Core Team Update #20

The Importance of the Pastor participating in Cohort Conversations

“I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.”  –  1 Corinthians 1:10

Each Parish Core Team is made up of the Pastor, plus four parishioners.  Except where other arrangements have been made because the pastor is on sabbatical, seriously ill, or responsible for more than one parish, the Parish Core Team should not include additional clergy. According to the Universal Code of Canon Law, the Pastor has a unique role in leading the community and enabling its participation in the Faith in Our Future planning process.

Canon 529.2 places an obligation on each pastor “to cooperate with his own bishop and with the presbyterate of the diocese in working hard so that the faithful be concerned for parochial communion and that they realize that they are members both of the diocese and the universal Church and participate in and support efforts to promote such communion.”

When the pastors of the parishes in a cohort are all participating in the cohort conversation, a unity of purpose for the good of the whole Church is evident.

Every current Pastor is expected to participate actively in the Faith in Our Future planning process.  The people of a parish look to their pastor for example and follow his lead.  When he is present and open to the movement of the Spirit in discussion with neighboring parishes, the core team and the parishioners will be open to the prompting of the Spirit as well. When a pastor is absent from the cohort conversations, it is more likely that core teams maintain the status quo and avoid any meaningful change.  Pastors, who share a special relationship to the Bishop, can focus the group on offering life-giving suggestions for how to minister in the name of Jesus Christ in a new  set of circumstances.

Dear Core Team Members:

The initial focus of your cohort work going forward is to review the input from the other parishes in your cohort. The initial focus of your cohort work going forward is to

• review the input from the other parishes in your cohort.
• work in small groups organized around the four evaluation areas (Sacramental Life, Evangelization, Catechesis and Catholic Schools, Communal Life and Stewardship and Administration).
• talk about the implications of parish evaluations, data verification forms and parish summaries in your cohort. What are you learning?

If you missed the cohort training or would like to refresh your understanding, you can find a link to a video of the Monmouth cohort core team trainings from March 15th at: https://youtu.be/XgsiChboRdk

Other comments:

¨ Data verification forms with the completed trend section for each parish should be returned to Sherrie Sporek by the parish core team secretaries.  Also, if you haven’t done so already, please send her your parish summary report and parish evaluation forms.

¨ Following the initial work, you are asked to prepare your cohort evaluation and suggestions by June 1, 2016.  The draft of your cohort evaluation and suggestions should be sent to your Reid Group consultant by May 20, 2016 for review and feedback.  Please keep in mind that the suggestions are just that:  suggestions.  These are not decisions; the final decisions are made by Bishop O’Connell after receiving final recommendations from the Planning Commission and consulting with other appropriate bodies.

¨ We strongly encourage you to make use of the parish facilitators during this cohort phase.  These trained facilitators can be used to facilitate core team meetings, town hall meetings and other parish gatherings at no cost to the cohort parishes.  To arrange for a facilitator, contact your Reid Group consultant.

Thank you once again for contributing your time and energy to this important project.

FAQ—Frequently Asked Questions about Faith in Our Future:

Our core team includes an alternate member who attends meetings if one of the members can’t be there. But our Reid Group consultant tells us that we shouldn’t have an alternate. What’s wrong with a substitute if someone has to miss a meeting?

It’s very important to have consistency in the cohort’s work during this phase of Faith in Our Future. That’s hard to achieve if not all the same people are present at meetings where the important discussions take place. It’s been our experience that keeping the parish core teams to four people plus the pastor allows for consistency in the work of the cohort teams and helps build trust within the cohort team.  If someone has to miss a meeting, we ask that the parish core team chair help bring them up to speed before the next meeting.

Who is on the Diocesan Planning Commission?  Why were they chosen?

The twenty members of the newly established Diocesan Planning Commission are priests, deacons, women religious, lay men and women from all four counties of the diocese who have been identified because of their experience in the parish, school and ministry setting, as well as their professional expertise. Each was specifically invited to serve by Bishop O’Connell in order that the Diocese might assemble a group with a wide variety of church, education, and business perspectives. The group has already met twice for formation as they begin their work. A listing of the commission members will be published in the April Monthly update with a brief introduction to each person.

Please let us know what questions you have about your work and the whole Faith in Our Future planning process and we will answer them in future updates. 

FAITH IN OUR FUTURE STAFF & COUNTY CONSULTANTS

Diocesan Office Staff

Msgr. Leonard Troiano, [email protected], 1-609-403-7159

Sherrie Sporek, [email protected], 1-609-403-7193

FAX: 1-609-406-7413

MAILING ADDRESS:

Faith in Our Future, Diocese of Trenton

701 Lawrenceville Road

Trenton, NJ 08648

The Reid Group Consultants

Burlington & Ocean Counties Consultant

Tom Reid, [email protected], 1-206-947-2990

Monmouth County Consultant

John Reid, [email protected], 1-206-947-1055

Mercer County & Bi-Lingual Consultant

Cleo Molina, [email protected], 1-206-383-2536