Priorities for SHJ, Part 1

This is my fourth posting about the results of our Pastoral Council’s labors, specifically:

             

• Creating our Parish Purpose Statement
• Clarifying the values we want to inculcate among all of our parish groups;
• Defining the acceptable behaviors for living by these values;
• Establishing our parish priorities on which to focus in the coming months.

Yesterday we finished looking at the values we want all of our efforts to live by, and now we will look at the priorities our Pastoral Council and I came to agree upon for the coming year, and by which we will evaluate the endeavors of our parish a year from now. 

We created 6 priorities, two for each category:

  

1.       Vision Inspired Priorities

2.       Problem Solving Priorities

3.       Developmental (or Organizational) Priorities

  

We’ll look now at the Vision Inspired Priorities.  Before we look at them, think of a grasshopper, caught and put into a jar, with the lid on the jar, closing the top of the jar.  The grasshopper, which ordinarily can jump very high, but with the lid on, can only jump the height of the jar’s lid.  If you remove the lid after a few days, the grasshopper will only jump as high as if the lid were still preventing higher leaps.  When we have no vision inspired dreams, we will not leap as far as we could otherwise. So, here’s what our council’s dreams produced:

 

Vision Inspired Priorities

 

• Effective evangelization

Review existing programs, assess parish needs and

prioritize future direction by February 2010 to

provide a permeating effective evangelization.

  

• Develop a new way to fund our school

Determine annual cost and research models of

success in funding of parish schools. Identify next

steps to achieve greater accessibility for all SHJ

parishioners.

  

Quote: "We're at a point for our Catholic school system where we really need to hold on to what's a treasure. But we also need to look at new models of governance, of financing.” Sister Mary Paul McCaughey, Superintendent of Chicago Catholic Schools.