WELCOME FATHER RICHARD PAYNTER
Next weekend we have a visiting priest from the Diocese of Kingston and St. Vincent in the Caribbean. He will be conducting a mission collection for the needs of his diocese. Please welcome Father Richard.

BLOOD DRIVE
As we approach the August 1st anniversary of the I-35 bridge collapse, we will be having a parish blood drive for the Memorial Blood Bank on Tuesday, August 5, from 3 to 8pm. To sign up, please call Judy Gyurci at 952-831-7728 or Ryan Cardinal at Memorial Blood centers (651) 332-7161 . Thanks for your gift of life. It was a blessing last year with the tragedy of the bridge falling that many chose to give blood. That example can encourage us.

FATHER PAUL MCGINN
My friend, Father Paul McGinn, had a wonderful visit. He is back now in London. Thank you for your welcome for him. He especially enjoyed the British Isles weekend with tea and biscuits after the masses.

CATHOLIC SPIRIT SISTER PARISH ARTICLE
Last week's issue of the Catholic Spirit had a wonderful article about our sister parish relationship with Our Lady of the Angels parish in Jinotega, Nicaragua. We have the article as an insert in today's bulletin. It is also online at www.TheCatholicSpirit.com.

AUSTIN ORGAN
Austin Organ company has a great website at www.austinorgans.com.  If you go to the website's homepage and go to the bottom of the page you will find a link to their newsletter. Click on this and you can find an article, "Things that Bloom," about our new organ.

WELCOME NEW STAFF MEMBER CATHY DONOVAN

Our new Director of Child and Family Faith Formation, Cathy Donovan, joined the St. Ed's staff on June 30. Cathy comes to us from Our Lady of Grace parish where she was the Director of Social Justice ministries. Prior to her work at OLG, Cathy coordinated the Family Faith Formation program at St. Cecilia's parish in St. Paul.

Cathy has an MA degree in Pastoral Studies from St. Thomas University; her BA is from the College of St. Benedict. She is married with four teenagers ages 17, 15 (twin boys) and 14 - wow! Cathy has a strong commitment to family faith formation, a love of children and a deep belief in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council - especially the calling forth of lay ministers. She will be working primarily with children from preschool to grade 5 and their families, but she hopes her ministry will reach all of the families at St. Ed's.

If you would like to stop by and greet Cathy in the parish office or send her a welcoming email, her contact information is listed on the front of the bulletin, cdonovan@stedwardschurch.org. Welcome, Cathy Donovan! We are thrilled to have her at St. Ed's.

HOT SEATS

Our Building and Grounds committee has a ten plus year schedule of facility and equipment replacement. This year was to include replacing the 50 conference room chairs. Our administrator, Rena Chrysler, spent many hours looking into replacement chairs. One thing we noticed was that the quality is not the same as what we had and that real wood is hard to find. Then our
B&G chairperson, Bill Campbell, thought maybe we could reupholster the existing chairs. This would also save the need for our current chairs to end up in a landfill. The only way to make this work was for much volunteer/parishioner help. Bill organized this with the help of Clarice Frost. Many wonderful parishioners helped over quite a few afternoons and evenings to do disassemble the chairs.
Once the old fabric was removed the chairs were re-glued and varnished, and then sent to the upholstery shop. So far about half the chairs are completed. Take a look at them in the 200 rooms. I really want to thank all who are making this happen. It is good for the environment, for our budget and for the aesthetics.

WEIGHTY MATTERS

Last week a parishioner sent me an article from the Notre Dame Business School Magazine from a series on the 7 deadly sins. This particular one was on gluttony. He suggested that he had not heard a sermon on this topic, food for thought. Later that day I saw a report from the Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com ) with the heading, "Study finds for priests - taking care of your body is as important as taking care of souls."

      The report (June 23, 2008) noted that 76 percent of Christian clergy were either overweight or obese, 15 percentage points higher than for the general population. The report summarized a Pulpit and Pew survey conducted in 2001 of more than 2,500 Christian religious leaders as part of a larger study of pastoral leadership. The "Pulpit and Pew" study was the largest of recent surveys conducted on the health of US clergy of several Christian denominations, all reaching similar conclusions.

      Father Garcia said bishops need to do a better job promoting ongoing exercise routines and a healthy diet to their priests. Father David L.Toups, associate director of the US bishops' Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations agrees. "It is a problem and it needs to be addressed by the bishops in each diocese," he said. "As the bishops look at accountability of priests, that physical accountability has to be there, for their own well-being and the well-being of the people they tend to," he continued. "It's about making sure their physical and spiritual needs are being met and about them being credible witnesses for God."

RACK EM UP

The bike rack was put up last weekend at the lower level entrance to the church. The first thing on Monday staff member Mary Hayden rode her bike to work and was the first person to use the bike rack. I should have offered some prize for this but this notice can suffice. Actually one of our local businesses, Quality Bike Parts, offers employees who ride their bikes to work $3 a day. I like this kind of incentive and will be giving 30 days indulgences for coming to work by bike.

CREMATION GARDEN

When I was pastor at Our Lady of the Lake in Mound we had a parish cemetery. There are many blessings that come with this, but there are also many obligations especially financially. I do not think I would ever open a new parish cemetery. However, more and more churches are offering a service for the dignified interment of cremated remains known as a cremation garden. You do not have all the legal and financial concerns of providing perpetual care with these gardens. I checked with the Archdiocese, the Minnesota Department of Health and the Bloomington City Offices and there are no regulations or concerns. The City of Bloomington in particular has no problem with this as long as there are no memorial markers.

We could simply expand an existing garden area or open a new garden for this purpose. I have talked to some parishioners about this possibility and it has been well received. I will bring this up to the parish council as well for their consideration and approval. One site might be the area next to the chapel where we already have a lovely statue of Mary.

There is a very good website on this type of memorial garden at St. Joan of Arc Parish in south Minneapolis, http://www.stjoan.com/memgardenfr.htm Please let me know if you are interested in serving on this project.

LET THERE BE (SOLAR) LIGHT & LET THE TRUMPETS SOUND

Thank you, thank you for the celebration for my 30th Anniversary of Ordination and 60th birthday. The liturgies were wonderful as were the receptions. A very special thank you to all who put so much effort into making this happen and for all who helped out.

Over $12,000 was collected to help fund the Bright Lights solar light project in our sister parish in Jinotega, Nicaragua and to help provide for the new trumpets for our organ restoration. We will track the progress on both fronts.

With the use of email and digital photos we should be able to see how the solar lighting project develops. This is very exciting. Many of the families in the rural areas of our sister parish have no electricity and batteries are expensive and difficult to dispose of in a safe manner for the environment. For families to have an hour and a half of light in their one room homes will be much appreciated. Less wood will have to be burned too.

This week the American Guild of Organists is meeting in the Twin Cities for their annual convention. Michael Fazio who heads Austin Organs will be in town. He has been working with our organists, Roger Burg and Judy Debruyne Hodgson, to make the restoration and installation of the new organ console and increased ranks go smoothly. We are glad to have him here again and we really look forward to the coming months.

If you want more information on the organ go to http://www.austinorgan.com/ This is a fascinating website. You can look up our organ at the "Our Instruments" link. Our organ is number 2649. In the factory tour you can see current employees who built and installed our current organ in 1980.

RETURN OF THE RACKS

Talk of racks and the Catholic Church is not always so positive, but on a happy note, by popular demand, we are bringing back the racks, bike racks that is. The building and grounds committee is looking at something more permanent but for now we will have a temporary bike rack at the lower level entrance. Happy biking. I will be using it with my new bicycle which is a beauty. Thank you so much.