CENTER SECTION: PASTORAL PLANNING AND COUNCILS
Journey of Hope

by Marti Harrington

Art: Varina and Jay Patel/bigstockphoto.com

This article tells the story of two parishes whose pastoral council leadership merged and preserved a vibrant Catholic presence in Southwest Philadelphia. Most Blessed Sacrament and St. Francis de Sales became the parish known as St. Francis de Sales: United by the Most Blessed Sacrament and completed a journey of hope shared by these two faith communities.

The journey began in the early 1990s, as pastoral planning was introduced in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Each parish in the archdiocese was mandated to form a Parish Pastoral Council (PPC); develop a parish mission statement; and conduct a parish self-study, including a survey of parishioners. The realization came that many city parishes were experiencing similar social, economic and demographic challenges. This fostered the development of “cluster” plans, which encouraged neighboring parishes to work together to make the best use of spiritual and temporal resources.

Cluster 33 comprised eleven parishes in Southwest Philadelphia, a section of the city that had a dominant Catholic population until the 1960s. Then there were dramatic population shifts, with the religious, racial, and ethnic changes that many urban areas faced.

In the early 1990s collaboration among parishes and shared lay and clerical leadership were unfamiliar dynamics. Nevertheless, the parish councils came together with a willingness to invite and allow the Holy Spirit to influence their discernment as they planned together for the future.

Cluster 33’s plan defined what gives life to the community and engaged parishioners in defining the goals for vibrant parish life. The planning also took place in an environment preparing for fewer clergy. Implementing the cluster plan meant parish mergers and closings and school closings.

As a result, two parishes in Cluster 33, Most Blessed Sacrament and St. Francis de Sales were “twinned” in 1999 and shared a pastor, although at that time both parishes remained independent and canonically distinct. Each parish held strongly to its own history, heritage, liturgy, and traditions, even as human and financial resources dwindled.

By June of 2006, the PPC of Most Blessed Sacrament acknowledged that the parish was in dire straits. Willing to face the fear and pain associated with change, the council recommended that Most Blessed Sacrament be closed and asked to merge with St. Francis de Sales. The Rev. Zachary W. Navit, pastor of both parishes, accepted the recommendation and initiated a planning process engaging both parish pastoral councils in the merger discussion.

The parish had experienced lay and clerical leadership working together, and issues and priorities were prayerfully discerned and consensus reached with the good of the entire faith community paramount. A process called “Appreciative Inquiry” was used throughout the next phases of planning. (See below.)

The planning process included all ministries within each parish. First, the two pastoral councils met separately to consider the merger. After agreeing to the merger, they then met jointly. In the next phase the ministry leaders of both parishes were engaged to assure that the traditions and values of each community would be incorporated into the new parish entity. Finally, parishioners were involved through surveys to integrate and celebrate the new parish.

The culmination of the joint planning included the celebration of three Unity Masses. Extensive liturgical preparation preserved the two parishes’ varied cultural and liturgical practices, such as music and dance. In order to continue some tangible remembrance of Most Blessed Sacrament, its altar was moved and installed in what had been St. Francis de Sales Church. The new name was chosen to include reference to both parishes, and the first Masses at St. Francis de Sales: United by the Most Blessed Sacrament were celebrated in the beginning of July 2008.

Father Navit comments that “the success of this merger came about from a true openness to the direction of the Holy Spirit, a commitment to an active presence of the Catholic church in this community, and a desire to be good stewards of our present resources. The deep faith of the people of both parishes inspired me to look beyond the present and to envision the future in daring and faith-filled ways.”

In September 2008, the pastoral councils met to define the issues now facing the parish and to discern new pastoral council members who will represent all of the people in the parish boundaries. The journey of hope continues.

Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an organizational development process that engages individuals within an organization in its renewal, change, and focused performance. It is a particular way of asking questions and envisioning the future that fosters positive relationships and builds on the basic goodness in a person, a situation, or an organization. Appreciative Inquiry utilizes a four-stage process focusing on:

DISCOVER: The identification of organizational processes that work well.

DREAM: The envisioning of processes that would work well in the future.

DESIGN: Planning and prioritizing processes that would work well.

DESTINY (or DELIVER): The implementation (execution) of the proposed design.
The basic idea is to build parishes around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn’t. It is the opposite of problem solving. Instead of focusing on fixing what’s wrong, AI focuses on how to create more of what’s already working.

For more on this subject, see Appreciative Inquiry in the Catholic Church by Susan Star Paddock (Thin Book Publishing, 2003).

Marti Harrington heads the office for Formation of the Laity in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Penn.