Diocesan Pastoral Planning News

Diocese of Antigonish

Pastoral Planning Committee - March 2009

Diocesan Pastoral Planning News

(March 11, 2009)

The hoped for outcome of this newsletter is that the Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee can communicate with all the stakeholders within the Diocese. It is our hope that this will be one means by which we can help everyone involved understand and participate in the conversation around some of the challenges and opportunities that we face as a Diocesan Church. These include but are not limited to the context of fewer clergy, changing demographics, uncertain and diminishing finances, aging and numerous parish buildings; and our need to remain a Church filled with the Spirit and committed to the process of Evangelization.

          Therefore, we would ask for as wide a circulation as possible of this newsletter. Ideally, copies of this newsletter would be made available to every member of our Pastoral Councils, and that a discussion accompanies this distribution. Additionally, making copies available for the parishioners in our pews would be most welcome. The Committee will place this newsletter on the Diocesan web page (http://www.antigonishdiocese.com) so that as many as possible will have access to the information.

          Please feel free to contact me and make any comments as you feel would be helpful.

New Waterford and Area:

          Many of us are aware that the New Waterford and Area parish, the Parish of St. Leonard, has been moving through a rather extensive process over the past number of years. This has involved many hours of labour, reflection and prayer by all involved.

          A year ago the Parish Pastoral Council mandated a steering Group to gather more facts and report back to Council on their findings. The Steering Group reports to the Parish Pastoral Council. The Pastoral Council reports to the parish by means of parish general meetings, where input is sought and then reported back through the Council and on to the Steering Group as appropriate.

          Clearly one of the most controversial and emotionally charged aspects involving the newly created Parish of St. Leonard has been the issue of decision making around worship space. We all need to be mindful that there are six church buildings in this grouping - all within at most a 10-15 minute drive. The farthest building is only a few minutes more from the centre of the parish. Additionally, there were three large rectories, as well as parish halls. Quite simply put, the population served by these churches could not manage (without incurring deficits) these buildings. Nor can they be sustained without taking money from other critical pastoral services for their people. Recently one of the six churches (St. Alphonsus – Low Point) needed to be closed due to unsafe conditions.

          The Steering Committee commissioned professionals to study their church buildings so that they could present as many facts as possible to their parishioners.

          In the Fall the Pastoral Council, having received information from their Finance Committee, made a decision to close all but two church buildings for the majority of the heating season. These closures arose out of the fuel costs associated with heating these buildings and an overall net loss for the first 8 months of the year. On Christmas Eve, the Parish Priest announced that these churches would be reopened on Palm Sunday.

          After passing along its most current piece of work to the Parish Pastoral Council, the Steering Committee dissolved itself in early January. Pastoral Council went to complete the work and shared it with parishioners on February 21-22^nd, 2009, and announced a general parish meeting for Sunday March 8^th, for parishioners to express themselves on the report. Having received the feedback the Pastoral Council will then make whatever changes are deemed appropriate and forward their report on to the Diocese. It is expected that it will involve significant change in terms of the current configuration. Once it comes to the Diocese, it will require review by the Bishop, Council of Priests, Business and Finance Committee and Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee.

          I think we can all appreciate that in such serious matters, there are bound to be many and varied reactions. However, it is important to note that no final decision has yet been arrived at by the Parish of St. Leonard. Throughout their work, they have worked very diligently to follow a solid process.

          I do hope that everyone will recognize how much of a struggle this whole process is and has been on all involved. I would encourage all of our parishes, priests and religious to keep this parish in your prayers as the work continues.

Glace Bay:

          The Pastoral Grouping of St. Joseph’s, Reserve Mines, Holy Family, Glace Bay, Immaculate Conception, Dominion, St Eugene’s Dominion, and St. James, Gardiner are currently working on a pastoral plan for their future.. Here is the plan that they created and is duplicated here for your information:

“The following resolution was passed unanimously by our five parish Pastoral Council of St. Joseph’s Reserve Mines, Holy Family, Glace Bay, Immaculate Conception, Dominion, St. Eugene’s, Dominion, St. James, Gardiner on May 1^st,, 2008

Purpose of Resolution: To create a sense of stability within all five parish communities regarding Sunday Masses, fundraising, and status of church buildings, we resolve that:

PHASE ONE: 2008-2010

1) The current Weekend Mass Schedule (four masses with one alternating) will be maintained for the next two years. This means there will be no closures of any church buildings in this period. All five churches will continue to be utilized for worship.

