July 30, 2023
An essential step before beginning a pastoral plan is to establish a parish Envisioning Team consisting of five to seven members. This team will assist Father Alan with analyzing the results of the Disciple Maker Index (DMI) Survey and in the creation of a pastoral plan. A pastoral plan lays the path for how best the parish is going to achieve its mission and lead parishioners in furthering our call to Jesus and our ability to lead others to Jesus.The Church teaches that the purpose of the parish is to proclaim the Gospel, celebrate the Sacraments, and promote works of charity, all directed towards the salvation of souls. The process of pastoral planning will allow us to bring this purpose to life as we strive to live out the mission entrusted to the Church by Christ: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all of creation." (Mark 16:15). As a reminder, in order to give ample time for all parishes to prepare for the distribution of DMI results and to ensure that all parishes are receiving information in a consistent manner, a universal distribution date for DMI results has been established for the weekend of August 19/20, 2023. All parishes in the diocese will use a common template to publish their individual results. Aggregate results for the entire diocese will be published in parish bulletins the weekend of August 26/27, 2023