A Roman Catholic presence in the Shenandoah Valley since 1932

Parish Leadership

parish council

Parish Pastoral Council

The Parish Pastoral Council is a body of registered parishioners whose members are elected to serve a 3 year term. Council advises the Pastor in matters that pertain to the life of the parish, and assist in forming a pastoral vision that guides our life and ministry together.

 

Chair: John Mack: ppc@stjohnevan.com 

Assistant Chair: Lisa Puzio

Secretary: Dawn DiMuro-Rogers

We strive to Proclaim the Gospel & to Love One Another … RIGHT HERE … RIGHT NOW.

As short as this mission statement is, it is very rich in its depth.  Every activity of our parish should fit into living this mission statement. The mission should also call us and focus us. The mission statement has several key concepts we need to understand to use this effectively:

  • We Strive:  Building the Kingdom of God on earth is not a project we are going to knock out in a week, or a month or a year.  It is a pursuit we must continually struggle to carry out.  We strive to build the Kingdom, and know this work never ends while we are on earth.

  • Proclaim the Gospel:  The Gospel is the Good News, and we are all called to proclaim it.  We do this in a wide range of ways.  First, we proclaim the Gospel in our Liturgy and Worship, and we must continue to work to honor God as best we can in our worship.  Second, we proclaim the Gospel by teaching the Word.  We do this in our Christian Formation activities, spreading the Good News to individuals joining the Church, to the next generation of Catholics in our parish, and to each other.  Third, we proclaim the Gospel in all of activities of Service in our parish, the community and world.  Fourth, we proclaim the Gospel in our activities to support and maintain our parish Community.  Proclamation of the Gospel is especially important as we commit to New Evangelization work of the parish, diocese and Church. It is this four-fold proclamation of the Gospel that serves as the structure for our website: Worship, Word, Service and Community.

  • Love One Another:  Our patron, St. John the Evangelist, wrote that Jesus said: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13:34-35)  We need to exemplify our love for others in everything we do.  We start living this command by welcoming all into our parish community.  We are all sinners before God. We must treat all people with respect and dignity.  We also live this command in our service to our parish and in our service to our community and world.  These activities promote the dignity of all, and testify to the Good News, serving to help reveal the Good News to others through our acts of love.

  • Right Here:  We need to get involved in the work personally, and not at a distance.  We cannot spread the Good News or love one another without getting in direct contact with the work that needs to be done.  As such, our focus needs to be on our parish and the communities we are in.  The work we do must be personal and engage individuals.  This isn’t always easy or comfortable, but it is what we must do.  This doesn’t mean we won’t support national or international causes.  We live in the wealthiest nation on earth, and have resources others do not.  We need to share those, but we can never forgot that we are most effective as Proclaiming the Gospel and Loving One Another when we minister to others face-to-face in our community.

  • Right Now:  Our mission is not a sound bite that sounds good but sits on a shelf gathering dust.  We need a sense of urgency.  The kingdom of God is at hand, just as it has been for 2,000 years, and we need the same zeal, the same urgency and the same enthusiasm as the Apostles on Pentecost.  We also need to be prepared for change and conversion.  Complacency and slothfulness are our enemies on our path to salvation and our spreading the Good News.  We can’t sit around and wait for the Kingdom to come to us, we need to run toward it and actively build it Right Now!

Our mission statement is not a change in philosophy or even a change in goals. It is a restatement of the Gospel in a way that we can use to drive our work. Christ gave us everything we believe, and our mission needs to reflect His teaching fully, completely and without the slightest deviation. We must not falter in our confidence and enthusiasm for the Truth.

Our parish already does tremendous work in living the mission statement.  We have a dynamic, enthusiastic individuals working in a number of ministries. We will continue to encourage this work, always striving to build the Kingdom right here and right now!


finance council

Finance Council

The Parish Finance Council serves as a financial advisory board to the Pastor, and consists of six members of the parish, each of whom may serve up to two three-year terms. The Parish Administrator serves as the staff liaison to the Finance Council.

Included among the Finance Council’s duties are the following:

  • To consult with the Pastor on business matters
  • To review monthly, quarterly and annual financial information
  • To assist the Pastor and staff in formulating the annual parish budget
  • To recommend investment strategies
  • To encourage parishioners to support the financial needs of the parish

The Finance Council meets on the third or fourth Thursday of the month six times per year. The Finance Council provides a complete financial report to the Parish Council twice each year.

Chair: Jim Boland: obxleadrod42@gmail.com