The New Saint John The Evangelist Website

Scott's Corner
9/05/10

After the first weekend of Masses in the Parish Life Center I would say that things went very well. Many volunteers came out to assist in order to create a spiritual environment in our makeshift church for the next month. Todd Peterson did a magnificent job with the sound and many commented that they could hear better in the PLC than they could in the church. Members of the Arts & Liturgical Environment team prepared a beautiful Altar for the celebration. I had several parishioners approach me and suggest that they actually liked the intimate environment of the Ballroom. I for one felt very comfortable attending my first ever Mass in the PLC.

With that said, work is well underway in the church and we still remain confident in meeting our deadline. We have a little wiggle room if something odd pops up (which it always does) but not much. All of our vendors are lined up and awaiting their orders. We plan to have the majority of the work on the Altar and surrounding areas completed in the next two weeks. Sauder Manufacturing (our pew vendor) will arrive on September 15^th to begin reupholstering the pews. Shortly thereafter, Sauder will install the kneelers on the pews. Gary Fusco of the Woodworkers Cabinet has agreed to install the kneelers on the chairs in the back wings of the church, saving us several thousand dollars. The corpus for the Crucifix is also scheduled to arrive on September 15^th. The corpus will then be set on the magnificent handcrafted cross in the back of the church before being installed immediately below the shattered stone pieces above the Altar.

Did you know that the pedestal for the tabernacle will be constructed of existing materials already in place in the sanctuary? The Altar will be moved forward a couple of feet and the tabernacle will be placed directly behind the Altar in front of the doors that open to the courtyard. The massive stone celebrant’s chair will be used as the base for the pedestal. The remainder of the pedestal will be composed of cast stone pieces that were formerly the benches used for Altar server seating. Marty Gauthier is designing and fabricating the new pedestal as a gift of time and talent. Since “green” seems to be the hot topic with regards to construction these days, you could technically say that our pedestal will be a green project considering the fact that were are recycling materials to create this beautiful structure. The New celebrant’s chairs and accompanying side chairs will now be located to the right of center which will allow for a clear view of the celebrant and concelebrants.

I would like to introduce Charlene Youngs, our new Family Ministry Coordinator. Charlene and her husband Brian have three children and have been members of the parish for 11 years. Charlene has served on many ministries throughout the years. She has been a catechist for the past five years and has volunteered with the Baptism Ministry, our Early Learning and Childcare Center and Vacation Bible School. Charlene has also helped organize and operate numerous fundraisers for the parish. She is currently a member of the Education Commission and Stewardship Council. We are truly blessed to have Charlene directing our Family Ministry program here at St. John the Evangelist.

We are in the preliminary stages of designing a prayer garden on the parish grounds. This past season, a parishioner stepped forward and offered to assume the cost for this project. This will be an outside garden adjacent to the church and will be a beautiful and serene sacred space. We are currently working with a designer and a landscape architect in order to determine the proper placement and accoutrements for the prayer garden.

In October of 2008, I coordinated an event for the priests of our Southern Deanery which was entitled “Priest’s Day Out.” The day began with breakfast here at St. John the Evangelist in the PLC. The priests then had their option of several different events which consisted of golf, backwater fishing, cruising on a yacht to Marco Island for lunch or simply lounging at a local resort utilizing the pool and beach. Finally, all of the brother priests met for a sunset dinner at a private beach club. We had over 25 priests take advantage of the offer and to say they enjoyed themselves is an understatement. I was able to arrange all of the activities at no cost to the priests or to the parish through the generosity of parishioners and local businesses. I am planning a similar event for this October (27^th) and have run into a snag with regards to the yacht and the backwater fishing. Both the yacht owner and backwater fishing boat owner are no longer owners of their vessels. If you have a reasonably sized Yacht/Cruising vessel (large enough to accommodate 10 or more) would you be interested in hosting our priests for a memorable day of camaraderie on the water? Do you have a backwater fishing boat and would you be willing to host a few priests for a day of fishing? Only one priest opted for the backwater fishing in 2008. If you are willing to accommodate my request, please contact me at 566-1678. Thanks in advance for your consideration of this request.