From Mia Ah Sani, the Church of St. Edward: We are wondering what parishes are live streaming their funerals, if they are planning on continuing the service, and if they are charging the families to do it. And if so, what are they charging? We are trying to determine if we are going to continue offering that to the families, now that people can fly again and there are not limitations on numbers of people attending the funeral. I’d love to hear what other parishes are doing about live streaming funerals.

From Lori Hannasch, at St. John Neumann in Eagan: I am wondering if you could send this request out to the APM members for me. We are looking to update our military board at SJN.  The person in charge of the board is looking for a prayer for active military and first responders to display.  Everything I am finding or creating is not inspiring me or honoring them in the way I would like.  Is there anyone in the group who has a good prayer for this topic that they might be willing to share?  Thanks! Lori Hannasch, Director of Pastoral Care St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 4030 Pilot Knob Rd. | Eagan, MN 55122 Phone: 651-454-2079 | Direct: 651-209-8590

Name: Lisa Fontecha Amos Place of Ministry: St. Peter’s Email: lamos@stoetersmendota.org Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: No Are families pushing funerals: All who have decided to wait are pushing them out until they are able to have a larger gathering so there is no definite date yet How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : So far, all of our families have either chosen to have a graveside service only with 10 or fewer people, or to wait until a later date. Name: Jill Cusick Place of Ministry: Admin Assistant Email: office@maryschurches.com Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: No Are families pushing funerals: We have not had any funerals in over 6 months. How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : We are allowing small funerals, with up to 9 people in attendance (the priest makes 10 total). Family will have to remain 6' apart - following strict social distancing guidelines. No luncheons are being allowed at this time. A "drive-up" or "parking-lot" Funeral option would allow for more than 9 people in attendance (weather permitting). We would try to accommodate the family as best we can at this time. No face to face meetings for planning. No choir / music / etc. Very limited during this pandemic outbreak. When the "stay at home" order is lifted, our plans for funerals may expand a bit. We follow what the Archdiocese suggests - which is to follow what the Governor has laid out, including wearing masks and gloves when needed. Thanks. Name: Mia Ah Sani Place of Ministry: St. Ed's Email: mahsani@stedwardschurch.org Is your church conducting fun: No Are you providing live stream: No Are families pushing funerals: late summer, early fall How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : We have had to reschedule 3 funerals, probably a 4th that is scheduled in June, and three more people have died since the quarentine started. The families are in a holding pattern and are all being understanding cooperative about it. I have emailed out the funeral forms I typically use when planning a liturgy so that when we do meet in person they have some idea of the decisions that will need to be made. All but one family chose to cremate and wait to do a funeral, lunch, and burial when we can safely gather. The other did a small private burial and will have a memorial service and lunch later as well. I am personally anticipating that we will do the funerals in the fall. Name: Beryl Schewe Place of Ministry: OLG Email: berylschewe@olgparish.org Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: Yes Are families pushing funerals: Some plan within a week or two, some are pushing months out hoping for no restrictions How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : - Name: Carol Arend Place of Ministry: St. Thomas More Email: carend@morecommunity.org Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: Yes Are families pushing funerals: Some are doing a burial or small funeral with plans to have a larger memorial Mass when things open up.. How are you planning funerals: Both Anything else you would like : - Name: Heidi Gieske Place of Ministry: St. Bridget of Sweden Catholic Church Email: hgieske@stbridgetofsweden.org Is your church conducting fun: No Are you providing live stream: Yes Are families pushing funerals: We have no dates scheduled. People are just waiting until we can open up. How are you planning funerals: Both Anything else you would like : We have not had that many deaths. But it is very hard to the families to have to wait. We are calling to comfort. Making a plan for when things can happen. We would have Burial services, but have not had the actual in Church funerals. It seems to also be a comfort to have Masses celebrated in the community for the repose of the soul of these parishioners. Name: Terry Reasoner Place of Ministry: St Mary of the Lake Email: tareasoner@stmarys-wbl.org Is your church conducting fun: No Are you providing live stream: No Are families pushing funerals: We have told them that as soon as it's possible to have a funeral Mass in the church, we will contact them. How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : - Name: Carol Diethelm Place of Ministry: Parish of Ss Joachim & Anne, Shakopee Email: cdiethelm@ssjacs.org Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: Yes Are families pushing funerals: We've had one social distancing prayer service at the funeral home, <10 people in the room with live streaming. ON HOLD: 4. One hopes to have it ASAP with social distancing (we'll watch for when that can be). One is looking at September, but if they can't hug each other, they're willing to wait as long as it takes (even a year). The funeral director we working with for all four would like to start setting dates. How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : Perhaps a helpful tip: Joe Schmidt, the funeral director in Shakopee who handles most of our parishioners' funerals, suggests that we set aside a couple specific days of the week for the funerals that are waiting/pushing out (e.g., Tuesdays and Thursdays in the future), and leave a couple other days of the week open (e.g., Wednesdays and Fridays) for deaths that take place during the time we're carrying out those pushed out funerals so we can accommodate both types. All 3 of our predecessor parishes before the merger were 150 years old, so we have many funerals of legacy Shakopee families as well as newer parishioners.. What's somewhat tricky for me is that some families aren't in a rush to do funeral planning, but I'm going to need to get all the materials done in advance--e.g., worship aids, readings for family readers, info sheet for priest--or I'll be swamped when we start having post-COVID funerals again. I don't want to push too hard, though, in these extraordinary times. Name: Carol Diethelm Place of Ministry: Ss. Joachim & Anne of Shakopee Email: cdiethelm@ssjacs.org Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: Yes Are families pushing funerals: Three of our funerals are being pushed out: One hopes to have it as soon as we can hold funerals with >10 people with social distancing; another is looking at September, but if they can't hug mourners by September, they're willing to wait as long as it takes (even a year). The funeral director handling all three would like to start setting dates. How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : Practical tip: Joe Schmidt, the funeral director we work with for most of our funerals, recommends that we set aside a couple days of the week (e.g., Tuesdays and Thursdays) for the funerals that will be held in the future ), and set aside two other days of the week (e.g., Wednesdays and Fridays) for the funerals that will come up amid the time when we're holding the pushed-out funerals. (We're a merged parish of three 150-year-old predecessor parishes, so we have many legacy Shakopee family funerals as well as for more recent parishioners.) Name: Kim Albrecht Place of Ministry: St. Odilia Email: albrecht@stodilia.org Is your church conducting fun: No Are you providing live stream: No Are families pushing funerals: Yes, 1 has scheduled in July; others are pending. How are you planning funerals: - Anything else you would like : We have not had any funeral Masses/services at the church since the pandemic hit MN because families have chosen to only do a burial service. Most are hoping to have a memorial Mass at a later time. Name: Jean Thoresen Place of Ministry: Pax Christi Catholic Community Email: jthoresen@paxchristi.com Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: No Are families pushing funerals: We have only had two deaths. One scheduled funeral within days and the other pushed it out a few weeks then realized they wanted closure so we will now have one. How are you planning funerals: By phone or virtually Anything else you would like : It's a case-by-case process at this point. Since we count the presider and musicans (3) the family can only have 7 people which is a very difficult hardship. Name: Virginia Place of Ministry: St. Helena Catholic Church Email: tschida@sainthelena.us Is your church conducting fun: Yes Are you providing live stream: No Are families pushing funerals: Yes. Some are as far as June..However the burials have already taken place How are you planning funerals: Both Anything else you would like : -

