A Letter From Our Pastor: Building Disciples — A Community-Wide Focus

My Dear Friends in Christ,

As we begin to move into this Fall, Fr. Jimmy and I would like to re-focus on the Haven of Mercy Catholic Community planning process. This process was begun back in the summer of 2019 when Bishop Kettler indicated that as a diocese, he wishes that Area Catholic Communities (ACCs) form and work together to continue the mission of the Church in the Diocese of St. Cloud. This ACC planning process is one way that our diocese seeks to address the radical changes we are facing in today’s world.

Bishop Kettler at the St. Cloud Diocese Annual Conference for Clergy at Arrowwood Resort in October of 2019 shared the many reasons and context of why we are engaging this diocesan Area Catholic Community planning process. He assures us that our diocese is not in “survival mode.” In addition, it is not primarily because of a priest shortage. The greater reason is that the world is changing radically and we need to do Church differently. He says that most dioceses in the United States are doing some kind of planning process to address the current changing times and the ACC process is one way of doing it. He says it may not be the only way and/or even the best way. But we need to do something. He also says that parishes will have a hard time going it alone today and in the future. He is excited by the prospects of an opportunity for greater lay involvement and shared resources among the ACC communities. It will take work! Yet, Bishop Kettler assures the pastors and the people alike that his diocesan offices are making this planning process and their support the first priority. Bishop Kettler would like to ask, “How can we better serve our people?” He is very interested in the areas of youth ministry, adult and child faith formation, evangelization, RCIA, social concerns committee, vocations, liturgy and music, and finances.

Our Lady of Lourdes

Holy Family

St. Mary's

Sacred Heart

St. Stanislaus

St. James

Fr. Jimmy and I had started meeting with our Haven of Mercy Area Catholic Committee monthly since the Fall of 2019 until the COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place took effect in March of 2020. The Haven of Mercy Catholic committee had two representatives from each of our six parishes, which include Sacred Heart in Flensburg, St. Stanislaus in Sobieski, Our Lady of Lourdes, and St. Mary’s in Little Falls, Holy Family in Belle Prairie Township, and St. James in Randall. By Jan. 1, 2020, we came up with an extensive list of goals that address the areas of “Religious Education”, “Youth, Young Adults, and Young Families”, “Worship and Sacraments”, “Operations”, “Communication”, “Finances”, and “Hospitality.” During the pandemic, we took a hiatus in order to address the more immediate pastoral concerns of the pandemic. We reconvened in the Fall of 2020 and have conducted a logo contest and chose one. We’ve brought our directors of religious education together to begin talking about what they are doing currently with their programs and we are seeking to work together and possibly streamline. We purchased Flocknote as a tool that we used throughout the pandemic to provide weekly communication with parishioners via email. We have also looked at job descriptions of all the staff to begin the discussion of how staffing six parishes might work.

One large initiative we are doing this Fall is utilizing a Catholic Company, Lighthouse Strategic Solutions, who will help us with hiring a business manager that would serve the six parishes. They will help us to do two phases. The first is an organizational assessment, where they will interview all of the staff. These will be confidential interviews, but they will ask the staff for their insights on how things are done currently, how they might be done as a six-parish community and what their individual strengths might be. The company will do a second phase to help hire a business manager that would serve the six parishes. This would help many areas of communication, following through on many of the goals established by the Haven of Mercy Catholic Community, and help reduce the current amount of administrative work on the priests so that they can be freer to be about the spiritual needs of the people. The pastors will still have the final say on all that happens in the parishes, but the business manager will help with much of the legwork.

Moving forward, the Haven of Mercy Catholic Community committee would like to begin with the following communication strategy to keep everyone informed: We wish to begin with this introductory newsletter on the Haven of Mercy Catholic Committee and to have it sent to all the parishioners of the six parishes. Fr. Jimmy and I would like to visit all neighbor parishes to celebrate Mass one weekend a month to get to know the communities better. We would like to establish a small section in the bulletin to keep you abreast of the Haven of Mercy Catholic Community planning process. We will also be creating a prayer that we can pray together as a Haven of Mercy Catholic Community to ask for the guidance of the Holy Spirit before each weekend Mass. We are planning to publish all of the minutes of meetings and make them available. We also have suggestion boxes in each of our parish churches that parishioners can offer feedback and questions. We are doing our Confirmation Mass together on March 20, 2022, and are looking to do major youth events together for the summer of 2022. We will also be looking to have some joint parish council meeting nights where parish councils can meet side-by-side, but then we can come together to pray or have time for reflection.

The Haven of Mercy Catholic Community planning process is something that has been given to us by our bishop. Fr. Jimmy and I believe that in following the directives of the bishop, we are responding to God’s will for our faith communities. We are called to be about the mission of Jesus Christ, which is to bring the Kingdom of God to our area. We are called to make disciples together! To be collaborating as several parishes at one time is pretty uncharted territory for the history of the Church. Being that the case, I invite all of us to be open and patient. This will take time. There will be bumps in the road. But I believe that there will be beautiful fruit that will come from this!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Fr. Ben Kociemba

Fr. Ben Kociemba