Last year, when we began the process of bringing together the parishes of Monroeville and Penn Hills, we mentioned a few of the steps that would be necessary to accomplish in order for us to reach our goal of becoming the Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish community.  We knew that our spending was far greater than the contributions that you, our parish community, was generously providing for the operation of the parish.  As a result, we realized that we couldn’t afford to keep six offices open and staffed with six full staffs.  In addition, we recognized that our capacity in our church buildings was far greater than our needs, and so, wanted to discern what the needs of our parish community are.  We’re making progress on both of these fronts:

Staff Realignment
In the fall, we examined our needs in the area of Lay Ecclesial Ministers, and settled on a team of seven staff members to serve the parish: Josh Bandish (director of music), Mary Lou Bender (assistant director of music), Jerry Brandl (business manager), Bess Biamonte (pastoral associate), Cindy Karell (organist), Deacon Mike Kelly (pastoral associate / safe environment coordinator), Marlene Kopper (director of religious education) and Irene Swackhammer (volunteer assistant director of religious education).  
We decided to examine our needs in terms of clerical and maintenance staff in the Spring, and we have recently completed that process.  Our maintenance staff will be led by Tim Jacobs, and will consist of Eileen Almeter, Leo Bickert, and Nanette Iorio.  With respect to our offices, the decision was made to consolidate to a single office. Our clerical staff will consist of Ginny Beck, Cathy Cowan, Kathy DeStefano, and Sandy Palmieri.  We would like to thank our staff for their continued service to the parish!
Sadly, this means that a number of our staff members will no longer be serving in the positions which they had held previously.  We appreciate their dedication to the parish, and will be providing 12 weeks of severance compensation in order to show our appreciation to them.  In a particular way, we’d like to thank Sandy Baer, Melissa Busbey, Pat Cepec, Charlotte Dobrinsky, Rob Gaspar and Ron Kreske for their dedicated service to our parish community over the years, and wish them well in their future endeavors!  In addition, Bill Sterf has decided to retire, and we’d like to thank him for his service in the maintenance of parish buildings!

Buildings and the Needs of the Parish Community
Last year, we mentioned that we would form a team to evaluate all the buildings of our parish and begin the process of discerning the needs of our community and the ways that we utilize our buildings to meet those needs.  We’re beginning the process of forming a team who will embark on that process.  They will report their findings to our finance and pastoral councils, who will then offer advice to our priest team.  As we make progress in this discernment, we’ll be certain to keep the parish community updated on the process!

As always, please keep the Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish community in your prayers!