|
|
Preparation by the
Pastor and Parish Staff
In preparation for
the Annual Self Assessment of the Pastoral
Plan, the
Pastor:
- Obtains copies of the current parish pastoral plan and
cluster pastoral
plan and provides them to each member of the Parish Pastoral Council
for
them to read prior to the Annual Self Assessment .
- Contacts those in the parish who are taking actions on each
of the plan’s
goals (parish staff, parish organizations and individual
parishioners)
to learn what actions have been taken
to accomplish
the goals of the Parish Pastoral Plan.
- Synthesizes the information and develops a brief
report of all the
implementation actions for each plan goal, (if the connection between
all
the activity of the parish and the parish pastoral plan goals is not
obvious,
he simply needs to report that).
- Plans with the Coordinating Committee of the Parish
Pastoral Council to
include these reports in the education section of the agenda of the
Parish
Pastoral Council meeting(s) prior to the Annual Self Assessment of the
Pastoral Plan.
Preparation of the
Parish Pastoral Council:
It is recommended
that the Education Section of the council’s
agenda
(about
15 minutes) for one or two meetings prior to the Annual Self
Assessment
meeting be devoted to preparing the council for this annual
review.
There are three parts
to this education component:
Part 1.
The basis, both in Church teaching
and in
organization
theory, for
parish pastoral planning.
It would be
beneficial if parish staff and those
parishioners
who are
involved in implementation efforts be present for this
educational part
of the
meeting. This may be presented by the pastor or his
delegate supported
by a video or meeting script available as resource
materials
on the
Archdiocesan Web site (to be developed).
a. Church
Teaching
- Review Church Teaching in light of purpose of the Parish
Pastoral Councils
- Review Church Teaching in light of connection to the
parish mission statement
- Both topics can be reviewed from current Church documents
related to parish life such as Ecclesia in America and Novo Millennio
Ineunte,
etc.
- Review Church Teaching and elements of faith and practice
found in the
goals and actions taken to accomplish the plan.
- (Consult the seven theme areas described in the parish
self study guide)
b.
Organization Theory
- Advantages of working in a group
- How to involve the right people in this assessment
- Need for trust, and an honest assessment, and openness to
learn from failures
as well as successes
- Need to foster effective communication among those taking
action
Part 2. The brief report of all the
implementation
actions
accomplished for
each plan goal.
Part 3. A
review (preview) of the agenda
for Annual Self Assessment of
the Pastoral Plan.
PARISH
PASTORAL PLAN IMPLEMENTATION
REPORT
Every parish is
already involved in a process of ongoing
pastoral
planning.
The Pastor, parish
staff, and parishioners take actions as part
of the
ongoing development
of the parish community. To continue
the work
that
has gone before is
good stewardship and it respects the work of
these
dedicated
people. As a part of this ongoing process,
Parish
Pastoral
Councils routinely
review the progress that has been made and
form
objectives for the
next year to continue to accomplish the goals
the
plan has
proposed. One
of the responsibilities of those
(parish
staff, organization
leaders, volunteers
or others) carrying out the
actions
required to
accomplish the
parish pastoral plan is to keep the Parish
Pastoral
Council
up to date on the
progress being made.
In preparing your
report of implementation efforts for
the
Parish Pastoral
Council, the following may be helpful in focusing your thoughts:
As you review the
actions that you have taken to
implement
your area
of
responsibility for the Parish Pastoral Plan, you may want to ask:
- Are the actions being performed the right ones to achieve
the objective?
- Were these actions successful? If they were not
successful, what
seemed to present difficulty?
- Were there any discoveries/surprises?
- Is something further required?
- What is the next step?
If you come across
recommendations for which no actions
have been
taken, you may want to ask:
1. Why has
action not been taken on these
recommendations?
2. What are the barriers to action? (i.e., vagueness
of
intent, fear, lack of
resources)
- Is a goal, objective or action unclear?
- Is responsibility for an action unclear?
- Is the time line for an action specific?
- Does an existing program, service or activity need to be
redefined?
- Does an existing parish organization need to be redefined?
- Does an existing staff position need to be redefined?
- Does a new program, service or activity need to be created?
- Does a new parish organization need to be created?
- Does a new staff position need to be created?
- Is there a need for a change in personnel?
3. What
actions will be taken?
4. When will
some action take place? Who will be
responsible?
|
