A Happy November to all!
I have a rejuvenated energy and spirit as we begin the 2016 renewal process for CITI Ministries.
This year The Board of Directors met at my home in Bowie, MD the weekend of Oct. 23-25th. Treasurer, Steve Stahley, gave a “thumbs up” for a fiscally sound finance report with CITI Ministries maintaining a healthy net worth. Finance Team member Mallory Schmitt reviewed our tax reporting and introduced our new accountant and David Lorenz submitted a helpful graph presentation for analysis.
The weekend was a mix of sad and happy news. Long time Board members, Jean Pelletier, Fran Salone-Pelletier and Chairman, Jerry Siegmund each submitted their resignations prior to the meeting. I cannot overstate the sincere appreciation I have for them. Fran and Jean have served on the Board for fifteen years and Jerry for the past eight. They were instrumental in guiding me through the transitional phase of leadership from Louise to myself. They have truly been a gift to the CITI Community and will be sorely missed. In light of their resignations the Board appointed Finance Team Member Mallory Schmitt as a Director and her husband, CITI priest Charlie Schmitt, will now serve as Chairman of the Board. Charlie has been a member of CITI Ministries since 2010. He has had an active wedding ministry and in the past year he has served Dignity Washington DC gaining a new appreciation of being “called by community”. Charlie has built a successful home remodeling business and lends energy and leadership to our Board.
My daughter-in-law, Renee became a full-time employee this year and is no longer available to work for CITI Ministries. Please welcome our new Office Assistant, Jenny Tringali to our staff! I have worked with Jenny for the past eight years at the Bowie Senior Center. We share duties as part-time Program Assistants for the Center and I have seen her manage office responsibilities, work compassionately with seniors and roll with the flow with a sense of humor. Jenny has over 30 years of office administrative experience. I thank Renee for her years of service and now look forward to having Jenny take up the reigns. We appreciate your patience during this transition. – Judy
Affirming our Ministries, Affirming Our Future
In each newsletter, we would like to highlight a CITI member’s ministry or an event that would be of interest to all. We encourage you to write a short one page article about what you do, or an event in your ministry that you’d like to share.
CITI Spotlight
Maryland CITI Priests Meet to Celebrate a Special Day
by Mallory Schmitt
In September, five of the CITI Priests from Maryland, their spouses and friends and Judy & Dave Lorenz met at the home of Steve Stahley in Westminster, MD. This was one of the periodic meetings of the Maryland priests, who try to get together quarterly. However, this was an extra special day, as we were able to celebrate the upcoming 90th birthday of Tom Kincaid. Tom has had a distinguished personal and pastoral ministry in his community in Western Maryland performing marriages, anointing and liturgies. Along with some fabulous food, (featuring Maryland crabmeat), the group discussed several topics including the future and direction of CITI Ministries. The membership has been slowly decreasing, primarily due to aging, and questions have been raised in the past about how CITI can continue to exist with declining membership. The discussion explored various ideas for the future – recognizing that each of the priests have different strengths and different ministries. Bob Fagan, Charles Schmitt and, Steve Stahley regularly offer Sunday Mass with the Dignity communities of Washington, DC and Northern Virginia. Don Horrigan has an extensive funeral chaplaincy and small group ministry in the Bowie and Annapolis area. The discussions led to the question of how to expand CITI’s presence and involvement with the communities that really need us, and how do we acknowledge that they also minister to us in each of our encounters? Everyone there strongly endorses the proposal that the CITI Board make the 2016 Fiscal Year a year of Affirming Our Ministries and Affirming our Future. To that end we will explore alliances and hopefully engage in dialogue with other communities such as CORPUS, Future Church, SNAP and Dignity. We are especially excited to network with our certifying body, the ICCC. The Board will be attending the ICCC annual conference this year. It will be held July 11-14, 2016 in Louisville, KY. Our intent is to invite as many as possible from CITI to come together to share and showcase our various ministries and to renew and refresh our relationship with the ICCC.
Spotlight Submissions
Please submit any reflections you would like to share on your CITI experiences that can help us better understand how we are reaching folks through our ministry. Wives, friends and other family members are also welcomed and encouraged to contribute to the discussion. Send your information to this email address: jlorenz@citiministries.org. We’ll send the newsletter or maybe just a Spotlight Story more frequently as submissions come in. Feel free to comment on these reflections on our citi-l list so more people can get involved in the discussion. Thank you!
Speaking of Spotlight… Totally unrelated and extremely important!
Please take the opportunity to see the movie Spotlight which is being released around the country on Nov. 20th. If you belong to or lead a small faith community I encourage you to invite all of them to see the movie. Host a CITI Ministries sponsored discussion group afterwards. This movie is historically accurate focusing on the Boston Globe’s coverage of the church sex abuse crisis in 2001. It is crucial to the continued education on this topic and provides much needed validation for survivors who have been struggling for years. Many survivors have already reached out for the first time after viewing the movie even though the times and areas where it has been available have been so limited. When it is more broadly released it still may not be in your local theater but it will definitely be worth your while to travel a bit. I hope and pray that it will provide a catalyst for a more compassionate and action-oriented response to those who view it.
Renewal Time
You should have received the 2016 renewal form as an attachment in a recent email. Please print it out immediately, sign and either scan, fax, or mail it to us at admin@citiministries.org
You may pay by check, online donation, or by clearly printing your credit card number on the form. If you would like us to mail the form please make that request by email or phone. If you need to implement a payment plan please call the office and we will be happy to set that up. The phone number is:
(O) 301-464-5690
(F) 301-464-5691
If you know that your intentions are not to renew please let us know as soon as possible. This will allow us to remove your folder from our active file and your email from our distribution list.
The CITI Ministries Board of Directors thanks you for your prayers and support!
Judy Lorenz, President David Lorenz, Director
Charlie Schmitt, Chairman Donna Podobinski, Director
Patrick Journet, Vice-President Mallory Schmitt, Director
Donald Horrigan, Secretary/Clerk Frank McGrath, Director Emeritus
Steve Stahley, Treasurer William Podobinski, Director Emeritus
Thomas Brooks, Director
