St. Agnes/St. William of York Pastoral Plan – Two Parishes United

St. Agnes and St. William of York have shared a pastor since 2010.  They have come together over the past 13 years, sharing staff and leadership.  Responding to Archbishop Lori’s Light Brightly Visible pastoral letter, they formed a planning team and developed an evangelization-based plan for their pastorate, starting in 2020.    The plan calls for the leadership to welcome and channel people into small faith-sharing groups.  There is a strong emphasis on family ministry as the pastorate rolls out the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in their newly designed atrium, and invites the community youth to their six-week “Camp Carlo” summer program.

Click here to view St. Agnes and St. William of York’s Pastoral plan.

 

Read more

St. Ann Hagerstown Pastoral Plan – A Light for Our Path

Drawing inspiration from Psalm 119, the Planning Team from St. Ann Hagerstown reflected on their confidence and reliance on the light of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct their efforts to fulfill their mission of being a “Welcoming Catholic Community that loves God, Forms Disciples, Serves Others and Changes Lives.”  The Team stressed the primacy of prayer for holiness and for mission as they developed this plan.  They also clearly outlined key measures for their initiatives which will lead to accountability as they work on them. The involvement of the lay faithful in the development and implementation of this plan truly made this strategic process a group effort.  The plan is well articulated and beautifully laid out which will encourage their parishioners to join the efforts to transform this parish and the surrounding community in Hagerstown.

Click here to view St. Ann’s plan.

 

 

 

Holy Family Randallstown Pastoral Plan – To believe in Christ, belong to His Church and bless our communities

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.

 

 

 

St. Joseph Odenton Pastoral Plan – A Beacon of God’s Love and Hope in Service to all of His People

The Planning team at St. Joseph, Odenton were part of the 2018 cohort of parishes.  They completed their plan just prior to the pandemic and have now updated and released their new evangelization-based plan.  The plan builds on the four well-established pillars of the parish; To Build, To Believe, To belong and to Bear Witness.  The Plan leverages the diversity of the St. Joseph community with a focus on celebrating diverse liturgies and feast days and identifying different groups in the community that are not being served by the parish to engage them.  They have already begun to shift their faith formation model away from a classroom model to engaging family catechesis.  They also hope to engage their parishioners in outreach that will connect their faith with service.

Click here to view St. Joseph Odenton’s plan.

 

 

 

St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Pastoral Plan – Know the Gift, Live the Gratitude

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.

 

 

 

Partnership in Mission plan for St. John, Long Green Valley

For the past two years, a group of about 15 parishioners and parish staff have been meeting to discuss specific ways that their “Partnership in Mission” building blocks of Vibrant Liturgy and Sacraments, Membership, Spiritual Maturity, Ministry, and Mission can be put into action at St. John the Evangelist parish in Long Green Valley.  Their plan hinges on inviting their parishioners to:

  • Commit to Vibrant Liturgy and the sacraments
  • Commit to Membership
  • Commit to Spiritual Maturity
  • Commit to Ministry
  • Commit to Mission

They are calling their parishioners to consider how God might be calling them to make this plan a reality and help them to achieve their vision.  Click here to read the executive summary and the plan.

 

 

 

New Pastorate Plan Completed for St. John Columbia

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!

 

 

 

New Pastorate Plans Completed for St. Leo Parish and Divine Mercy Parish

St. Leo Pastorate Plan

St. Leo, located in Little Italy in Baltimore, began their planning efforts in July of 2019.  Their planning team focused on engaging their current parishioners and reaching out to those in the community and those attracted to the Italian heritage of the parish.  They believed that the plan should focus on enhanced communication.  To this end, they have hired a Communications director as a member of their small staff.  They also want to build up strengths-based ministry, where people’s gifts are discerned as part of their call to different ministries in the parish.  They also hope to build small faith-sharing groups, leveraging the groups that have been forming online during the pandemic and offering other gatherings in person. Click here to read the plan!

 

 

Divine Mercy Pastorate Plan

Divine Mercy began their evangelization-based planning process in 2018 under the leadership of their Director of Mission, Margie Meyers.  The plan kept at the forefront the vision of missionary transformation that guides their strategies and implementation.  Lay leadership was heavily involved and this plan is truly the work and inspiration of the people and the Holy Spirit. Some key areas of focus are:

  • Strengthening the liturgies at all four of their worship sites
  • Increasing their outreach to young adults (both in the community and at Frostburg)
  • Forming and strengthening volunteers
  • Developing their small faith sharing groups

You can read the plan here, and if you would like more information about their plan and process, please contact Margie Meyers or Fr. Ed Hendricks.

 

Pastorate Plan for St. Peter (Hancock) and St. Patrick (Little Orleans) Completed

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.

 

2020 Pastorate Cohort Formed

The 2020 Pastorate Cohort is underway! Six pastorates have begun the work of studying and reflecting upon the challenges and opportunities for disciple-making that God has laid before them. Despite still being in the midst of a pandemic, these pastorates have recognized the unique opportunity that the current situation has given us to prepare now to “bounce forward, not bounce back” once the pandemic recedes. By strategically considering how God is calling us to shine the light of Christ in dark days as well as brighter ones, these pastorates bear witness to the great hope we have in Jesus and the promise that his Spirit is with us always, guiding our steps along the path of missionary discipleship.

 

The 2020 Pastorate Cohort includes:

  • St. Peter (Oakland) (Fr. Tom Gills, pastor)
  • St. Ann (Hagerstown) (Msgr. Bruce Jarboe, pastor)
  • St. John (Westminster) (Fr. Mark Bialek, pastor)
  • Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Ellicott City) (Fr. Mike Triplett, pastor)
  • St. Agnes – St. William of York (Catonsville) (Fr. Isaac Makovo, pastor)
  • St. Ursula (Parkville) (Fr. Jason Worley, pastor)

2020 Cohort Nominations Now Being Accepted

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.

 

Pastorate Planning Year in Review: Things Look Very Different This Year!

Pastorate planning has looked very different over the past year, especially in the last six months! Find out what the 2019 cohort has been up to and how they have successfully navigated pastorate planning in a pandemic. Also in the newsletter you will find information about nominating your pastorate for the 2020 cohort, testimony from those who have taken up pastorate planning about the positive effect it has had, and ideas for how to get your pastorate headed on a path of missionary discipleship even if you have not been activated for planning.