Jolaine Liupakka from St. Richard's I'm wondering what other churches are doing in regards to create safe environment around the calls to vulnerable adults during this time.  The archdiocese came out with some new recommendations and I'm wondering what others are doing.  Are only E3 certified volunteers/staff making phone calls to those deemed vulnerable? Do you rotate the call lists so the same person doesn't call the same people and lessen the chance of manipulation?  What are their policies/practices/guidelines?

Hi everyone, Our world is in crisis, and our ways of ministering have changed dramatically in a very short time. Let's share what we are doing, how are feeling, how are we being creative in ministering to those for whom we cannot visit? How are we coping ourselves, ministering when we, ourselves, are in crisis? Share your thoughts, resources, creative ideas, etc. here in this forum. Blessings, Jamie.

From Sr. Mary Anne Schaenzer at St. Stephen's: Is anyone doing specific Miscarriage Ministry? Some ladies in the parish would like to begin this here. Sister Mary Anne Schaenzer, SSND Pastoral Care Director

From Mary Ann Kelly-Wright: A request came to me for information on resources of +40 single parent groups based on the following email: Parishioner looking for a 40+ single adult support group. She is a single parent whose daughter will be going to college in the next year.  She is hoping for companionship on her journey and support from other single parents. If you know of a resource for this in the archdiocese please post a reply to this post, or respond by email to ma91kelly@gmail.com

From Jean Thorsen at Pax Christi: How do you receive and respond to important calls that come in during an evening or weekend such as an anointing request or a death? As of now, a few of us on staff rotate being on-call for a week at a time but we’d like to relook at that. At one point there were five us available to do the rotation and now were down to three for various reasons. We don’t get a lot of calls but we still need to be available 24/7 for our rotation. Do you use a service? If so, who and how much? Is it effective? Is your priest the on-call person? What do you do when he’s on vacation or unavailable? If you rotate with staff like we do – how often is the rotation? If is effective? Thanks everyone! Jean

From Bonnie Steele at Saint Pascal Baylon in St. Paul: I'm planning an end of life informational gathering for the parish.  I would like to add an attorney or two who practice Elder Law.  I've asked here in the community and I'm not coming up with anyone who could do that for us.  Do you know of anyone I may ask? 

