East Side Pastoral Care Area, Syracuse NY

EAST SIDE PASTORAL CARE AREA

Proposed Pastoral Plan – Executive Summary

November 2006

Serving the Faith Communities of St. James, St. Patrick’s, Immaculate Conception & St. Ann’s

East Side PCA Mission Statement

Guided by the Spirit, we, the faith communities of Immaculate Conception, St. Ann’s, St. James, and St. Patrick’s, cooperatively seek to foster healthy communication and ensure vibrant sacramental life, within and among the individual parishes. We, as an advisory body, commit ourselves to best serve the needs of our people – spiritually, pastorally, and administratively.

Representatives from each of the four parishes have been meeting regularly for over six years, preparing for a time when we will need to work together, sharing the burden of fewer priests to serve as pastors of our faith communities. The future is upon us now, and we trust that the Holy Spirit will guide us as we maneuver on a new and uncharted course.

This plan is in response to the letter received by our Pastors in June 2006 from the Diocesan Office requesting that we prepare written plans detailing how we will reconfigure our PCA to function with 50% fewer priests possibly as early as July 2007. Having established strong bonds of friendship, cooperation, commitment, and shared mission, the PCA committee has prepared a Proposed Pastoral Plan in response to the Diocesan request.

What follows is a summary of the major elements of the proposed plan.

GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS

As we invite people to join us by sharing their faith, talents and energy, they must know that, as co-heirs to God’s kingdom, their ideas, opinions, and efforts will be heard, recognized and valued.

Recognizing the issues that brought the diocese to this point, we believe our plan will allow each of our four parishes to maintain their individual identity, relative autonomy, and remain vibrant faith communities.

The churches of the Syracuse Diocese will need to be organized differently from the structures of the past. It is up to the lay parishioners, in conjunction with the remaining priests, to fill the void left by the vocation shortage.

Lay Parish Life Directors may be hired, as needed, with attendant costs to be shared among the parishes. They will be hired by the local parish with the assistance of the remaining Pastors and, as requested, the rest of the PCA.

While we affirm the primacy of the Eucharist and intend to hold as many masses as possible, we assume the PCA may offer Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest as a last alternative. This is to meet the needs of Parishioners that may have difficulty in traveling to neighbor Parishes due to illness, disability, weather, or issues raised by facility limitations.

SACRAMENTAL PLANNING

New mass schedules for each parish have been devised which will allow the remaining priest(s) to travel between parishes. There will be fewer masses, some at different times, and Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest may be held in each parish once a weekend.

With fewer priests available, the scheduling of additional sacraments will need to be coordinated among the four parishes.

ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN

Pastoral services will remain “on-site” in the future, in and through the local parish staffs and ministries.

A Parish Life Director, educated in theology, pastoral ministry, business management, and volunteer management will be hired as the on-site point-person and to act as the liaison with the priests who will provide the sacramental ministry.

Deacons and other trained laity will provide for all non-priest functions and ministries.

COMMUNICATION PLAN

Every effort will be made to keep parishioners advised of pastoral developments and anticipated changes via pulpit talks, bulletin inserts, bulk mailings, website posting, and open access to PCA committee members.

An East Side PCA website is up and running at www.eastsidepca.org . Important notices, documents, dates, articles, and other pertinent information is, and will be, posted for internet users.

The Parish Councils of each Parish will be kept fully informed and invited into PCA activities as leaders of their faith communities.

Open forum, town hall-type meetings will be scheduled to give parishioners the opportunity to share their ideas and opinions, and to voice their concerns.

PCA meeting minutes will be made available to parishioners via the website and/or as a bulletin insert.

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This document contains only a brief summary of the multi-page Proposed Pastoral Plan prepared for your review.

This is just the next step in our evolution through this process. To this end, there will be ongoing prayer, planning and dialogue within the PCA. The East Side PCA hereby reserves the right to supplement, amend, revise, modify, or otherwise change the attached plan pending a full review of the plan by the members of the faith communities to be affected by its implementation.