June 2020
Area Catholic Communities

Pastoral Plans

Although the deadline for resubmitting your pastoral plan has been delayed at this time, we encourage you to continue to work on these plans. We will put these plans up on the website as soon as they are received. New ones have been added to the diocesan planning website.

Care Teams

In the first March planning update (before the pandemic changed our world), we shared that teams of two from our diocesan staff would like to visit ACC planning councils, staffs, etc. to talk more in depth about your plan and how the diocesan offices may be of assistance, as well as how a regional ministry gathering in your area might be helpful in implementing your goals. While the goal of that idea hasn't changed the approach will change for now.
We recently decided that these teams, now called "care teams," would contact the planning council chair and/or pastor to see if there is anyway to be of assistance at this time. We are hoping to connect with all ACCs this month.
July Mass Counts
Twice a year, in July and October, the Diocese of Saint Cloud requests parish Mass counts from parishes in the Diocese. This year is no exception even with the unusual circumstances. We are also including a live streaming option; however, that will not be part of the official counts. We want to know who is live streaming and the numbers we are getting for our live streaming experiences. The numbers supplied this year will give us vital information as to how people are responding to our current situation.

"Are there other dioceses doing what we are doing?"

Detroit Archdiocese to shift to ‘family of parishes’ over next two years. Click here to read a recent article of a model being used similar to Area Catholic Communities .

Other dioceses using a similar model:
Archdiocese of Boston - Collaboratives
Archdiocese of Chicago - Groupings
Diocese of Syracuse - Pastoral Care Areas
Diocese of New Ulm - Area Faith Communities
Diocese of Green Bay - Links


Excerpt taken from Pastoring Multiple Parishes
by Mark Mogilka, Kate Wiskus

"Through creativity, adaptive work, and collaboration, Spirit-led pastors, staffs, and parish communities are not only living their faith but growing the church...we see signs of the Spirit's presence and of the Spirit's gifting of individuals and communities...we have seen the hand of God - the work of the Spirit - helping parishes to creatively adapt and grow through their less-than-ideal circumstances...we are being led into a more mission-focused ministry that discourages parochialism and encourages the building up of the kingdom one community at a time." (pg. 137)

Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two.
~Parker J. Palmer
Brenda Kresky | Director of Pastoral Planning | 214 3rd Ave S. St. Cloud, MN 56301
320-529-4611 | bkresky@gw.stcdio.org | www.stcdio.org/planning