Phase I: Consultation (Completed 9/2016)
Decision
Phase II: Implementation
Update: Response to Year III Plan
In the late Fall of 2015, the Diocese of Trenton embarked on a process called "Faith in Our Future" to address the many changes that have taken place within our four-county diocese. Demographics have changed the makeup of many parishes, and we are facing a drastic reduction in the number of priests over the next few years. Rather than move into a future of "crisis management," Faith in Our Future seeks to "get in front" of such challenges and so be in a stronger position to minister effectively. This requires the active participation of all 107 parishes and diocesan ministries.
Every parish had a core team of five members, including the pastor, to guide the self-study and discussion process at the local level. Small groups of parishes called cohorts (ours includes Our Lady of Sorrows-St. Anthony, St. Raphael-Holy Angels, St. Gregory the Great, St. John the Baptist, and St. Vincent de Paul) were formed to facilitate the following goals:
With the many profound changes that have confronted the Catholic Church in recent decades, one constant that remains is its mission to advance the Kingdom of God. The challenge is how best to serve the mission amidst the flow of changes that significantly impact nearly every aspect of parish life and Church ministry.
The Diocese of Trenton has taken proactive steps since 2005 to respond to this challenge, conducting parish planning initiatives on a project-by-project basis in order to establish fewer, stronger, and more dynamic parishes. As implementation of the most recent initiative, Faith in Our Future, nears completion, the Diocese is taking steps to ensure that effective and collaborative pastoral planning becomes a regular, mainstream part of parish administration going forward.
Terry Ginther, diocesan chancellor and executive director of Pastoral Life and Mission, recently explained that the framework of parish Cohorts will now be integrated into the ordinary structures of the Diocese—parishes, deaneries and county vicariates—all under the leadership of the Bishop.
Ginther explained that this new generation of parish planning calls for each of the Diocese’s 10 deaneries (with eight to 12 parishes from the same county) to engage in “common pastoral activity.” Within a given deanery, the parishes will be grouped into an average of three Cohorts. The pastors together with a core team of parishioners and appropriate staff will strive to plan for more significant collaboration. The Cohorts will typically consist of two to four parishes that can plan and work together to address local needs, diocesan priorities, and mission. With further consultation to come, and some decisions to be made about accountability measures, the transition to the new model is expected to take place this July.
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