Town Hall 3 - October 13, 2025, 7:00 p.m. — St. Philip the Apostle

 Fr. Craig opened the town hall with prayer. 

A discussion was then held, asking for input for two Archdiocese suggested discussion questions: 

1. How can we best build mission?
2. How can we best build participation?

• At approximately 7:30, Fr. Craig transitioned to questions that had been previously been solicited in advance of the town hall. The questions from parishioners were as follows: 

Q & A 

1. What is the plan for all the land at St. Philip?
   • We have sold some of the land over the years after getting feedback from parish council. From the parking lot you wouldn’t notice it. We sold part of the land because we didn’t think it would ever be used and that we still had plenty of room to build if that day should come. We are currently talking to an architect exploring costs of building a new church vs. renovating the existing space. An ad hoc committee of St. Philip parishioners has been formed to meet with the architect at the end of the month, and members of parish and finance council are invited to attend the first meeting.

2. Why does St. Philip not have a playground or area for the children in our parish? Ball field?

• The short answer is that we are not a park and we don’t have a school. There are also liability concerns. We’ve had very basic discussions at St. Francis about the feasibility of a preschool, and I’ve wondered about the possibility of having that at St. Philip, as we have no room at St. Francis. In my mind it would take something like starting a preschool to justify a playground. 

3. How many staff members does St. Francis have vs. St. Philip? When were they hired and for what?
   • Not including the school faculty, there are seven offices and three additional desks in the parish center that are more or less spoken for. Two of the three employees who have desks are part-time. Of the seven with offices, all of us are shared with St. Philip. St. Philip has five offices for employees. Two of those five also have an office at St. Francis. Other than Kim, the parish secretary at St. Philip, the other four employees also are shared between both parishes. Another way to answer this is 3 office employees are largely (though not exclusively) focused on St. Francis work; 1 at St. Philip is largely focused on St. Francis. We also have a couple of part-time facilities people based at St. Francis, working largely at the school. 

4. Why do we only have a part-time secretary (at St. Philip) and what is the process for getting things done in a timely manner? Email? Office call? Stop in? Is there a process and what is that process?  Do they communicate daily?  ie funerals not being announced, Mass cards getting lost, things missing or incorrect in the bulletin. What is the accountability for the positions hired for? 

• When Kathy Cowen retired we determined there was not enough work to justify the expense of a full-time parish secretary at St. Philips. If that changes, I’m certainly open to reassess our needs and staffing. In general, mornings at St. Philip are busy and there is very little traffic after lunch. Our phone system is configured in such a way that when Kim leaves for the day the calls roll to St. Francis, we can identify which office is being called, and the person answering can answer the phone with the name of whichever parish is being called. //The parish bulletin is consolidated and tends to be created at St. Francis. Regarding communication, if it is an end of life emergency or to report a death, I would say to call the office. Otherwise, email, call or stopping in are at the option of the individual. Funerals are posted on the board in the gathering space at St. Philip. This has always been the way at St. Philip since 2018, and so far as I know it’s more than we do at St. Francis regarding advertising funerals. We add the name of the deceased to the petitions at the Sunday Mass, typically the Sunday following the funeral. Mistakes do sometimes occur in the bulletin, such as an incorrect Mass time. We’re trying to do a better job of catching those. As for Mass cards getting lost, I don’t know what to tell you there, how frequently this is happening, whether it is an issue with the postal service??? 

5. Many of us were at the meeting years ago when we were promised that funds would never merge with another parish - this is a deep concern for many... is there accounting to show funds being spent in each parish and contributions being brought in?

• I don’t know who promised funds would never be merged, who made the promise, what year, or whatever. The short answer is this is not the world we live in anymore. I’m not going to go through all the reasons for Beacons again. By merging funds, we are talking about future collections and how we will handle weekly operating expenses. When the merger happens we will essentially be paying bills from one combined checking account. As has been mentioned and published umpteen times, our intention is to keep track of which parish had how much in savings at the time of the merger and do our best to honor the intention of the people who had been contributing that money. In other words, if St. Francis comes into the merger with 1 million and St. Philip closer to 3, we will plan to make note of that and try to use that for facilities upgrades at the appropriate places. Are we legally bound to do that, either by civil or Church Law? No.

6. There are many at St. Philips that feel like we are being taken over and that our parish is being neglected in the bigger scheme.  We certainly at 11K week have the money to make a huge difference quickly to the antiquated basement.  After seeing St. Francis I really don't know what has happened to our funds at St. Philip and why we aren't modernized like they are.  We do bring in the same amount with 1/2 the parishioners right?  Am I thinking right in that?

