OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL
GREEN CHURCH COMMITTEE
Minutes – Thursday, January 11, 2024
Present – Fr. Michael Omojola, Amy di Nardo, Rose-Marie Valade, Chris Shoust, Suzanne Shoust,
John Plecash, Betty Boisonneau, Karen Gionette, Wanda Taillefer
Regrets – Salvatore Marchese, Katie Marchee
Opening Prayer
Approval of the Agenda – Motion: Wanda, Second: Karen – Approved
Approval of the Minutes for the November 21, 2023 Meeting – Motion: John, Second: Rose-Marie
– Approved
Business Arising:
1. Adopt-a-street – Chris met with Father, he is glad to approve the project. Next step would be to pass to Salvatore to check with what the city needs from the diocese for insurance and paperwork. Selected street as Pine Street with cleanups in May and October on a Saturday or Sunday. Father's concern is to not have a cleanup too late in October. He is glad to be able to move ahead. John brought in more gloves for us to use when cleanups occur.
2. Clean North Update – (Salvatore) Are we still interested in partnering with clean ups, or we can participate in Clean North's cleanups, volunteering with them.
3. Clothing Swap – Katie had asked to postpone to a spring cleanup / clean-out your closets. Coordinate or tie in with Earth day possibly. Ask Claudette when the next friendship meal may be as we could have it around that time. Beginning of April we should announce the swap and campaign during Lent, suggested by Father. During this time people may be more inclined to donate. Rose-Marie suggested April. Fr. Suggested starting to collect clothes in February. Startour campaign the 4th Sunday of Lent. Post in the bulletin before Palm Sunday, people can begin putting things aside. Make announcements at mass. Someone from the committee could make the announcement or the Lector. More verbal communication direct to parishioners, or add to the bulletin board. Fr. prefers that someone come and speak. Check with Katie to
coordinate the best date for the clothing swap. More discussion and coordination to come.
4. Green Suggestions – Gather more tips of the month to offer to parishioners. Chris asked Rose-Marie for all tips posted to-date so that he could add them to the website. Make a subpage to add more information. We can direct people to the website for more information. St. Jerome's is trying to create a culture of going to their website, a vehicle to put more information online rather than relying on a bulletin. Something we can also try. Some suggested that the parish website isn't user-friendly at the moment and is not currently updated. When there are updates tell and/or remind others. Father has started a YouTube page for the church, starting
social media slowly. Add to bulletin announcements to “check out our website.” Keep it active and updated. Keep it short in the bulletin and direct parishioners to the Green Church section on the website for more details.
5. Recycling sign/Karen's apartment building – Karen tried to start educating her building
tenants. She isn't getting help from management. She did post locations for recycling, the custodian allowed her to post.
6. Green Churches Network – The parish is not listed if you were to go the Explore our Networkby PROVINCE, DENOMINATION or by TYPE of Institution tabs. However, we are pinned onthe map. You can select the pin and our church information will open. We need to ask them toadd us to the lists. We also need to send them the correct/updated committee information asour representative is listed as Bryan Hayes. https://greenchurches.ca/explore-our-network
7. Removing Invasive Species with Clean North – (Salvatore) Clean North picks certain days, if anyone is interested we can participate and make an announcement to ask others to join. Thousands of trees are invasive, their cleanups involve selecting a park and educating volunteers on what is considered invasive, anything not native to this area or North America. Invasive species do harm here, harm to ecological development. Note: Amy told us that in Israel cleanups bring people together, all who care and want to build partnerships. Not just about the environment.
8. Educating the Parish – Salvatore had said that some people from the church came to him and asked him “why does the parish need a green church committee” and that they didn't believe it should exist. We should possibly try to introduce scripture and parables into things we do, let's relate things we do into teachings. More of bringing people together, we are a part of each other, what we do affects each other. Show how things may tie together. Father said we seem too individualistic, more as a club. We should build a community, educate the parish and invite others to join in and participate. We should organize programs. In this new year, can we create a new program. Approach people, talk, teach others. Talk to people after masses, communicate. Amy did mention that someone told her how they liked the tips of the month. Rose-Marie said in previous years there was a “Ministry Fair” where all the groups gathered and setup a display for others to walk through and learn about each group and what they did within the parish. Maybe we could do another movie night.
Additional: Maria Salazar from Holy Family Church was supposed to come to the meeting, wasn't able to attend. She did express that she was interested in our group. Sara Tessier, might possibly be interested in doing a presentation, joining us for a meeting. She's written books for children, teaching them about pollination.