The document that will define the way forward for the people of God in the Diocese of Trenton will be officially launched in all parishes the weekend of Aug. 15-16. The release of Led By the Spirit, a Pastoral Plan for the Diocese of Trenton, is scheduled to coincide with the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, patroness of the diocese, under whose guidance and intercession Bishop John M. Smith has placed this effort to more “effectively reach people with the Gospel message and be instruments of transformation in our communities and in our world.”

In a letter that will be shared at all Masses, Bishop Smith introduces the Pastoral Plan, a document that represents two years of collaboration and consultation resulting in the identification of seven pastoral priorities, upon which every parish community is asked to build its own action plan. In his letter, the bishop stressed that the diocese looks to the Blessed Mother as a model and guide for its life and ministry.

Parishioners at Masses throughout Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean Counties will receive a copy of the Pastoral Plan (which will be available in many parishes in both English and Spanish). Bishop Smith has asked the members of the diocesan family to take the plan home to read it, discuss it and pray over it, and then to find out how they can get involved in their parishes in the effort to make the plan a truly living document.

The Basics

Once parishioners have had a chance to digest the content of the Pastoral Plan, questions are likely to emerge.

Answers to some of the expected questions, such as: “What is a pastoral plan?” and “Why do we need one?” have been provided by Terry Ginther, director of the diocesan Office of Pastoral Planning.

“Basically, a pastoral plan is a lot like the design blueprints for a home,” said Ginther. “It is a shared vision of the Church community we are striving to be in the Diocese of Trenton. Just as the blueprints tell the builders how to proceed, the pastoral plan helps us to identify the steps that are needed to accomplish our goals. We need a pastoral plan to organize our efforts, help us work together and use our resources most effectively.

“The Pastoral Plan is a call to stewardship – to utilize our talents and resources wisely in grateful service to God,” said Ginther. “It is also an invitation to overcome parochialism, apathy, disillusionment and anything else that keeps us from daring to fully live out our baptismal call. We are one Church, one Body in Christ and each has an important role in serving the mission.”

At the heart of the Pastoral Plan are the seven priorities that have been developed to help the diocese carry out its local mission of proclaiming the Gospel and making God’s care and compassion visible to all the people within the diocese. Parishes will be called upon to formulate their own action plans that will determine the direction they will take over the next few years.

Based on the pastoral priorities, it will be the goal of the diocese to address:

Sunday Mass

Increase full, conscious and active participation in Sunday Mass.

Living as Disciples

Equip each Catholic to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ in his/her daily life.

Growing in Faith

Nurture growth in faith from childhood through every stage of life.

Leadership

Ensure pastoral leadership for parishes.

Charity and Justice

Act with charity and promote social justice in society and in the world.

Youth and Young Adults

Engage youth (13-18 years) and young adults (19-35 years) more deeply in relationship with Jesus Christ and the Catholic community.

Ethnic Diversity

Minister effectively within ethnically-diverse parish communities

Ginther said the information to craft the pastoral priorities, along with their goals and objectives, was gleaned through an intense and extended process of dialogue, listening and consultation with the priests, religious and lay faithful of the diocese over the course of the past two years, as well as using the diocesan website as a tool for interacting with the people of the diocese on a much wider scale.

Through the website, the Pastoral Planning Office obtained input by conducting a series of interactive surveys to gather information on the specific challenges faced by people in the diocese. Each survey asked respondents to answer a series of questions about their own experiences in the Church, both positive and negative, and to identify areas that needed to be addressed in the future. For the people of the diocese, the surveys offered them a chance to have their voices heard in the decision-making process.

Part of the Process

Drafting the components of the Led By the Spirit document was an effort executed by a writing team comprised of diocesan ministerial leaders. Together, they deliberated for months over the proper wording and structure of each goal and objective.

As the document evolved, one thing that “struck” Linda Richardson, director of the diocesan Office of Family Life, was how the pastoral planning process “caused me to focus on the real priority of furthering the Gospel message.”

“The document is influencing the decisions we make in our various departments,” she said.

One aspect Richardson found exciting about the priorities of the pastoral plan was that in the end, there were “no surprises.”

Although many people were involved in the pastoral planning consultations, it resulted in “pretty much what I would have expected as far as indentifying priorities that you kind of instinctively know as you work in ministry, whether it is discipleship, Catholic Social Teaching, faith formation,” she said. “All of those things that I hold near and dear and I’m sure that every person in leadership holds near and dear. There were no surprises in the pastoral plan, but it was energizing and now we have a common vision of how to move forward into the future.

“It’s almost like a beautiful weaving together of everything that concerns us as Catholic Christians,” said Richardson. “While we won’t be able to achieve everything in one year or in five years, it will make an impact on how we look at things and what we focus on in our ministries.”

