2010 State of the Parish Report

Homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Each year on the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, I like to give an overview of the life and ministry of our parish, something of a State of the Parish Report. It is good every once in a while to step back and look at where we are – both at the successes and challenges of the past year and at the hopes and dreams for the coming year. First, a look at where we are and where we have been.

There are currently 1,172 registered households in our parish comprising approximately 3,368 people. Forty-five of those households registered in our parish during the past twelve months. During that same time period, since July 1 of last year, we have baptized 31 infants, married 15 couple, welcomed 9 adults into the Church through the RCIA, and celebrated 21 funerals. In looking over recent years, our baptisms were down this year, but we had almost twice the number of weddings as the year before. We are blessed to have a good number of young adults and young families in our parish, bringing us much life and vitality.

But, of course, a parish is much more than statistics. Among many highlights of this past year, we welcomed a new youth minister and part-time youth ministry assistant to the parish staff. A new Christian Service Commission was formed to help coordinate the many service ministries sponsored by our parish. A new Evangelization Committee was also formed and is currently in the process of evaluating the ways we spread the gospel both within and outside our parish. During the year, we sponsored a very successful Lenten Reteat for the Parish. We hosted a concert commemorating the 40th anniversary of the installation of our pipe organ. We welcomed back several priests who have been associated with the parish over the years to celebrate the Year for Priests. We also hosted four seminarians from Saint Meinrad School of Theology as part of their parish ministry formation program. In our school, we installed several interactive white boards, bringing the benefits of the latest technology to our classrooms, and we held our second annual Kingdom Builders’ Dinner, raising over $23,000 for need-based tuition assistance for our parish school.

But in my reflections, there were three clear highlights to our parish life over the past year. Last September, we launched the new One Church, One Faith Total Parish Faith Formation Program. The centerpiece of this program was Week One, an inter-generational evening of food, faith formation, and prayer held on the first Wednesday of every month. We averaged around 200 parishioners of all ages at these Week One gatherings, and plans are already underway for the second year of this program. Last October, our parish rejoiced as my predecessor as pastor, Bishop Paul Etienne, was named bishop of the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Several hundred people joined together to celebrated with him at a Mass and Thanksgiving Feast in November, and then around 50 parishioners made the journey to Cheyenne for his ordination as a bishop. Around the same time last fall, construction was completed on our new baptismal font and renovations to the church sanctuary, vestibule, and entry ways, all made possible by the Legacy for Our Mission Capital Campaign and financial gifts designated for this purpose. It certainly has been an exciting and productive year here at OLPH. But where do we go from here?

There are a few very clear projects that we are working on for the coming year. This fall, we hope to complete the final phase of renovations funded by our Capital Campaign – the renovation of the music area here in the church. The funds have been received, and we are currently finalizing the architectural drawings for this project. During the coming year, we will continue to work to expand such ministries as evangelization, youth and young adult ministry, Christian service, and health ministry – all of those groups are hard at work developing goals and plans specific to their areas of focus. This fall, we plan to hold a 40 Hours Devotion – forty hours of Eucharistic Adoration, with Masses and education focused on the prayer and worship life of our community. Later in the year, we will begin education for the new translations of the prayers we say at Mass, a transition that will be coming to all Catholic churches in the English speaking parts of the world in the fall of 2011. And we are currently beginning talks to bring back the Main Event in February 2011. The Main Event served as our major parish fundraiser for many years. After a two-year hiatus, we are hoping to bring it back this coming winter. Two parishioners have agreed to co-chair the event, and they are looking for volunteers to serve on the committee – if you have an interest, you can see me after Mass or send me a message.

But even more than our plans for these specific ministries, now seems to be a significant time to look at the overall vision and direction of our parish. A year ago, we concluded the implementation of the ENVISION parish planning process, which had identified five priority areas for parish ministry. As beneficial as any of our parish ministries and be in themselves, they will eventually flounder if they are not part of a larger plan. So we must continually ask ourselves: How do we intend to build God’s kingdom in this particular parish? What should be our areas of focus as we worship, spread the gospel, form one another in the faith, and serve the needs of our community? It is time once again to begin thinking about a strategic plan for our parish. In the short-term, two initiatives have already begun to help lay the groundwork. As a way to continue to get to know parishioners, I have opened up much of my July calendar to share meals with parishioners in their homes. After announcing my availability in last week’s bulletin, I now have only five dates still available in July – if you are open to having me join your family or friends for dinner, give me a call or an e-mail. Once the July dates are filled, I will continue to make time available into the future. During these meals and conversations, I hope to hear from you your ideas, dreams, and plans for the future of our parish ministries. We are also in the process of redesigning all of our parish communications, beginning with designing a new parish and school logo. Eventually, this redesign will affect everything from our parish website to the newsletter to the Sunday bulletin to letterhead and business cards. That’s happening right now. But beginning this fall, I have asked our Pastoral Council to begin a more formal process of strategic planning to help us prepare for the future ministry of our parish. This is an exciting time for our parish community, and I look forward to involving the entire parish in this process. But first of all, we must ask for God’s guidance and the prayers of Mary, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, to guide our ministries and our service for the building up of His kingdom. So as we celebrate our parish feast this weekend, may that be our prayer: that God bless this parish and strengthen each of us to follow His voice, wherever he may lead.