The question: Imagine if our parish eliminated our nearly $6000 monthly debt payment (nearly $70,000 annually) for the Moisant Faith Formation Center? What would YOU recommend the parish do with those funds? DREAM BIG!
In no particular order, here are the Dreams that Resurrection parishioners offered in January 2019:
- Repay the remaining mortgage on the Moisant Center sooner, to avoid excess interest.
- A hospitality project: (create) a very inviting sitting place/coffee bar with fireplace and comfortable seating (e.g. Holy Grounds Coffee House).
- Take this opportunity to complete the Moisant Center as designed in the original plans, including a lobby gathering area with a library and gift shop, an elevator into the Church, the parish offices with an upper level parking area.
- Set up scholarships for young adults starting college or vocational training, and also for parishioners having a difficult time finishing their education.
- Have a reader bar for hearing impaired – like the one at the Portland Opera, positioned over the wood wall behind the choir. It’s especially important for the homily, prayers of the faithful, message for stewardship, announcements, etc. This could also be used at 1 or 2 masses to provide a translation into Spanish for the homily, prayers, etc. (I’m wiling to be involved in this project: Gary Gorgan, gscorgan@hotmail.com)
- Sponsor a sister parish in need
- Help the homeless (St Vincent de Paul would know needs)
- Aid those devastated by fires, hurricanes, etc.
- Team with Stop Oregon Litter and Vandalism (SOLV) to organize a clean-up of camps; sponsor dumpsters.
- Support Catholic education in our area.
- Give to Mary Knoll Father and Brothers (New York)
- Raise the staff salaries to attract the best people.
- A cover from the church to the hall.
- For the seven side (north) windows in the church, have stained glass panels created, each depicting one of the sacraments, for either the square panes above the large panels.
- Recover/upholster the pews and kneelers
- We should recover the pews discolored from cleaning chemicals
- Add some more rocks to (outside Resurrected Christ) statue or build a mountain around him
- A building for the preschool or renovate Rossman Hall (acoustics and lighting)
- A new kitchen
- A live stream of the masses to those who are homebound
- Youth Service Encounter: ask high school students to sign up for a service trip for their junior year. Start as freshmen completing volunteer service hours for which the church “pays” them back in service trip dollars so they can go on their trip junior year. Then, as seniors they can counsel, give back post-trip to teach younger high school students about their experience. Its designed to support young adults to explore other areas while contributing annually, locally. Trips may be abroad if able to fund those encounters. Good for everyone!
- We think the little house should have new siding and windows/doors so it is structurally sound (and free of rodents.)
- Dennis Rood should have at least summer help for general infrastructure needs.
- We should consider helping some of the poorer parish in the archdiocese with money for educators, school supplies, or other assistance such as repairs or basic upgrades – perhaps a challenge for matching funds.
- We do not want more debt for quite a while!
- Remodel/update the Hall so it could be used as a multi-purpose space with bright lighting and wall dividers that can be easily moved.
- A Catholic K-8 school! Or a vineyard.
- Air conditioning for Rossman Hall.
- Diffusing or colored glass on the south-side windows in the church to shade the sun.
- Reupholster church pews and kneelers
- Upgrade church sound system (left side has an echo and is difficult to hear clearly there.)
- Move the Blessed Sacrament back to the center of the church.
- Save the money.
- Help the homeless and hunger with shelter in existing buildings.
- Regular feeding of families in homeless shelters.
- Open a youth center for middle and high schoolers with pool tables and games, etc., but also incorporate classes in abstinence, drug prevention, family issue resolution, etc.
- Explore a school (K-8)
- Reupholster pews
- Theatre for concerts, movies, plays, lectures
- Not a school
- Second entrance/exit (parking lot)
- Build a retreat center
- Add a gym for youth to gather in sports, fellowship and community
- Tear down the old house and build something more useful that could (also) be an excellent revenue source.
- Add stained glass to the west wall.
- Free health clinic
- Put in another entrance/exit to our parking lot
- Rec Center/Gym to encourage more youth participation (faith is fun)
- Save it as a rainy day fund in case of recession
- Help St. Vincent de Paul
- Use for the homeless: rent rooms
- Help the smaller, poorer parishes to (help) make ends meet
- More faith formation for couples who are 40-60 (empty nesters)…not nerdy church stuff, but rooted in faith and emphasize marriage
- Sponsor a church in Honduras or Guatemala
- More Community outreach
- Middle school
- Bigger kitchen
- Second parking lot entrance/exot
- More community outreach, service for those in need
- New upholstery in the pews
- Open a service center for food, goods, etc.
- Build a rec center/gym used for school PE
- Sponsor beds at a homeless shelter/transitional housing
- Blessed Sacraments at the Altar
- Put a school in
- Build a school for the older kids
- Develop a family enrichment center
- Develop a food/farming co-op
- Build a school
- Feed the hungry
- Fix up the little house to house a refuge family, unwed mothers and provide sponsorship
- Complete remodel of the (little) house – brought up to code for a needy family
- Elevator (enclosed) next to the chapel with covered walkway from chapel to Moisant Center
- Partner with Marylhurst University (closed!)
- A faith library for Life Kids, Edge and Life Teens. Books that children/families can borrow and learn more about their faith, history of the church, saints, theology, etc. as well as DVDs. Also a movie night at the church, creating a family event that would be fun for the community.
- Form a ministry to help the poor and help us see God in others. We aren’t a good location for a soup kitchen or shelter, but could make space for homeless living in their cars, with porta potties and dumpsters. Important to treat people as people, with monthly potlucks with the homeless population.