Following are APM members' suggestions for those seeking facilitators for staff retreats: From Lisa Amos, with St. Peter's in Mendota: Fr. Al Bachman did our last one and he did a fantastic job. Sr. Fran Donnelly did it the year before and the whole staff loved it!  We use the Franciscan Retreat center in Prior Lake for the day and it’s always terrific! From Beryl Schewe, with Our Lady of Grace in Edina: Fred Baumer, Pax member and retied business consultant, is an excellent facilitator. His background is in group work and long ago, he was a Catholic priest (for 15 years) before getting married and raising a family. Fred led a three day Stephen Ministry retreat for OLG two years ago that was very well received. His contact info is (651) 338-5105. I have also led staff retreats and have offered some programming at ST Ed’s, if that would ever be helpful again. From Sr. Jancy Nedumkallel with Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville: Fri, Jun 28, 11:27 AM (4 days ago)to me Hi Jamie, You may want to look at this person. She has a web site and contact information. We had her and she was good. Check in the web site. Her phone # and email there. Have a good day. Sister Jancy Her Story — Gina Bauer https://www.ginabauer.com/her-story From LauraRose Paradis with Catholic Charities: Mary Lou Carney (contact LauraRose Paradis for contact information) From Bonnie Steele, with St. Pascals in St. Paul: I would recommend Mary DelVecchio.  She was one of my theology professors at St. Kate's years ago.  She facilitated staff retreats at SJTW and she facilitated retreats for our Stephen Ministers.  She is excellent.   http://www.drmarydelvecchio.com/contact Mary would be an excellent choice.

From Jolaine Liupakka at St. Richard's: Since the archdiocese is changing their policies on safe environment training for ministry to vulnerable adults, and given us more options. · What is everyone doing when it comes to training/credentialing/re-credentialing their pastoral care volunteers? o Are you requiring your volunteers to go through Virtus live training and online training/retraining? §  If yes, how do you address the child-focus? o If no, what vulnerable adult training are you using for initial training? Re-credentialing after 3years? 6 years? o What are you using for Mandatory Reporting training or are you not requiring it? Thanks in advance Jolaine Jolaine M.J. Liupakka Director of Pastoral Ministry St Richard’s Catholic Church 612-869-2426  ext 113

Those of you who are APM members know the importance of being part of a professional ministry organization, since you are a member of your local professional organization (APM, of course). As we share information and resources, we are helping support each other and grow in our understanding of our baptismal call and vocation to the pastoral care of those whom we serve. How can you become more involved in APM? The more people involved in APM, the more we can share and build up each other in ministry, and help build up the people we serve. Join the board, or a committee, write articles for the blog, share news stories, or start a conversation in our forum. The same is true for the National Association for Lay Ministry (NALM). Join and become an active voice in our Catholic church and in lay ministry. Share your thoughts on how we can better support, encourage, and build up each other.

We've had discussions about funeral fees, what do you offer for funeral meals? Do you charge the family for the meal? If so, how and how much (by number of attendees, etc.). If you charge a specific price (or ask for a donation of a certain amount) how did you come up with that amount? Thanks for your input!

From Chris Sorensen at Risen Savior: Does anyone know of a south of the river group for Alzheimer's support?

Documents on resources and information from APM members can be found under RESOURCES for Members Only - check it out for financial assistance procedure documents, and funeral meals fees and information. Want to add more to the resources? Just sent it my way and I will add it!

