August 6, 2023
As many of you may know, Bishop Zubik is requiring that every parish in the diocese create a pastoral plan that will help us grow our mission and ministry over the next three to five years. All pastoral plans are due by February 14, 2024, but may be submitted as soon as this fall due to staggered pastoral planning schedules and the efforts and diligence of the Envisioning Team.As our parish begins the work of pastoral planning, we will be charged to look to the future. In the next three to five years, how will our parish look and act differently? How will we be living out the purpose of the Church which was given to us by Christ: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all of creation” (Mark 16:15)?The Envisioning Team, our pastoral planning leadership body, will work to create a parish vision that will answer these questions. The parish vision is a statement of hope that summarizes the way in which we will bring our mission to life. Accomplishing our parish vision for the future will not be a simple task. It will only be accomplished through much prayer, discernment, and work towards bringing about the mission of Christ.As the work of pastoral planning continues, one of the key elements of our work will be developing three pastoral priorities. The priorities are specific to what the parish sees as needs of the community utilizing the results of the Disciple Maker Index Survey.These pastoral priorities will move the vision forward for the next three to five years. The priorities are to be focused on accomplishing the vision for the future set by the Envisioning Team, while taking into account the three priorities that Bishop Zubik has identified for the diocese as the priority focus areas:
• Evangelization
• Missionary Discipleship
• Shifting the focus of the parishes from Maintenance to MissionREMINDER: The universal distribution date for DMI results has been established for the weekend of August 19/20, 2023. All parishes in the diocese will use a common template to publish their individual results. Aggregate results for the entire diocese will be published in parish bulletins the weekend of August 26/27, 2023.