Newly appointed Coordinator of Parish Mission Mark Kemmeter ... urges everyone to read the Vision 21 documents ... and to attend one of the meetings.
See Mark Kemmeter Named Archdiocesan Coordinator of Parish Mission and Living Our Faith in the 21st Century. The usual format of these meetings is to have a presentation to all in attendance, then breaking up into small groups. The small groups select someone as reporter, and have several points to discuss, with several minutes alloted to each. The group reporters then line up and give their summary of the discussion.
That invitation to "everyone" turns out to mean
Pastors and parish directors, parish trustees, council members and staff are all invited to join Bishop William Callahan and archdiocesan leaders as we ask the questions:
[1] What encourages you?
[2] What surmountable challenges do you think we face?
[3] What do we need to take back the drawing board?
1. If nothing else, it's encouraging that Archbishop Dolan is outwardly immune to discouragement.
2. Someone told me that a review of a parish council's minutes disclosed that off and on for thirty years one agenda item was that the janitor wasn't emptying a wastebasket at the far corner of the building. That was about ten years ago so I suggest we check back and see if the problem has been solved. If so, then we'll know that the structures and processes in place can surmount a challenge of that size in forty years or less.
3. The drawing board is the problem, that is, the approach to planning that produces ever more administrative overhead, like more committees with more meetings, but few, if any, goals stated in terms of objective and measurable results.
See St. Dilbert's
Do they have to much time on their hands? Maybe Weakland and Dolan should sit down, finally, and talk about the priests who have caused the diocese so much, financially and spiritually. I mean it has only been seven years....
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