Pastoral Planning seeks to enliven and foster the mission of the church in the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens through parish and cluster planning, collaboration and dialogue.
The pastoral planning process invites the people of the Diocese to imagine themselves anew in our current time. Guided by the Holy Spirit, clergy, religious and laity alike are asked to enter a time of discernment around the mission of the Church and together with the Diocesan Bishop create a dynamic, life-giving vision for our future.
Pastoral planning is built on consultation and dialogue that leads to action. All Catholics are invited to be a part of the conversation that creates our future as well as lending their gifts to the living out of our mission together.
The Parish Pastoral Council is a leadership body within the parish whose role is to develop and implement a mission-focused pastoral plan for the parish.
As servants to the wider community, Parish Pastoral Councils provide parishioners with forums for consultation and reflection on the mission of the Church in light of the signs of the times in the local neighborhood and the world. Parish Pastoral Councils develop pastoral plans, based on the insight of the community, to enable the faith community to continue to live out the mission of the Gospel.
Parish Pastoral Councils then call forth leaders from the parish to implement and achieve the goals of the pastoral plan.
Parish Pastoral Councils are charged with creating and implementing a pastoral plan in the life of the parish. Pastoral planning begins with a parish-wide dialogue on the mission of the Church, the perceptions of the community, and the current reality of the parish. This dialogue is facilitated by the Parish Pastoral Council. When completed, the information gathered from these dialogues is taken by the PPC and the pastor and used to create a pastoral plan for the future. The pastoral plan articulates the goals and priorities of the parish community for the coming years.
The Parish Pastoral Council also calls forth individuals from the community to implement the goals of the pastoral plan. In this way, the Parish Pastoral Council members are parish leaders charged with developing other leaders.
The current strategic planning process in the Diocese of Brooklyn is rooted in the developing sense of dialogue that was fostered with the parish pastoral planning process.
This process is meant to address the concerns of temporal resources (finances, buildings, etc.) and ensure that those resources are used to support the pastoral mission of the Church. In addition, the process is also meant to support the ongoing planning efforts of each parish by fostering a dialogue between financial resources and pastoral mission. In short, does our money speak to our mission?
The parish process encourages consultation as a primary means of deepening the reflection of all parishioners and parish leaders on the pastoral priorities of the parish in light of the resources available for ministry. Pastoral and financial planning is ongoing within each parish. The hope is that this process will assist in that endeavor. In addition, the information gathered from the consultations will assist the Bishop as he prepares to make decisions to secure the vitality and sustainability of the Church of Brooklyn and Queens in the coming years.
Pastoral Planning Questionnaire Responses Submitted to the Diocese from Our Lady of the Snows Parish
Our Lady of the Snows Parish Parish Pastoral Council Committee
Bios
OLS Parish Pastoral Plan
Bishop Di Marzio's letter of approval for the plan.
Note: These files are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed and printed. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, it can be downloaded from the
Adobe website. (This software is free.)
