July 21, 2002
Press One Now
Web
Writing Course
If
you'd like to take our course on how to write web pages (and thus volunteer
to help with our parish web site) ,register
today!
Going
on Vacation?
You
can find out what time masses are in the place you’re travelling
to online at www.masstimes.org
or on the phone at
1-800-MASS-TIMES
Please continue to support St. Brigid’s with weekly summertime
donations even if you’re away -- unfotunately our bills don’t
go away for the summer! Thanks.
Moment
with Jesus
We’ve been having some technical problems with our “Moment
with Jesus” machine. (The new phone system won’t solve these
problems.) So, may I invite those who find these weekly messages helpful
to dial the “original voice” of a moment with Jesus: Father
Frank’s automated “Moment with Jesus” line is :
(631) 667-5569.
Headed
for Finishline
Our fiscal year ends August 31 and we’re hoping to reach our goal
for the Bishop’s Annual Appeal in time so that we can get our $25,000
rebate in time to balance our budget. Thanks to all who made pledges.
Right now we have $23,000 left to go in paying off the pledges. So if
you’ve made a pledge, please send in your payment soon. As you
can see, every dollar paid from now on, will come back directly to us,
yet until we finish our pledges, we won’t receive any of the rebate.
Please help us cross the finish line.
Lease
vs. Buy
When putting in the new phone system, we had to face the fact that we’ve
run out of money for the summer. So we’re temporarily leasing the
equipment until we can buy it outright. Do you know of any foundation
or grant that could help us out?
Cool Way to Pray
If you’d like to try out a new interactive prayer site online,
go to the St. Brigid’s home page and click on the “Church
Interactive” link.
Today’s Bible Quote
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."
-Matthew 13
Technology Ministry
If you’d like to give your time and expertise at helping our parish
connect its telephone systems or work on its website, you can let us
know by filling in our
online form
Want
to e-mail Father Ralph?
Past Columns:
July 14: Having
Our Say
July 6: One
Nation Under God
June 30: Anointing
the Sick
June 23: Giving Thanks
to God
June 16: Father's
Day
June 9: Fall Mass
Schedule
June 2: Summer Plans
May 26: Spreading
the Faith
May 19: Passing Grace
May 12: Changing
Times
May 5: Reason for Hope
April 28: Changing
Ministry
April 21: The Poor Are Hurt
Again
April 14: Celebrating
50 Days
April 7: Where have
they put him?
March 31: Alleluia!
Alleluia!
March 24: Hardly
Hosanna
March 17: Roll The
Stone Back
March 10: Here's
Mud In Your Eye
March 3: Our Local
Drought
Feb 24: Welcoming
Bishop Murphy
Feb 17: We Will Rise
Again
Feb 10: Very
Good Now
Feb 3: The Multi
Cultural Church
Jan 27: Appealing
Words
Jan 20:Our
Wonderful School
Jan 13: Changing
Times
Jan 6: Farewell Father
Augustine
I both like AND despise automated phone answering
systems. I like them when I “know my party’s extension”
and I want to directly talk to (or at least leave a voice message for)
the person I am calling. I despise the automated system when I can’t
get to a live person when I need to. So when the possibility of upgrading
our parish system became a reality, I was debating about how “automatic”
the system ought to be in order to be of service to the parishioners.
The first thing on my wish list was that
when people call, they can actually get through to the person whom they
are calling. As it is now, if the priests are in the rectory, calls cannot
be transferred directly to them. Instead we must take messages which begins
a never-ending game of “phone tag.” How delightful it would
be if we could actually talk to people when they called! So thanks to
parishioner Kevin O’Keefe and some of his contacts in the phone company,
we were able to get lines run between the parish center and the rectory.
It took about six months, but once this hurdle was jumped, we were on
the way to finding a phone system that would link all our buildings on
Post Ave together. Parishioner Frank Segretta spent countless hours along
with our Business Manager Tony Owen interviewing vendors, comparing systems,
negotiating prices, etc. I am so grateful to Frank for educating me and
helping us get the best deal.
Soon when you call the parish, you’ll
get the best of both worlds. There’ll be a quick announcement: “Welcome
to St. Brigid’s parish. If you’d like to talk to the receptionist,
dial “zero” at any time. For the Mass Schedule press “1",
for directions to the church press “2", for information in Spanish,
press “3"...Kreyol press “4"....Italian press “5",
etc. You can direct dial a staff member’s extension--- when we’re
at our desks, you get us! [They haven’t assigned extension numbers
yet.] When we’re out you can either leave a voice message or dial
“zero” to talk to Theresa, Grace, Kris or Melissa. (For those
who don’t have touch tone phones, you’ll be connected to a receptionist.)
Whenever there’s a new system, there
are the possibility of “glitches” for a few weeks. So please
be patient if things go a little slowly at first. Soon, we’ll be
able to be more “connected” with the new system. (By the way,
it will be really hard to get in touch with me over the next few weeks
since I’ll be away on vacation. I hope all the glitches are gone
by the time I’m back.)
