Weekly THIS AND THAT for July 20, 2008: Our Parish's Strategic Plan, Part 3: Our Background As a Parish

This and That:
Our Parish’s Strategic Plan, Part 3: Our Background As a Parish



Dear Friends,

This is the 3rd installment through the bulletin of our Parish Strategic Plan. It deals with the background of who we are as a parish and how our ministry, worship and service are expressed.

As you read the remaining two parts, this week and next, your impressions, feedback and comments are always welcome and can be shared with any Council member. Remember, they are the ones wearing the red ribbon and pin at Sunday Masses. You are also invited to email the Council Chairperson, Bill Campbell at Bill.campbell@milliman.com.

Fondly,
Father Nicholas



Celebrating Life through Worship and Service
Strategic Plan
Our Lady of Grace Parish
2008 through 2013
Approved by Pastoral Council May 12, 2008


Background

Our Lady of Grace Parish is a dynamic faith community in which our beliefs are exhibited on a daily basis through word and deed. We are blessed with a Parish Staff and core of volunteers who are dedicated to serving our parish members and our outreach community. For three decades, Our Lady of Grace Parish has met the needs of this community in the Liturgy of the Word, the Breaking of the Bread, and our numerous Education and Service programs. Our faith journey is truly constituted by “Worship and Service.”

Over the past few years, we have expanded our ministries to 60+ volunteer organizations (committees, groups, ministries, etc.). We have 620 volunteers to assist our Pastor and Parish Staff. We have an infrastructure that allows us to meet effectively many, if not all, of the needs of the parish. As our parish grows and the world around us continues to change, it will be a challenge to maintain and enhance our ability to do so. Our parish has increased in size to almost 1,400 families. The needs of this community and its many constituents will continue to change in the future. With the growth and changes come new constituents, additional requirements, and different sets of needs. We must plan for and be prepared to meet the challenges that will accompany this change.

Our ability to provide a Catholic School education for Kindergarten through grade 8 complements our other Education and Youth Activities (parish religious education, youth ministry, Confirmation, adult education and faith renewal, etc.). We plan to study the possibility of a pre-school for 3 and 4 year olds as a feeder for our Kindergarten. We also plan to study the needs of our people as they relate to the use of our middle school grades 6 through 8.

In order to support our future plans, we will endeavor to ensure that: (1) we have the appropriate Stewardship programs in place to maintain and, when needed, upgrade our infrastructure, and; (2) we can finance these projects to ensure the parish remains fiscally sound.

While we continue to meet the needs of many parishioners and residents of the community, we are aware that there are individuals and groups that we have not been able to serve—or serve well enough. There are three groups within our community that have, and will continue to present, such unique challenges:

• Of the nearly 1,400 families registered at Our Lady of Grace, less than one-third attend Mass regularly. The other two-thirds represent parishioners that have not elected to avail themselves of our Liturgy on a routine basis (or most likely many of our other services and ministries).
• There are Catholics in the Northern Baltimore community who are not registered as parishioners, but are still members of our faith community.
• There are those in need that have an affiliation with the parish because they are our neighbors.

If we are to remain a community of “Worship and Service,” we must identify and reach out to these community members as well. Through additional efforts in Evangelization and other activities, we can identify and seek out the “disenfranchised” and work to expand the benefits they receive from the Church, increase their level of participation and assist them in moving forward in their personal faith journeys.

Mass attendance will continue to have an impact on our financial status and must continue to be monitored. For a while, weekly attendance at Mass was declining. However, Mass attendance has been rising gradually since the end of 2007 and into 2008. We must ensure that the parish remains financially sound year after year while continuing to meet its spiritual and mission-related obligations.

An old challenge, but new initiative, has come to the forefront over the past several years. This initiative will continue to be one of the primary focuses of the Pastoral Council and the Parish Staff. The “Hope That Lies Before Us” is a wide-ranging initiative within the Archdiocese that seeks to address the impact that the increasing shortage of priests will have on the Church, the Archdiocese, and the parish. This is a subject that we have been addressing and will be devoting more attention to in the future, especially when Father Nicholas’s departure in 2010 is taken into consideration.

Planning, commitment and action are required if we are to continue to meet our current obligations and stay abreast of the changing needs of our community. The objectives contained in this Strategic Plan will provide direction for our activities over the next several years. The plan focuses on coordinating activities at all levels of the parish so that the results are aligned with the established long-term objectives of the parish and, ultimately, enhance our ability to carry out our Mission.