June 29, 2017

Father Kottar, David Carscaddon, Finance Council Chair and Sharon Burkhardt, Pastoral Council Chair met with George Cobb, director of the Diocesan Office of Planning and Research. George provided invaluable direction to ensure a successful development phase of the Pastoral Plan. He spoke of the importance of remaining aware of the needs of this parish given that the parish resides in an older community. Spiritual development of the parish and budget requirements for capital asset replacement should be considered as well.

The demographics of the parish must also be included in the plan. The Office of Planning and Research of the Diocese of Charlotte has the information and will be providing it to St. Mary.

The primary focus of the meeting was to plan communication of the process to the parish. The communication plan must include the way the parish will be informed of the process, how they will be able to provide input and how the Council will respond in an acceptable time frame.

George Cobb reviewed the progress to date and directed Father to staff the commissions from existing parish ministries where it makes sense. He also described the next steps including identifying 2 or 3 goals for each area of concern in the parish and then asking the commissions to development action items to attain the goals. He provided guidelines published by his office for the action items to ensure the viability of each.

The meeting ended with assurances from George Cobb that his department would provide guidance and support, technical and practical, as well as information on megatrends or a needs profile where appropriate.

June 5, 2017

Father Kottar presented the initial steps for the development of the three-year plan. The first and foremost step was to work on improving prayer together as a Council and individually. The Council initiated use of the “Liturgy of the Hours” as the opening prayer. Father Kottar’s opening comments were directives to the Council to examine their individual prayer life looking to improve it. Individual prayer life should model behavior for the parish and discern God’s will for the parish.

Also, each Council member was asked to spend some time learning about the parish territory and to reach out to a nonprofit agency within the parish. The object being to research possible ways the parish could support or participate in the agency work as community outreach.

The Council reviewed Diocesan pastoral guidelines regarding parish commissions. The commissions were defined as follows:

• Liturgy and Worship – This commission is concerned with planning, training and coordinating all aspects of worship, the sacraments, and programs for spiritual growth as well as schedule all laity involved in liturgical celebrations.
• Education and Formation -The religious education programs for the parish are the responsibility of this commission and should reflect the needs of the community of faith.
• Community- The commission is responsible for planning outreach programs for the betterment of the greater community within the parish territory. The programs should focus on social services, pro-life, social justice and community ministries.
• Parish Life- The members of this commission build the parish family spirit and improve Christian life in the parish.
• Evangelization/Communication- This commission promotes programs that help the parish share the Good News and sponsors programs that implement the USCCB’s vision for evangelization. Also, it must work with other commissions to discover special problems in the parish.
• Ecumenism- The commission works to ensure a commitment to interfaith dialogue in the parish and obtain an understanding of how Catholic doctrine impacts other religions and nonbelievers to have productive dialogue with them.
• Buildings/Facilities- This commission inspects and inventories parish properties, equipment, furnishings and facilities. Recommended repairs, additions, servicing and insurance are under the auspices of the commission.

Then the Council inventoried the current parish commissions. The result was that none of these specific commissions existed and all had to be established. The Director of Religious Education, Maureen Westlund is also head of the Legion of Mary. The Legion actively participates in evangelization. This led to the decision to combine the Education and Evangelization commissions. The Pastoral Council Chair, Sharon Burkhardt has regularly sought out volunteers to cover various needs in the parish. She also created the annual parish newsletter and is responsible for the announcements on the changeable sign on the parish grounds. These combined responsibilities made it reasonable to put the Communications and Stewardship commissions together. The decision to combine Community and Ecumenism was based on the opportunities that would present themselves in community outreach programs for interfaith dialogue and extending the hand of friendship. The review resulted in the following commissions for the parish:

• Liturgy and Worship
• Education and Evangelization
• Community and Ecumenism
• Parish Life
• Stewardship and Communications
• Buildings and Facilities

Father Kottar will contact the Diocesan Office of Planning and Research director, George Cobb to arrange a meeting to discuss the Diocesan requirements for developing a 3-year pastoral plan.