• Just a quick history review. St. Philip and St. Francis were put together as a pastoral region in 2015. Fr. Bernie was the existing pastor of St. Francis and became pastor of St. Philip. The previous church at St. Francis was in a gym. The new church was built and paid for prior to the joining of the parishes in 2015. There is a school at St. Francis that requires upkeep and has had some improvements, such as air conditioning. The only major change was the construction of the parish pastoral center at St. Francis, where the offices are located, as well as four conference rooms and the DeSales room, where food can be served. The facility prior to this was a mold-infested, triple-wide trailer that leaked every time it rained, had critters living underneath, and holes that mice were getting into on a daily basis. A capital campaign for this building was started while I was still here as Parochial Vicar (2018-2020) with the goal to build the office space and a gym. Not enough money was pledged to build the gym, so it was scaled back to the office space. We still dipped into St. Francis’ reserves (not St. Philip’s) to finish the project. 
  
  As far as St. Philip, we have made a number of upgrades to the worship space — flooring, painting, lights, piano. We replaced the roof. There is a construction project underway for the installation of an elevator and either 2 or 3 conference rooms in the undercroft. Brian Boon has put a lot of work into this and has presented additional proposals to parish council regarding what additional renovations to the undercroft could look like and how expensive that might be. We want to be good stewards of our financial resources and decide whether more renovations to the existing worship space, or building a brand new church, are feasible before we spend a significant amount of our reserves on the undercroft, which relatively few people use compared to the church. Meeting with the architect is at the end of this month. 

7. Is there data on how this process (Beacons) is being received by congregations throughout our diocese?  Challenges, successes, revisions. 

• There probably is data. I’m not aware of anything official being published. As you might expect, it seems the most contentious issues are over money. As far as successes, I want to say about 4 or 5 families have already amalgamated or merged. 

8. Propose that we balance out the community events with our two parishes…rotating current events such as Oktoberfest, and any other future festivals to support evangelization at both parishes. 

• This is something the Fellowship Committee does a very good job trying to balance. The suggestion to rotate the location of Oktoberfest would mean that the parish festival moves from St. Philip to St. Francis. Input from those in attendance (including St. Philip parishioners) was that an Oktoberfest at St. Philip would not work as well. The point about having events to evangelize is a decent one, and along these lines I would take a look at what are the biggest events that bring people in (FISH FRIES) and what could be done to take advantage of that.

9. How is the income from these events going to be split between the two parishes if the event is only held at one location?

• This depends on the event. Designer Purse Bingo and Deck the Halls were created at St. Francis to raise proceeds for the school. The first Oktoberfest I believe also had the money going there. I believe the funds for this Oktoberfest are going to defray costs for the elevator at St. Philip. Probably a good plan is for people who have suggestions to send those to me and Carl, or anyone on Finance and Parish council and we can take a look at that. A lot of the time we already have ideas in mind, but I think you are free to submit suggestions and we will consider it. 

10. Why did Midnight Mass get changed to SFDS when historically only SPTA celebrated at midnight?  Suggest that this be alternated.

• The Cliff Notes is that when I returned from Adams County and took over as Pastor, I asked for Mass Counts from the past several Christmases at both parishes. 3:00 on Christmas Eve is a sell out. 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve is the next most crowded, which means those two stay. After that, the attendance dropped dramatically, to about 50% capacity. We had a midnight at St. Philip and a Christmas morning at St. Philip, then a “midnight” at St. Francis (10:30?) And two Christmas morning. The attendance did not warrant that, so I dropped one Mass at each place. For St. Philip, I did not want to not offer a Mass during the day on Christmas, so we moved the time to actually be at midnight and moved it to the larger church. One of the Christmas morning Masses at St. Francis was dropped. The churches feel full, but there is still seating. Someone in attendance mentioned that Midnight at St. Francis may not be practical for those who live on the other side of St. Philip and may involve a 50 minute commute rather than 20. This is valid, and greater attention will be made this year at the attendance at the Midnight Mass to gauge whether alternating locations is a possibility. 

11. Prayer of the Faithful used to include the names of those receiving The Sacrament of Baptism. “Pray for x, who is receiving the Sacrament of Baptism this weekend.”  We have not heard this announcement at SPTA, only the bulletin note after the fact. Shouldn’t we be doing both?

• We can look into this. I’m not opposed to it. 

12. Announcements from the Lector before Mass are too long. Prioritize and direct congregation to the bulletin and/or website.

• I agree. The staff has discussed a way to streamline the announcements and will continue to brainstorm how this can be improved. 

13. Pray the Vocation Prayer after the Prayer of the Faithful. People leaving early are missing it.

• Fr. Brice and Fr. Craig took a while to decide where the proper place for this prayer should be. The priest alone should close the Universal Prayer. It feels redundant to have everyone praying the Vocations Prayer and then have the priest chime back in with similar words to close that part of the Mass. This is why we’re doing it the way we’re doing it. The larger issue is people leaving early.