northern edge draft plan presentation r10 fr don
DESCRIPTION
Five Year Plan For the Trinity Vicariate: Northern Edge GroupTRANSCRIPT
Six Parishes. One Vision
• Christ the King
• Corpus Christi
• Gesu
• Presentation Our Lady of Victory
• St. Peter Claver Catholic Community
• St. Scholastica
(Draft) 10/28/2011 - Revision 10
Archdiocese developing plan to address changing realities
Decline in priests
Reduced membership/Aging population
High parish debt levels
Excess facilities
Parish operating deficits
Key objective for Archbishop is “the strengthening of the Church in the City of Detroit”
Planning generally occurring at the Vicariate level
Trinity Vicariate divided into 3 Planning Groups
The NORTHERN EDGE GROUP is Christ the King, Corpus Christi, Gesu, Presentation/Our Lady of Victory, St. Peter Claver and St. Scholastica
70 people from our 16 Trinity Vicariate
parishes have met 12 times since January.
Our parish is part of six
parishes forming a group
called the Northern Edge
Group.
Vicariate Planning Meetings began in January Each Parish has been represented by at least 4 active
parishioners
First Draft of APC Responses sent to AOD/Archdiocesan
Pastoral Council (APC) in June
Archdiocese responded with further
questions and a more detailed format for
plan submission Northern Edge Planning Day held on October 8th
Draft plan, consistent with AOD requirements, is now
ready for review by the Pastors and Parish Leadership
Plan due to AOD no later than November 18th
1. Evangelization & Catechesis
2. Christian Service & Outreach
3. Youth & Young Adults
4. Lay Leadership
5. Stewardship & Administration
6. Catholic School Education
7. Vocations
Since January, 2011, all sixteen vicariates in the
Archdiocese of Detroit are involved in 5 year plans
for their parishes Called Together In Faith II. The
Archdiocese requires our plan to address these
Priorities
Note: Worship was added as an 8th priority by the
Northern Edge work group
3 Main Topics to address the required Focus
Areas:
Organizational Structure:Covers pastoral leadership, lay leadership
and formation
Sustainability:Covers Finances, Facilities, Stewardship,
Administration and Best Practices
Inter-Parish Programming:Covers Evangelization & Catechesis,
Christian Service & Outreach, Youth &
Young Adults, Vocations, Catholic Schools
& Education and Worship
Archdiocese assumes the following:
Number of priests for our group will be
reduced with no new priests added
Lay Leadership roles will increase, but only
within the bounds of Canon Law.
In most parishes, membership is in decline or
aging.
How will we face this situation?
After prayerful consideration and discussion, the Northern Edge Group decided that further reduction of Catholic presence in our neighborhoods is not in the best interest of “strengthening the Church in the City of Detroit”
By “presence”, we mean outreach and worship Worship without outreach fails to give witness
to Christ
Outreach without worship fails to identify us as Catholic
We believe it is essential to keep a presence
in local neighborhood communities.
Therefore we will:
Create a structure of shared ministry among
all six existing urban parishes in the Northern
Edge.
Collaborative professional leadership (lay and
ordained)
Facilitate substantial ministerial formation to
create cohesiveness.
Pastors and administrators will
coordinate the pastoral and
sacramental responsibilities
among the parishes
Diocesan priests and religious
order priests in the six parishes
will develop a unique
relationship to serve their
parishes and orders.
Will form a Northern Edge
Pastoral Council (NEPC)
Must get AOD approval for this
unique structure
Archdiocese assumes the following:
Two parishes have large outstanding debt
One parish has no debt, but low attendance
Due to decrease in membership and the
economy, offertory donations alone are
insufficient to maintain facilities
What we know:
Corpus Christi will pay its debt in-full after
the sale of property at the IHM Center
We have many creative ideas to help sustain
our parishes while we seek ways to increase
membership
St. Peter Claver’s debt (inherited from St.
Francis de Sales) is not expected to be paid
back and should not be a factor in this
analysis. Also, St. Peter Claver has no
record of compensation from the sale of two
schools by the AOD. A letter regarding these
issues has been sent to the AOD Chancellor.
Creative Ideas:
Consolidate back-office activities like
accounting, purchasing, and contracted
services.
Share best practices like Gesu’s Green Plan
that lowers water treatment costs
Utilize existing programs like DTE Energy and
WARM Training Center to perform energy
analysis and facility updates.
Use Schools of Architecture and Engineering to
develop plans to retro-fit and update facilities
Sharing Responsibility:
Collaborating on the sale of unused facilities
Updating Capital improvement plans
Sharing ideas to pool purchasing power
Utilizing Changing Lives Together for capital
improvements
Downsizing facilities if necessary
Our goals and objectives:
Create a stronger bond among Northern Edge
parishes
Build and reshape our neighborhoods through
collaborative Outreach and Christian Service
programs
Increase community awareness, participation
and membership through Evangelization and
Outreach
We will organize this effort by:
Create a Northern Edge Pastoral Council
(NEPC) with members from each parish
Requiring all programs be approved by
participating parishes and the Northern Edge
Pastoral Council
Allowing individual parishes to opt-out of
participation in programs that lack parish
support
Most of the programs selected are easy to implement or are already in progress.
A few already exist at various parishes and we will either share resources or expand to cover more territory
A couple are long-term projects that can have a major impact within our communities.
Short Term Intermediate Long-Term
Evangelization & Catechesis
• Joint Confirmation
• Alpha Training
• RCIA Retreat
• Visiting Parishes
• Interfaith Services
• Cooperative RCIA
Christian Service & Outreach
• Adopt-a-Day Soup Kitchen
• Blood Drive
• Job Club
• Tutoring
• Newsletter (Quarterly)
with testimonials
• Foreclosures
• Emergency Housing
• Transportation
Youth & Young Adults
• Youth Council
• Youth Events
• Inter-Generation Mentoring
Vocations
• Career Day
• Vocation Promotion
Worship
• Collaborative Mass (yearly)
• Healing Service
• Stations of the Cross
Clergy will begin meeting to develop
organizational structure
Parishes will review the proposed plan and
give feedback
Revised plan will be submitted to AOD / APC
by November 18th which is the final deadline
for submission
Consortium Board Seeks to Coordinate
Development / Outreach / Fundraising
Marketing / Enrollment
Curriculum / Academic Standards / Excellence
GOAL: Health and Growth of all schools /
Providing Christ-Centered Education
Need AOD commitment of existing financial
support for 3 – 5 years with goal of reducing
need for AOD support for operating costs.
Create combined school approach called “Central Catholic Consortium” (CCC)
but schools continue with independent principals and strong parish connections (Gesu, Christ the King, St. Scholastica, St. Bartholomew, Holy Trinity, Holy Redeemer)
Schools/Parishes send reps create to governing board of CCC
CCC Board hires paid Development Director
May seek AOD grant to cover 5-year salary of director staff
Goal: self sufficiency