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The
Mission of the Catholic Church: To bring the Good News of Christ to others and
in doing so to bring people to the love of our risen Lord.
In
October of 2004, Archbishop Lipscomb asked every parish and mission within the
Archdiocese to examine how they were using their blessings and resources to
further this call of God. Through the Long Range Planning process, the Pastor,
the parishioners and especially the Pastoral Council of each parish were asked
to evaluate parish life, decide where it should lead us into the future and to
develop a plan to make such a journey a reality.
The
goals set fourth by the Archdiocese of Mobile were the following:
To
make each parish a dynamic embodiment of the Good News of Jesus Christ, a
welcoming community of worship, reconciliation and ministry.
To
provide spiritual formation and religious education that will encourage
adults & children alike to cherish the Catholic tradition and values.
To
invite all God’s people, of all races and goodwill to join us in building
God’s kingdom
To
champion the dignity of human beings, especially the most vulnerable by
confronting the injustices in our society.
To
promote wise stewardship of the earth’s bounty and generous return of our
material goods in thanksgiving for God’s blessings.
The
Process of Long Range Planning titled “Dynamic Catholic Life” is to take
place in the following 6 phases:
Orientation,
data gathering, research and parish planning.
Deanery-level
reflection on and analysis of data, formulation of plans/proposals
Initial
recommendations
Final
decision-making
Implementation
and on-going evaluation
Celebration
of accomplishments
Phase
One has now been completed. This involved:
Meeting
with Priests & Pastoral Councils
Training
of Facilitators
Conducting
a count of Mass Attendance (April 2005)
Survey of Parishioners (May-June 2005)
Compilation of data from the Mass Count and Parish Survey
Organizing and presenting the data to the Priest and the Patoral council
Formulating the "Parish Plan”
Presenting the rough draft of the “Parish Plan” to the Parish Council for modifications
Presenting the final “Parish Plan’ to the Pastoral Council for approval
Presenting the “Parish Plan’ to the Priest for approval
Forwarding the “Parish Plan’ to the Archdiocese for Review and Approval
We
are now in Phase Two. During this phase the different Parish Long-Range Planning
committees will work together to develop a “Deanery-Level Plan”. This phase
of planning began in March 2006 and will continue through to March of 2007.
I would like to take this time to thank my fellow members of the Long Range Planning Committee for their hard work over the last year: Fr. Gallagher, Fr. Irwin, Sr. Miriam, Richard Williams and my Co-facilitator Patty Harvey. Special thanks also to the Pastoral Council for their insight and contribution of ideas in finalizing the Parish Plan. In next months newsletter I will present a summary of the “Parish Plan” for St. Columba Parish. Please pray for the success of the Long-Range Planning Committees as we continue the work of formulating the Deanery Level Plan.
God’s Peace be with you.
Facilitator of Long Range Planning, Steven Sykes, MD
