9. Social Action Committee develops programs on social, economic and global issues. Recent initiatives included a campaign devoted to raising awareness of African Children with HIV/AIDS that aided orphans at a Catholic mission in Tanzania and Catholic Relief Services efforts in Africa. In addition, the parish supported a partnership with Franciscans International to sponsor community leaders in East Africa trained by Franciscans on urgent social, health and economic issues. Their good work continues and the people we have helped have expressed their gratitude to their Catholic “brothers and sisters” at Blessed Sacrament. The Social Action Committee is working on new initiatives for 2008, one of which will be supporting a Catholic school in India. You’ll be hearing about it soon.
10. Hospitality Committee promotes social opportunities for parishioners through coffee hours after the 10:00 and 12:30 masses the first Sunday of every month. New hospitality and social programs are currently being planned for this year.
11. Building & Grounds: A number of initiatives were completed this past year including the school façade which was cleaned, patched and painted; all of the entrance doors of the church (ten in all) were restored; the rectory roof was repaired and the small roof over the last entrance of the church was replaced. In addition, our iconic crucifix and altar tapestries were recently given a 21st century cleaning. The total repair and restoration cost of these projects was $300,000.
12. Hispanic Community provides a variety of spiritual, social, cultural and music oriented activities for the Spanish speaking members of our community. Their activities included a wide range of concerts/music presentations, book fairs, coffee hour, and related cultural events. Under the leadership of Fr. Alexis, they have created a new website www.xtos.net targeted to promote spirituality and Catholic doctrine for Hispanic youth. The current website is www.nygente.com.
13. Blessed Sacrament School’s pprincipal, Imelda Engel, provides monthly reports to the Council on matters concerning the growth and development of its 270 pupils and educational programs. Their website is: www.blsacnyc.org
14. Parish Website: During the past year the Parish Council has been overseeing a redesign of our own parish website. Our new, updated website has been operating since June. It is our hope that you will refer to the Blessed Sacrament website as you do other informational and personal websites. www.blessedsacramentnyc.com
15. Volunteer Party: The Parish Council annually hosts a Volunteer Party to thank the many people that help our parish thrive – we had a great party and acknowledged the efforts of 200 volunteers!

Lastly, there are two initiatives that I would like to ask for your help. Our Parish Council elections will take place in April this year. We are in need of at least ten candidates to run for the Council. What are the criteria for being a member of the Council? You just need to be a registered member of our parish, attend a meeting once a month from September to June and really care about our parish community. I ask that you consider giving your time, talent and ideas to our parish council.

Volunteers: As you can tell, it takes a dedicated population of parishioners to keen our programs moving forward. Our pastors frequently remind us of the importance of serving our Lord – of helping others. There is no better way to achieve service than volunteer for one of our committees or ministries. I know we are all incredibly busy people but it usually only takes up one hour a month to serve and there are many opportunities to do so. A school volunteer, a eucharistic minister, assisting food for families, our soup kitchen, shelter, religious education, hospitality committee, liturgy committee, social action. There are brochures at the back of the church that describe the volunteer opportunities and a member of the parish council who can answer your questions. If you can volunteer, please take a brochure, sign up and return it to the rectory and someone will contact you accordingly. During the Lent season perhaps this is one way you can serve the Lord and our parish – there is great value in doing so.

In closing, we’ve had another incredible year but we can always do better. If you have an idea or concern regarding our parish, you can drop a note to the Rectory to the attention of the Parish Council. Many thanks for letting us work on your behalf to make Blessed Sacrament a most special and extraordinary Catholic community.

Thank you!

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