Six Parishes. One Vision

• Christ the King

• Corpus Christi

• Gesu

• Presentation Our Lady of Victory

• St. Peter Claver Catholic Community

• St. Scholastica

(Draft) 10/28/2011 - Revision 10

Archdiocese developing plan to address changing realities

Decline in priests

Reduced membership/Aging population

High parish debt levels

Excess facilities

Parish operating deficits

Key objective for Archbishop is “the strengthening of the Church in the City of Detroit”

Planning generally occurring at the Vicariate level

Trinity Vicariate divided into 3 Planning Groups

The NORTHERN EDGE GROUP is Christ the King, Corpus Christi, Gesu, Presentation/Our Lady of Victory, St. Peter Claver and St. Scholastica

70 people from our 16 Trinity Vicariate

parishes have met 12 times since January.

Our parish is part of six

parishes forming a group

called the Northern Edge

Group.

Vicariate Planning Meetings began in January Each Parish has been represented by at least 4 active

parishioners

First Draft of APC Responses sent to AOD/Archdiocesan

Pastoral Council (APC) in June

Archdiocese responded with further

questions and a more detailed format for

plan submission Northern Edge Planning Day held on October 8th

Draft plan, consistent with AOD requirements, is now

ready for review by the Pastors and Parish Leadership

Plan due to AOD no later than November 18th

1. Evangelization & Catechesis

2. Christian Service & Outreach

3. Youth & Young Adults

4. Lay Leadership

5. Stewardship & Administration

6. Catholic School Education

7. Vocations

Since January, 2011, all sixteen vicariates in the

Archdiocese of Detroit are involved in 5 year plans

for their parishes Called Together In Faith II. The

Archdiocese requires our plan to address these

Priorities

Note: Worship was added as an 8th priority by the

Northern Edge work group

3 Main Topics to address the required Focus

Areas:

Organizational Structure:Covers pastoral leadership, lay leadership

and formation

Sustainability:Covers Finances, Facilities, Stewardship,

Administration and Best Practices

Inter-Parish Programming:Covers Evangelization & Catechesis,

Christian Service & Outreach, Youth &

Young Adults, Vocations, Catholic Schools

& Education and Worship

Archdiocese assumes the following:

Number of priests for our group will be

reduced with no new priests added

Lay Leadership roles will increase, but only

within the bounds of Canon Law.

In most parishes, membership is in decline or

aging.

How will we face this situation?

After prayerful consideration and discussion, the Northern Edge Group decided that further reduction of Catholic presence in our neighborhoods is not in the best interest of “strengthening the Church in the City of Detroit”

By “presence”, we mean outreach and worship Worship without outreach fails to give witness

to Christ

Outreach without worship fails to identify us as Catholic

We believe it is essential to keep a presence

in local neighborhood communities.

Therefore we will:

Create a structure of shared ministry among

all six existing urban parishes in the Northern

Edge.

Collaborative professional leadership (lay and

ordained)

Facilitate substantial ministerial formation to

create cohesiveness.

Pastors and administrators will

coordinate the pastoral and

sacramental responsibilities

among the parishes

Diocesan priests and religious

order priests in the six parishes

will develop a unique

relationship to serve their

parishes and orders.

Will form a Northern Edge

Pastoral Council (NEPC)

Must get AOD approval for this

unique structure

Archdiocese assumes the following:

Two parishes have large outstanding debt

One parish has no debt, but low attendance

Due to decrease in membership and the

economy, offertory donations alone are

insufficient to maintain facilities

What we know:

Corpus Christi will pay its debt in-full after

the sale of property at the IHM Center

We have many creative ideas to help sustain

our parishes while we seek ways to increase

membership

St. Peter Claver’s debt (inherited from St.

Francis de Sales) is not expected to be paid

back and should not be a factor in this

analysis. Also, St. Peter Claver has no

record of compensation from the sale of two

schools by the AOD. A letter regarding these

issues has been sent to the AOD Chancellor.

Creative Ideas:

Consolidate back-office activities like

accounting, purchasing, and contracted

services.

Share best practices like Gesu’s Green Plan

that lowers water treatment costs

Utilize existing programs like DTE Energy and

WARM Training Center to perform energy

analysis and facility updates.

Use Schools of Architecture and Engineering to

develop plans to retro-fit and update facilities

Sharing Responsibility:

Collaborating on the sale of unused facilities

Updating Capital improvement plans

Sharing ideas to pool purchasing power

Utilizing Changing Lives Together for capital

improvements

Downsizing facilities if necessary

Our goals and objectives:

Create a stronger bond among Northern Edge

parishes

Build and reshape our neighborhoods through

collaborative Outreach and Christian Service

programs

Increase community awareness, participation

and membership through Evangelization and

Outreach

We will organize this effort by:

Create a Northern Edge Pastoral Council

(NEPC) with members from each parish

Requiring all programs be approved by

participating parishes and the Northern Edge

Pastoral Council

Allowing individual parishes to opt-out of

participation in programs that lack parish

support

Most of the programs selected are easy to implement or are already in progress.

A few already exist at various parishes and we will either share resources or expand to cover more territory

A couple are long-term projects that can have a major impact within our communities.

Short Term Intermediate Long-Term

Evangelization & Catechesis

• Joint Confirmation

• Alpha Training

• RCIA Retreat

• Visiting Parishes

• Interfaith Services

• Cooperative RCIA

Christian Service & Outreach

• Adopt-a-Day Soup Kitchen

• Blood Drive

• Job Club

• Tutoring

• Newsletter (Quarterly)

with testimonials

• Foreclosures

• Emergency Housing

• Transportation

Youth & Young Adults

• Youth Council

• Youth Events

• Inter-Generation Mentoring

Vocations

• Career Day

• Vocation Promotion

Worship

• Collaborative Mass (yearly)

• Healing Service

• Stations of the Cross

Clergy will begin meeting to develop

organizational structure

Parishes will review the proposed plan and

give feedback

Revised plan will be submitted to AOD / APC

by November 18th which is the final deadline

for submission

Consortium Board Seeks to Coordinate

Development / Outreach / Fundraising

Marketing / Enrollment

Curriculum / Academic Standards / Excellence

GOAL: Health and Growth of all schools /

Providing Christ-Centered Education

Need AOD commitment of existing financial

support for 3 – 5 years with goal of reducing

need for AOD support for operating costs.

Create combined school approach called “Central Catholic Consortium” (CCC)

but schools continue with independent principals and strong parish connections (Gesu, Christ the King, St. Scholastica, St. Bartholomew, Holy Trinity, Holy Redeemer)

Schools/Parishes send reps create to governing board of CCC

CCC Board hires paid Development Director

May seek AOD grant to cover 5-year salary of director staff

Goal: self sufficiency