I just wanted to pass along this resource to the APM members who are interested in hosting one of these training sessions.   Dcn. Shawn Phillips had inquired about this at the Coalition meetings.  The Faith Community Nurse Network had Randy Anderson do a presentation on Wednesday where he also gave out free Naloxone rescue kits.  I found him to be informative and passionate about his work.  His contact information is below. Randy Anderson can be contacted at:  randyanderson@MNSecondChance.org or cell:  (763) 331-5167.  He works with the Steve Rummler Hope Network. The kits are distributed by the Steve Rummler HOPE NETWORK at www.SteveRummlerHopeNetwork.org. Thanks! Nancy Shatek-Suek Pastoral Care Coordinator Nativity of our Lord  1900 Wellesley Ave St. Paul, MN  55105 Office:  (651) 696-5444

I was wondering if you could email the APM group to see if any parish has a formal policy or guidelines when someone requests financial assistance, parishioner or not?   I’m thinking of creating one so that as we get new parochial vicars, I think I’m on #7, that they will have an idea on how to proceed.   We’ve had a couple recent outside requests that our parochial vicar has either dealt with or sent my way. Thank you! Nancy Shatek-Suek Pastoral Care Coordinator Nativity of our Lord  1900 Wellesley Ave St. Paul, MN  55105 Office:  (651) 696-5444

Could we ask our members if they are or know of a congregation which has become a Dementia Friendly Congregation?  We, at St. Odilia, are striving to become one.  It would be helpful if any other church has done this and might have some pointers for us. From Deacon Jim Saumweber at St. Odilia's

The February meeting in Rome is extremely important both for our Catholic Church, as well as for the laity. This article discusses empowering the laity, and recognizing the lay faithful for their charisms and gifts. For those of us in lay ministry positions, we need to be part of what is happening in our leadership in our churches. Read the article, then share any thoughts you may have: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/11/23/exclusive-archbishop-scicluna-says-february-meeting-start-global-approach-fighting Blessings, Jamie.

Hi all, From Lori Hannasch at St. John Neumann - see her attached summary sheet! Thanks, Jamie Moloney - APM Communications -------------------------- Hi Jamie, My predecessor started Stephen Ministry at SJN within the last two years.  We have one group of 8 commissioned Stephen Ministers.   I think it is a wonderful program.  But as I was looking to train more leaders, including myself, I found BeFriender Ministry to be much more economical.  I am also more familiar with BeFriender Ministry from previous experience with them.  I do like that BeFriender Ministry is based locally and I really enjoy the national events that they provide which are also held locally.  I see many opportunities to network and pool resources with BeFrienders since there are so many parishes within the Archdiocese that utilize BeFriender Ministry.  In fact, that is what another local parish and SJN are hoping to do once we’ve both gone through the training workshop in August. It will be easy for my current Stephen Ministers to transition over to BeFrienders – just a meeting or two to catch them up on the differences between the two programs according to Barb Schwery, BeFriender’s Executive Director.  I do know that Stephen Ministry has more initial training hours than BeFriender Ministry for its ministers but I also think any program is what we make it and what we bring to it.  I’m confident that my new BeFriender Ministers will be just as prepared to make visits as our group of trained Stephen Ministers are even thought the actual initial training hours required are fewer. I’m attaching a comparison sheet from March 2018 that I utilized to help me determine how we would benefit changing from Stephen Ministry to BeFrienders.  Some may find this helpful.  You will notice on this sheet that I list which parish is offering which ministry.  I came up with this list simply by looking at each parish’s website and I’m aware that it may not be 100% accurate due to changes in ministries, ministries simply not being listed on the website, or listed incorrectly, etc.  But for me it was a starting point and a place to start the discussion with SJN management and my current Stephen Ministers as to why it would be a good change for us here at SJN.  BeFriender Leader Training coming up in August is at St. Joe’s in Rosemount (8/21-24).  They have other trainings (earlier this summer they were held in Iowa and South Dakota) but by waiting for a local training we also don’t incur any travel or hotel expenses. I am confident that this is going to be a good change for us.  The take away from both programs is the importance of being that listening presence for someone.  Both programs appear to be very good programs but, as stated earlier, I also believe that either program would end up being successful by what we bring to it.  As stewards of our parishioners money it simply felt like a wise move for us on the parishioners’ behalf to transition to BeFriender Ministry. Thanks to Shawn for all those resources as well!  I’ve had friends utilize Faith’s Lodge and it was so beneficial for them. While we are talking about groups, I’d be interested in knowing also what anyone does for a divorce support group.  DivorceCare?  Any other options?  I’ve certainly gotten many calls this year for one but we do not have one in place here currently.  I’d like to look at offering something. Thanks, Jamie, for always passing these items along.  I appreciate hearing what others are doing and getting feedback on other’s thoughts on the programs available. Blessings, Lori Hannasch Pastoral Care St. John Neumann 4030 Pilot Knob Road Eagan MN 55122 651.209.8590 Lori.Hannasch@sjn.org www.sjn.org