Parish Council Helps Pastor Fulfill Our Stewardship Mission

Here at St. Vincent de Paul, we are blessed to have a pastor dedicated to helping parishioners grow closer to the Lord. Indeed, Msgr. Robert Tucker does an outstanding job of nurturing our spiritual growth! Along with Msgr. Tucker, both staff and volunteer parishioners are working faithfully to help make the pastoral vision for our community a reality. You may already know some of them — the parish office staff, our associate pastor, and the directors of various ministries, to name just a few. Another invaluable group working behind the scenes to make our parish a wonderful place to call home is the St. Vincent de Paul Parish Council.

As Msgr. Tucker affirms, the benefits of having a Parish Council to help guide the development of a faith community are clear.

“It’s a matter of Church law that there is a parish council,” he says. “The Church as St. Paul talks about it is a building made up of living stones, so the members of the parish need to be active. It’s not just a matter of coming and receiving Communion and going on your own way. So there is a need there, and the Church wants the people of the parish to take an active leadership role. A priest may have expertise in lots of different areas, but not all of us do, so it’s important to tap into the abilities and expertise of the members.”

Nine parishioners serve on the Parish Council at a time. Each year, three members rotate off the council upon the completion of their three-year term, while two new members are elected by their fellow parishioners and one new member is appointed by Msgr. Tucker. This past December, parishioners were asked to vote for the new council members through the ballot box at the parish or by phone, due to the pandemic. We are pleased to welcome Tim Fitchner and Jessica Dominy to the Parish Council this year!

Those who serve on the Parish Council often learn that there is more going on in the parish than they had previously realized.

“I’ve heard numerous people say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that all these things were going on’ or ‘We didn’t know that these kinds of decisions had to be made,’” Msgr. Tucker says.

“So, it opens people’s eyes when they see what goes on in the Parish Council. I think that the council members want to help out the priests, because they know there is too much for a priest to do, and they know we need some support.”

This year, Msgr. Tucker plans on restructuring the council to allow for better collaboration between our Parish Council, Finance Council, and Stewardship Council.

“I want to emphasize stewardship within the council,” he says. “Having gone to these stewardship conferences in the past, I’ve always heard that the stewardship committee needs to be the head of the work of the church. If we look at the three areas of stewardship — time, talent, and treasure — the work of the council is looking at these three areas of parish life. So what I want is to get the Stewardship, Parish, and Finance Councils to work intimately together.”

As Msgr. Tucker looks to the future, he is excited by the opportunities that will continue to come to St. Vincent de Paul as this dedicated group of parishioners, guided by the tenets of a stewardship way of life, works together with him to help make our parish a wonderful place to worship and grow in the faith!

“A lot of the activity in the church has kind of died down over the last year [due to the pandemic], so it’s going to be the role of the council to kind of get activities going again,” Msgr. Tucker says. “I think it’s going to be different. There will be a need for people to get involved. There will be a desire for them to get

back and involved in the life of the church, and it’s going to be the role of the council to work on that. That’s my reason for combining the Parish Council, Finance Council, and Stewardship Council into the St. Vincent de Paul Council. It will give council to me and direction to the work of the parish.”