This MONTHLY UPDATE is a report from the Diocese of Trenton on Faith in Our Future, the pastoral planning process to strengthen parishes.
MARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Cohort process now underway
For the first time in the Faith in Our Future initiative, neighboring parishes across the Diocese came together as small groups, or Cohorts, in March to begin the next step of the pastoral planning process.
The Parish Cohorts – each made up of several Parish Core Teams – began their work during one of five training sessions held March 15 and 16 in various locations throughout Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean counties. There are 25 Parish Cohorts, ranging in size from three to six parishes. All 107 parishes of the Diocese belong to a Cohort.
The Parish Cohort process is Step 2 in an 18-month, 8-step overall initiative. For this new phase, Cohorts will use what they learned from the self-study/evaluation process that was conducted in all parishes from December to early March. That process included parishioner surveys, town hall meetings, small group discussions and verification of parish census and sacramental data.
In this new step, each Cohort is to work as a single unit, determining how best to strengthen the parishes included in its group. The Cohorts are tasked with evaluating their parishes and developing suggestions for an organizational model or models and other measures that will allow the parishes to meet the goals set by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., for the future path in the Diocese.
More than 500 parishioners took part in the March training. The Cohorts will have had a total of six meetings running from March through May, and will submit their suggestions to the Planning Commission by June.
Representatives of the Reid Group, a pastoral planning consultant firm, conducted the training sessions, walking cohort members through organizational details and helping them to understand their roles in the overall process. Each training session also afforded an opportunity for cohort members to get to know one another and begin to share findings from the parish self-studies.
Called to Lead, Serve
John Reid, who led several training sessions, reminded Cohort members of the challenges facing the Diocese in the areas of ministry, demographics and finances, to name a few. While Faith in Our Future is a response to those challenges, Reid said, it is also an opportunity to imagine a parish community that is vibrant, mission-driven and transformational.
He encouraged the parish delegates to keep the following in mind as they approach their work:
Reid stated, “This is what is being asked of you – You have been called upon to lead in this process, to offer your best thinking and to work together.”
Information Sharing
In all training sessions, the need for a strong communication effort within the parish was emphasized.
Comments offered by some cohort members pointed to a sense of surprise at what they had learned in the parish self-study/evaluation work.
Reid advised, “There is a lot that we don’t know about our parishes. So it’s important that we share what is learned with the broader parish communities.”
Planning Commission preparation begins
The month of March also saw the first gathering of the Diocesan Planning Commission, which began its preparation for the role that it will play in the Faith in Our Future initiative. On March 14, commission members attended the first of several preparatory meetings that will take place in advance of their primary work in June. It is then that the Commission will review the suggestions that come from the Parish Cohorts in light of the established goals and return preliminary recommendations to the Cohorts with a rationale. After the cohorts have taken a few weeks for further study and comment, the Commission will meet again in October to review the cohort responses and bring together a set of final recommendations for Bishop O’Connell to consider.
The 20 or so members of the Planning Commission are priests, deacons, women religious and 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 settings, or for their professional expertise. Each was specifically invited to serve by Bishop O’Connell in order that the membership reflects the make-up of the diocesan community, with a wide variety of church, education and business perspectives. Each commissioner will be assigned to a county, based, for the most part, on where they live or work.
Look for these topics in the next MONTHLY UPDATE ….
Diocesan Planning Commission – We will introduce the members, share a bit about their backgrounds and indicate the county to which each has been assigned.
Models of Organization – There are six different Parish Models under consideration for every Parish Cohort. We will identify and provide perspective on each of them.
Stay Informed
To read more about the Faith in Our Future initiative, go to dioceseoftrenton.org/faith-in-our-future/
For ongoing reporting visit TrentonMonitor.com and click on NEWS > OUR DIOCESE
This report is issued by the Diocese’s Office of Communications. To contact us, write to [email protected] or call (609) 403-7199.