39th anniversary. Serve one another well