AREA FAITH COMMUNITIES

Our plans for the Area Faith Communities between St. Gertrude's and St. John's has been approved by the Diocese.  We are moving into a new and exciting time in our parish life.   The Area Pastoral Council Task Force has been set up to formulate and recommend guidelines and implementation for the Pastoral Councils of St. Gertrude's and St. John's.  Members of the task force for St. Gertrude's are:  Lou Huber,  Pat Mares and Marge Theis.  St. John's task force members are:  Chris Hansen, Jim Hughes and Diane Olson.

Our new emphasis will be to bring this call into focus as we work toward the faith community with St. John's. This process may take as long as 18 months to complete.  In the upcoming months, parish representatives will be working with members of St. John's to identify ways that the parishes can collaborate in the areas of Word, Worship, Service and Stewardship.  

We hope that you will respond when you have an opportunity to help with this process.   Remember - volunteerism equals a vital parish.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the task force members.

BAPTISM PREPARATION SESSIONS

Note:  New Sessions To Be Scheduled

Parents who request baptism for their child are required to take part in a preparation program before the baptism.  Preparation sessions for St. Gertrude and St. John parents are held three times a year.  Both parents and the child's godparents, if possible, should take part in the preparation sessions, preferably during the pregnancy.  You may schedule your child's baptism - once the preparation has been completed - for Sunday liturgies outside of Lent.

The next series, conducted with parents from St. Gertrude's and St. John's will be held at St. John's Church in Darwin later this year.  Please watch the church bulletins for upcoming dates.

Further information will be forthcoming regarding who to contact for registration.

FUNDRAISING PROJECTS

There are several fundraising projects that we have going that are easy to participate in and will help with our expenses.  These fundraising projects are:

• Econo Foods Sales Receipts - save your sales receipts from Econo Foods and place them in the red box at church.  Once we have $150,000 in sales receipts we can turn them in to Econo Foods and we will receive $1,000.  Please patronize Econo Foods as much as possible and save your receipts.
• Aluminum Cans - please place your recyclable aluminum cans in the trailer that is located outside the church.  The money we receive from recycling these cans helps our Youth Group.
• Empties4Cash - please bring in your empty inkjet cartridges.  If you know of anyone who has emptry cartridges they would like us to recycle, please bring them to church and leave them on the table in the back.  The money received from this project helps our Religious Education program.