- Gym or high school
- Reupholster the pews
- Conduct a study to see if (the parish) can be self-sustainable in electricity – solar and geothermal. Install greenhouse for year-round crop production
- Conduct maintenance and upgrades on the priory (little house); energy efficient upgrades
- Start bee keeping
- Cost saver: turn down heating at all masses
- Partner with Catholic Charities and Clackamas County and build a community of 8 to 12 tiny transitional houses for the houseless in our community. Or, partner with Clackamas County and allow the houseless to camp on platforms in one of parking areas.
- I would love a prayer garden, north of the parking lot between the church and freeway. A quiet place to walk and pray the stations of the cross. Similar to the grotto or the retreat house in Beaverton. Parishioners may want a quiet place to pray during the week or off-hours when the church is locked. It would also be a great place (when the weather is nice) for the day care or faith formation kids to learn about the stations or have teachings.
- Renovate the home on the church’s property.
- Hi ~ I am so hoping (and praying) that parishioners step forward to pay off the Center! Once this is done, my suggestion would be to focus on the little house on the property. It is historic and very charming, but it is falling apart. We could continue to use it for ministries and meetings, or it could be used to house someone in need or someone who might be hired in the future as a groundskeeper or for security. Sally Egland
- Off-site transitional housing for families
- Raze the Hay Barn and replace with new office and conference space. Then raze the small house and garage. Replace garage with workshop somewhere on campus or the current office building.
- New, expanded kitchen in Rossman Hall.
- Remodel Rossman Hall
- Wrap concrete posts in church with “icon” style materials. Mary’s suggestion years ago.
- Not a grade or middle school.
- What to do with $70K/Year: 1. We rent Fr. Bill’s house from the Archdiocese. Should we buy it? 2. Put in railings up to the Ambo and at the Moisant Center where Joan fell. 3. Replace the windows in the Office building, especially the Fireside room. 4. Improve the landscape at the entrance to the lower lot. Specifically, clean up the vegetation between Father’s house and the church. 5. Get high speed internet to the Office 6. Revise the entrance from Ek Rd. into the lower parking lot. Possibly a separate and a separate exit. John & Mary Grammel
- (submission) 1.Fix all deferred maintenance on campus such as siding on the Little House. 2. Create a second entrance/exit to main church parking lot if possible. 3. Be true stewards and donate the rest to the poor. ~Laura Hamel
- I hope that the parish would buy back from the Archdiocese the two lots next door to the parish on Ek Road so that we would have room to expand in the future.
- Put it aside and build a rainy day fund first. Then set up an endowment for the school for help with tuition for those need it. After that increase or contribution to those in need. Bill Sprague
- Some kind of nice covering from the Church to the Hall for the bad or hot weather. Thank you!
- Get a decent audio system that works with the space. People have said they cannot hear the singers even though they use microphones.
- I would like to recommend to substantially increase the budget on Landscaping around the church including the parking lot. Also re-pave and new stripe on the parking lot. Thanks, Mike D.
- Fund a parents day out or indoor play space program. Where we used to live the churches offered these types of programs and they were awesome. A place to go during the day with your small children when the weather is too yucky to be outside, Grab a coffee and spend time with other parents while the kids run.
- Or a 1 day a month parents day out. These used to be one Saturday a month, you drop off your kids and there were crafts, and singing and playing for littles, and board games and foosball and activities for older kids and you knew you had this 1 day you and your spouse could go on a date or get a project done.
- Do mission trips all over the world!
- Buy a wheelchair-equipped mini-bus to pick up stranded parishioners for mass
- Beyond our efforts supporting St. Vincent de Paul, are there other agencies that we could partner with to support the homeless?
- Build a gym for students, staff, parishioners
- Create a full service food bank
- I would like to see some noted speakers come in to talk about Theology of the Body, Marriage, Life & Moral Issues.
- I’d like to see a Memorial to Life erected on the grounds, used as a focal point for supporting and teaching the Sanctity of Life.
- More options for childcare during events: Women’s 1st Saturday, Mass.
- Faith Buddy Online Forum
- More adoration times during Lent and Advent.
- Two women’s retreats per year.
- Take a flight to different places and show and tell who Lord Jesus is.
- ProLife Center (most important give God gave.
- Expand kitchen and update hall
- Make a donation in the name of the parish to help build a homeless shelter.
- Focus on the homeless: we should consider forming a committee to discuss options and then get guidance as to how to proceed. (Susan Skites)
- Automate the elevators.
- Fix, reconstruct buildings by office for youth faith formation.
- Make walking paths to youth formation.
- Support transitional housing for homeless.
- Encourage, recruit and support seminarians. Support retired priests and religious.
- Continued maintenance of preschool playgrounds.
- As the school is a mission of the Church, I would love to see our current preschool expanded by adding more classrooms and grades . There are also so many people moving to the area we could provide not just preschool, but an amazing PreK-5th grade Catholic education.
- Expand our amazing school adding grades 1-8!
- Renovate the hall and build a gym.
- Catholic schools are the heart of a parish. There is already an amazing and successful preschool here and there is a great need in his community for a catholic school. Let’s keep building this school and add more grades and build a bridge between school, parish and community.
- The preschool has been so successful; there is clearly a need/demand for an elementary school. This would enable us to reach that many more families and build our community.
- Build up the parish savings account for several years after the $70,000 is no longer needed annually for debt repayment. Those funds could serve as a “rainy day” fund towards large, unanticipated parish expenses; also provide seed money for various of the “Dream Big” projects suggested.
- Build a multi-level deck and remodel the hall. Make it more inviting and incorporate the views.
- Improve the Ek Road entrance for safety
- Stained glass windows
- Save for a rainy day – if everyone paid 2 percent more, the FFC would get paid off quicker
- Build homeless shelters
- Create a larger cry area
- Have daycare for younger children
- Remodel the kitchen
- Funding for Father’s Heart Ministry
- A new ministry for young married couples (evenings out with free babysitting)