Pastor's Letter-- November 29, 2020

Big news: our pastoral plan is finally ready! For the past year a group of twelve has been developing a three-year plan for our parish. Based on the results from the Catholic Leadership Institute’s Disciple Maker Index (parish survey) and the parish site-visit, which included interviewing many people in the parish, the “envisioning team” worked through the hiccups of 2020 to establish a vision and set goals for our parish.

This project has been the fruit of much prayer, discussion (sometimes very passionate), and teamwork, under the guidance and direction of CLI (thank you Tom Lenz!). Slowly but surely we spent month after month working on what the plan includes: a mission statement (which we have shared already some months ago); a vision statement for what we hope to be as a parish; three core values that we wish to uphold as guideposts of our parish life; and three priorities for the years to come, each with particular goals to measure achievement and direct our efforts. Why a “parish plan”? The purpose is similar to what we see in the corporate world: to focus our energies on a few target areas that could mean the most productive and effective for us when we achieve them. Demographically, the church in America is losing members in droves, particularly for the upcoming generations. That is why this program (now being used in many dioceses in the US) is titled “Next Generation Parish.” What we have been doing in Catholic parishes may have worked for former generations, but it is failing now, so we must be courageous about shifting with the needs of our culture that is rudderless, despairing, and unaware of God’s loving mercy. This plan is a step toward what our parish needs to become. I wish to thank the team members: Abby Kyle, Greg Goodzey, Bill Odell, Lynn Handley, Janet Lentz, Len Buskiewicz, Alexis Duffy, Megan Gettinger, Lenny Strzelecki, Gail Waltman, Mphasa Mwanza. You all showed heroic patience and perseverance through many long Zoom meetings. May God reward your efforts and prayers for your parish family!

For the good of our parish’s future, please read and take to prayer this plan. We truly believe that the Lord’s desire for our parish includes every one of us walking side by side as we grow and enter more deeply into the life of discipleship. The next step will be the work of the “Implementation Team,” who will organize parish efforts to achieve these goals. You will notice that the goals do not explain how we achieve them - that is the work of this new team, which will be formed in the weeks ahead. They need to be able to adapt to what circumstances come so the goals do not change even when the means might need to. CLI (esp. Tom L.) will be there to help us along the way with this next part of the process as well.