2) The Pastoral Council will actively work towards creating a new name to identify our pastoral grouping with each church maintaining its’ current name.

3) We will amalgamate the current three separate programs of faith formation and create one program for our pastoral grouping using the multigenerational whole community model of catechesis.

4) We will maintain the current structure of individual finance and property committees with each responsible for their own fundraising, maintenance of buildings and grounds.

PHASE TWO: 2010-2012

1) The Pastoral Council will develop a Weekend Mass schedule that best reflects the pastoral needs of our grouping, based on attendance surveys, availability of liturgical ministries, and the overall quality of Sunday celebrations.

2) This implies that we will need to take a serious look at the number of church buildings that will be required to celebrate those Sunday masses based on important criteria such as Sunday Mass capacity of churches, operating costs, parking.

3) While the Pastoral Council will determine the number of Weekend Masses required to fit our needs, and which church buildings will be utilized for these Sunday celebrations, we will not close out any church buildings. Church buildings belong to the people of that community.          If they want to keep their building open for funerals, weddings, and special celebrations like cemetery masses, and they are in a financial position to maintain them, they should have a right to do so.

4) During this period the Pastoral Council, with input from other groups in our parishes, will move towards creating one new parish using the name chosen.

Pictou County

          Up to two years ago Pictou County was served by six different parishes, two of which had a mission church, and there were 6 priests serving these parishes.

          Today, there are three parish groupings and three priests serving these parishes. Presently the Parish of All Saints, incorporates St. John the Baptist Church, New Glasgow, Christ the King, Trenton, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Pictou Landing.

Holy Name Parish Westville and Stella Maris Parish, Pictou are now served one Priest and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Stellarton & New Glasgow is served by one priest.

          On a recommendation of the Parish Pastoral Council, St. Gregory’s Parish, New Glasgow was closed a year ago and their church and rectory were sold. St. Ann’s Thorburn which was a mission of St. Gregory’s was joined to the Pastoral Grouping which includes the churches in Egerton, Merrigomish and Arisaig.

Route 223

          In the fall of this year, a new pastoral grouping was formed which consists of St. Mary’s, Frenchvale, St. Andrew’s, Boisdale, St. Columba and Missions, Iona and St. Barra, Christmas Island. Previously these were two separate Parish Groupings.

          We will feature other areas of the Diocese in upcoming editions of the Newsletter. If your deanery, region, or parish(s), would like to share with other parishes, what is happening in terms of Pastoral Planning initiatives, please contact me….

Mass Attendance Survey

          Many will recall that in the Spring of this year, we asked all parishes to participate in a Survey of Attendance at their Weekend Eucharistic Celebrations.

          The survey also focused on the seating capacity of our churches, so that we could all have some sense of the percentage of capacity on weekends in all of our churches.

          Obviously this is most important to the Parish itself, so that they can make plans for the present and future in terms of placing the Eucharist at the heart of our communities. At the same time it is equally important for our Deanery’s have an overall sense of how Weekend Worship can reach as many as possible without continuing a situation which cannot be sustained into our future.

          The survey results are now gathered into binders which have been circulated to both parishes and deaneries. We encourage Parish Pastoral Council Chairs to work with their parish priest to ensure that the results of the survey for your parish are shared and discussed at your Pastoral Council and Liturgy Committees.

          Thanks to all the Parishes, and Priests who cooperated in this survey. We are certainly conscious that this took time and effort. Also on your behalf I want to thank Cathy Walsh, from the Bishop’s Office and her team who compiled the statistical data and prepared the binders for our consideration.

Fr. Paul J. Abbass

Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee Chair

Fr. Paul J. Abbass,

Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Services

Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee Chair

If you would like to comment on this newsletter please contact,

Fr. Paul J. Abbass, pabbass@ca.inter.net,

St. Mary’s Parish,