Our Parish Discernment
What is Parish Discernment?
Parish discernment is an opportunity to gather as a parish family, and through prayer and reflection, call upon God to reveal His will for the parish community. While there are similarities to strategic planning processes, what makes discernment unique is that parishes are not beginning by asking, "What do we think is best?", and instead asking, "What is God's hope for our parish?"
On the Feast of the Holy Family, Archbishop Kurtz promulgated a Pastoral Letter, Your Parish: The Body of Christ Alive in Our Midst, that contained an invitation to all the parishes in the Archdiocese to enter into a process to discern the future of our parishes in the Archdiocese to enter into a process to discern the future of our parishes. In response to this invitation from the Archbishop, we at St Vincent de Paul will be participating in this process of prayerful discernment in the coming months.
The purposes of the parish discernment process are to reflect on the Pastoral Letter, discern how we can grow in holiness and vitality as a faith community, and to plan through a process of prayer, listening, deciding and developing the parish in the areas of Family Life, Education and Lifelong formation, and Service and Outreach. I invite you to participate fully in this process over the coming months as we seek to listen to God's call for St Vincent de Paul and discern His will for our future. The Pastoral Letter is available HERE and hard copies are also available in the back of the church. |
"Families are schools of love and the building blocks of the parish." - Archbishop Kurtz, Your Parish: The Body of Christ Alive in Our Midst What is God's hope for our parish?What two or three ways could our parish ministries to families be strengthened or improved for the future? When helping and serving families in our parish, what can we do together? What specific programs or activities do you recommend as priorities for supporting families in our parish? What specific programs or activities do you recommend as Service and Outreach priorities for our parish? What specific programs or activities do you recommend as Education and Lifelong Formation priorities for our parish? After our prayer and reflection, please come to our listening session to discuss what God is asking our parish to do on Monday, October 30 at 6:30 pm in the church.
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