Shannon Jordan, director of the diocesan Office of Development, concurred with Richardson.

“One of the things that every diocese strives to do is to bring people together and be the model of unity,” he said, “and when you identify what your priorities are, you start to bring a lot of things that might look dissimilar into focus so it continues to further the mission of unity. I think all of the priorities are a continuation of proclaiming the Gospel and living out the Gospel.

“All of the priorities in some way have to do with what it means to grow in charity,” Jordan said.

“The pastoral plan is representative of the entire diocese. I think the plan is diverse enough that it really resembles what is great about the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith and that there is something for everyone. I think any one individual, in any one parish, will find plenty in the pastoral priorities that will speak directly to them.”

Parishes Gearing Up

While the Pastoral Plan will be a new idea for many parish members across the diocese, clergy, religious and leaders at many levels have had a role in its development and have taken steps to work with the document upon its release.

From the outset, Father Mick Lambeth, administrator of St. Theresa Parish, Tuckerton, has aimed for a “proactive” approach toward the diocesan pastoral plan, particularly because it coincided with his parish’s efforts to develop a pastoral plan of its own. He recalled when the two parishioners who serve as representatives to the Diocesan Pastoral Council – Bill Dwyer and June Palan – received a draft of the diocesan plan about eight months ago and promptly brought it to his attention because they knew it was what the parish was trying to achieve.

“I started developing how we as a parish should start addressing this project even before I knew it was going to become a diocesan project,” said Father Lambeth.

“I call that the movement of the Holy Spirit,” said Father Lambeth, adding that in reviewing the diocesan pastoral plan, he had put in a great deal of time “reading, praying and reflecting” on the seven pastoral priorities, which he felt were reflective of “doable goals and priorities that will lead us to understand the Church we live in today. And that’s not just in the parish or in the diocese, but in our world today.”

Father Lambeth said that the reason for St. Theresa pursuing a pastoral plan stems from the fact that the “parish has come through a great deal in the past few years” with building a new church and looking ahead to the possibility of building a new faith formation center in the “not too distant future.”

“There has been a lot of focus on raising money and providing an available space where people can meet and we can hold faith formation” efforts,” he said.

To get the pastoral plan rolling, Father Lambeth said he had put his parish pastoral council “on a one-year sabbatical” then formed a pastoral council formation team where members will take the pastoral plan document and “see how we can implement this entire project in our parish here.”

“I guess Led By the Spirit is true,” said Father Lambeth. “We were literally led by the Spirit to meet and start developing this process. I think the pastoral plan serves as a remarkable guide to really keep us focused on what the mission of the Church is all about.”

Conventual Franciscan Father David Stachurski, pastor of Resurrection Parish, Delran, said that his parish council started to explore some of the pastoral plan priorities even before the document’s pre-release copies were sent to clergy and ministerial leaders.

Of the pastoral plan’s seven priorities, Father Stachurcski cited three that were truly relevant to his parish community – participation in Sunday Mass, faith formation and encouraging parishioners to become involved in the life of the parish, or “time, talent and treasure.”

Regarding faith formation, Father Stachurski said the parish strives to offer a program that’s “open to all ages – not just children.”

“We’re trying to move in a direction of whole community catechesis,” he said, then went on to tell of how in the past year, the parish introduced a new approach to catechesis by having families gather in Holy Cross High School, Delran, on Sundays for Mass, followed by a two-hour catechetical session. While the children attend religious education classes, adult faith formation offerings are made available to their parents.

Questionnaires came back “overwhelmingly positive about this experience,” said Father Stachurski, “but we still have far to go,” especially with promoting the adult faith formation aspect.

As for increasing Sunday Mass participation, Father Stachurski said that his parochial vicar, Conventual Franciscan Father Hilary Brzostowski, has been conducting a series on the Mass and publishing excerpts of his presentations in the parish bulletin.

“There has been a wonderful response to Father Hilary’s classes,” Father Stachurski said, then noted that as a newly-merged parish (Resurrection Parish was created from the merger of St. Casimir Parish, Riverside, and Holy Name Parish, Delran), the parish has four weekend Masses which are “now fully attended Masses.”

“The spirit of the singing and participation has dramatically improved,” he said.

Regarding “time, talent and treasure,” Father Stachurski said, “that’s very important – getting people involved in the life of the parish.”

Of the pastoral plan, Father Stachurski said both the parish and finance councils are 100 percent behind it and that ministry leaders in the parish “are excited to see new people come on board and their gifts being tapped to help develop the life of the parish.”

The pastoral plan, said Father Stachurski, provides “a wonderful opportunity for all of us across the diocese to look at what we are doing as Church.”