Informal Evaluation by the Cluster Implementation Committee
Cluster 29 Pastoral Planning Committee
Bucks County Vicariate
. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (Hilltown) . St. Agnes (Sellersville) .
. St. Isidore (Quakertown) . St. John the Baptist (Ottsville) .
. St. Jude (Chalfont) . St. Lawrence (Riegelsville) .
During the Spring, 2003, the Cluster Implementation Committee conducted an informal evaluation of the Cluster Pastoral Plan in consultation with the Parish Pastoral councils. The purpose of this informal evaluation was to determine the current status of the cluster plan. They considered the following questions:
1. What action(s) has (have) been taken to carry out the Cluster Pastoral Plan?
2. What action(s) still need(s) to be taken to meet the goal(s) of the Cluster Pastoral Plan?
3. To what degree has the vision of the Cluster Pastoral Plan been implemented?
4. Were any new needs discovered or new actions taken during the implementation of the Cluster Pastoral Plan?
5. What obstacles, if any, stood in the way of the implementation of the Cluster Pastoral Plan?
The committee found the following
actions have been taken
Goal #1 - Provide a ministries training program.
1. Three annual Cluster Ministry Days have been held and a fourth is being planned.
Goal #2 - Develop young adult/adult religious education program.
Goal #3 - Expand youth programs.
2. Summer retreats, sharing information and activities and better cluster youth programs led by Bill Rapp, St. Agnes Youth minister.
3. Multi-parish trip to Steubenville.
Goal #4 - Strengthen inter-parish communications.
4. Communications were strengthened through individual parish web sites, shared parish bulletins, e-mails and faxes.
5. Publication of a Cluster 29 Directory of Parish Leaders and personnel contacts
Goal #5 - Support evangelization programs for active and inactive Catholics.
Goal #6 - Nourish the spiritual life of families.
Actions that still need to be taken
include:
- A need for regular information exchange is clear. Benefit of sharing successful strategies among parishes is evident. More needs to be done to strengthen inter-parish communications. There is a need for a cluster communications subcommittee, for bulletin boards, etc. to provide parishioners access to other parishes' social and spiritual events. This may add to methods of evangelization within our cluster.
- Continue cluster ministry training days
- Attention should be given to evangelization. There are excellent resources and ideas to be shared. With two new churches being built in St. John the Baptist and St. Isidore parishes and the inspiring welcome brochure and web site of St. Agnes, we have a unique opportunity to address this goal in the coming years.
- Attention should be given to the spiritual life of families.
- Attention should be given to young adult/adult religious education programs.
- Shortage of priests will require further actions
Obstacles, that have stood in the way of the implementation of the Cluster Pastoral Plan are:
- Travel time and distances between parishes have been real obstacles. They make it very difficult to get volunteers and for the parishes to do things in common.
- With the building of churches and expansion of schools in individual parishes, perhaps not enough focus was given the cluster.
- Clustering by county forced unnatural groupings of parishes in this region.
Status of the Plan
In light of the information collected, the Cluster Implementation Committee in consultation with Parish Pastoral Councils recommended to the Regional Vicar that the status of the plan be
To hold - implementation is complete, new data does not require a new cluster plan at this time.