Informal Evaluation by the Cluster Implementation Committee
Cluster 61
| Annunciation BVM, Havertown St. Anastasia, Newtown Square St. John Neumann, Bryn Mawr St. Pius X, Broomall |
Sacred Heart, Manoa St. Denis, Havertown St. Katharine of Siena, Wayne St. Thomas of Villanova, Villanova |
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:
The members felt a complementarity among the several parishes in coming together and collaborating not only on the cluster goals, but on sharing parish priorities and, to some modest extent, gaining cluster identity.
The three subcommittees were active to varying degrees. The Subcommittee on Stewardship lagged and was not able to do much together. However, the sharing of information on stewardship across the parishes was helpful. The Adult Education goal and the Youth Ministry goal were moderately productive. In Adult Education, a very successful cluster Liturgy Enrichment Day was held in March, 2003. The Subcommittee on Youth was able to have a retreat for young persons and a successful service project in observance of the Martin Luther King holiday.
Actions that still need to be
taken include:
Determining whether parishes wish to have their own youth minister or share a youth
minister among more than one parish.
The members of the cluster Implementation Committee would also like to continue with reflecting on what they can appropriately do together on a cluster level as well as to maintain the initiatives that were successful.
The group wants to continue to share information and explore new possibilities for concerted action, especially in the light of the soon to be promulgated Enactments of the Tenth Archdiocesan Synod.
The committee felt that feedback and reporting to the parishioners should be improved.
New proposals should be more concrete.
Obstacles, that have stood in the
way of the implementation of the Cluster Pastoral Plan are:
The change in key personnel, especially the transfer of several
pastors from the cluster.
A lack of adequate communication at times between subcommittees and the members of the cluster implementation committee.
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 continue - implementation is not complete, new data does not indicate a need for revised cluster plan but further work is required on the current plan.