The Planning team at Holy Family, Randallstown were part of the 2018 cohort of parishes.  They worked on their plan through the pandemic and have now updated and released their new evangelization-based plan.  The team wants to focus their resources on accomplishing the God-given mission of the parish.  The parish looks to reach out to those in the community who are not part of the parish, including the new housing that is going up in their community.  They are interested in engaging families and young adults in their parish and community.  They also want to spend some intentional time looking at their facilities and seeing how they serve the mission of their parish to bring people to Christ, help them to belong and participate in His Church and to continue to be a blessing to the Randallstown community.

Click here to view Holy Family’s plan.

The Planning team at St. Alphonsus Rodriguez revised their 2018 Pastoral Plan to lead their parishioners to make missionary disciples in the Jesuit tradition.  Their motto of “Know the Gift, Live the Gratitude” permeates their plan based on the six Core Mission Priorities as outlined by Archbishop Lori in his pastoral letter, Light Brightly Visible 2.0.  The parish has already identified most of the lay leaders who will lead working groups to implement the plan.  They have internally and externally focused goals for each of the Core Mission Priorities, and will focus on Welcome and Encounter in the first year of implementation.  When sharing their plan with Archbishop Lori, he commented that this approach to evangelization was what he was hoping that parishes would embrace.

Click here to view St. Alphonsus Rodriguez’s plan.

St. John the Evangelist parish in Columbia began their planning efforts in November of 2019.  The planning team wanted to build on the diversity of their parishioners and community by welcoming all, by serving the underserved, and by being a beacon of hope that fights injustice.  They launched their plan with a revival this past fall.  They are focusing their initial efforts on:

• Actively engaging diversity in their liturgy planning and celebrations seeking a more inclusive community
• Creating Outreach to Underserved Groups
• Incorporating into all programming a follow-up experience to seek continued engagement in parish life
• Strategically improving their planning and communications seeking to engage greater ownership and volunteerism in parish activities

Click here to read the plan!

St. Peter (Hancock) and St. Patrick (Little Orleans) used their evangelization-based strategic planning process to build on the work that the leadership had already undertaken in their work on “From Maintenance to Mission”  The key areas of focus for the plan are Service, Spiritual and Social renewal of their pastorate.  The initiatives they are undertaking include intentional outreach to their communities and creating new gathering spaces and welcome to people who visit their campuses.  The pastorate wants to also continue the virtual and personal outreach that they undertook during the pandemic.  They are sharing their process and the initiatives with their new incoming priest, Fr. Joe Langan.  This will help to ensure a smooth transition so that the good progress that they have made, and the engagement of the lay leaders will continue.

To read the plan, visit the parish website or click here.

Nominations are now being accepted for pastorates that wish to be considered for the 2020 cohort of pastorates activated for planning. Initial planning work would begin after October 1, using a virtual meeting environment.

The deadline for submitting a nomination is Sunday, September 20. The online nomination form can be found here. For additional information, please contact Daphne Daly, Director of the Office of Pastoral Planning at Daphne.Daly@archbalt.org or 410-547-5545.

The pastorate of St. Casimir-St. Brigid-St. Elizabeth of Hungary has completed their evangelization-based strategic plan.  Their goal has been to bring their parishes together to evangelize the Canton/Patterson Park neighborhoods.  Fr. Dennis Grumsey has been using his Pastorate Council to help to refine and implement the plan, which will focus on the large proportion of young adults in their community, who are often living in the neighborhoods for a short period of time.  Some of their key initiatives include intentional accompaniment for young adults in the sacraments of marriage and baptism, as well as an expanded website and social media presence and direct outreach to new residents in the area.  At the same time, the plan seeks to accompany and draw on the gifts of long-time residents and parishioners. The plan was shared with the parish communities at a series of listening sessions in November 2019 and presented to the Archbishop in March 2020.  To view the plan, click here.