HOLY CROSS PARISH PASTORAL PLAN 2015-2018

Approved by the Parish Pastoral Council March 9, 2015

The parish survey conducted in the Fall of 2014 indicated five primary areas of satisfaction and strength in Holy Cross Parish: 1) the welcoming sense of community, belonging, and fellowship, and the vibrant positive spirit of the parish; 2) the pastoral team and the homilies; 3) the quality of the music ministry; 4) the amount and quality of activities, especially family-oriented and faith formation programs; 5) the spirit of the masses.  This parish pastoral plan seeks to build on these areas of strength so that our parish more fully meets the needs of our parishioners and those we serve, as articulated in our parish mission statement below, which is followed by those pastoral initiatives we will undertake in the next three years to further fulfill our parish mission.

Holy Cross Parish, a community centered in the Eucharist, is committed in faith and love of Jesus Christ to fulfill the profoundly human and spiritual needs of its parishioners and the larger community it serves.  We seek to inspire all, through deeds and by example, to do the work of Christ: to ~

Make God Known

1. Create a committee of parishioners and members of the pastoral council and pastoral team to develop strategies to attract more people to Sunday Mass.  Implement recommendations Fall 2016

2. Develop strategies to strengthen parishioners’ appreciation for the mass as the source and summit of our lives as Catholic Christians.  Implement recommendations Fall 2016

3. Increase efforts at evangelization and outreach to falling-away and inactive parishioners.
a. Explore and implement more effective ways to advertise the Landings program.  Implement Spring 2016
b. Investigate means to identify and reach out to falling-away parishioners.  Implement Fall 2017
c. Identify and reach out to those in the local community not practicing a religion in order to invite them to consider the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program.  Implement Fall 2016

4. Create a committee of parents, catechists, members of the pastoral council and pastoral team, and an outside resource person to evaluate, with the director of faith formation, the Faith Formation Program for our parish children, including outreach to parents.  Implement recommendations Fall 2015

5. Develop a plan for implementation, as feasible, of the “Making God Known, Loved, and Served: Vocation Curriculum” of the Congregation of Holy Cross into our Faith Formation Program.  Implement Fall 2016

6. Form a parish Vocation Committee that will develop means of fostering all Christian vocations in the youth of Holy Cross Parish, especially to the religious life and priesthood.  Fall 2016

Make God Loved

7. Create a committee of parishioners, choir members, members of the pastoral council and pastoral team, and an outside resource person to evaluate, with the director of music, a process for balancing the desire for both new/contemporary hymns with known/traditional hymns and for balancing the repetition of seasonal hymns with the desire for a greater variety of hymns.  Implement Fall 2015

8. Continue to educate the parish community on the centrality of sung prayer in liturgy through occasional pastor’s columns, bulletin inserts, presentations at mass, and other means.  Fall 2015-Ongoing

9. Form a committee of Pastoral Council members that will undertake a feasibility study for the possible use at all masses of screens for the projection of hymns.  Implement if feasible Fall 2018

10. Create a committee of parish teens, members of the parent advisory board, members of the pastoral council and pastoral team, and an outside resource person, with the parish youth minister, to study means of increasing the involvement of parish teens in the youth ministry program and in the parish in general.  Implement Fall 2015

11. Develop a plan to offer periodic presentations in the Brother Andre Chapel, using resource people in the area, for parents during the Sunday morning Faith Formation classes.  Implement Fall 2016

12. Form a committee of parishioners to plan the celebration of our parish’s 50th anniversary in 2016-2017, which begins on Sunday, April 24, 2016.  Fall 2015

Make God Served

13. The Parish Pastoral Council and the Pastoral Team will study the diocesan pastoral plan, when promulgated, in order to develop a parish implementation of the plan.  Within 6 months of release of diocesan plan

14. Create a committee of ministers of hospitality, members of the pastoral council and pastoral team, and an outside resource person, with the parish director of liturgy, to develop strategies to attract more parishioners to the ministry of hospitality and to further develop the hospitality aspect of the ministry.  Implement new strategies Fall 2016

15. Strengthen the recruitment and training of altar servers, with an emphasis on the responsibilities of the ministry and the servers’ ability to fulfill them.  Spring 2015-Fall 2015

16. Investigate options for strengthening relationships with local charities, service organizations and Catholic groups, especially within the Town of Easton.  Implement Fall 2017