Journey of Faith – March Update
Monthly Update: March, 2023
Our Parish has been working with St John Vianney in light of our Archdiocese Pastoral Planning that involves St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen sharing a Pastor and an Associate with both sites being utilized for the ministerial needs of the two faith communities. With the declining numbers in Mass attendance, the decline in population in the rural counties and the growth in a few concentrated counties as well as taking into account the declining priests’ numbers, the Pastoral Plan will create a new vision for how we as a Church will flourish in the future. For more details, please go to http://journeyoffaith.org.
The second proposal in light of our Archdiocese Pastoral Planning is for Mary Our Queen to begin ministry for those who are Spanish speaking given the growth in Spanish-speaking parishioners in our area. This will include having a Mass in Spanish on Sundays.
The purpose of this column is to provide details of the Pastoral Planning Process. Last month, we talked about what we have done in our Pastoral Planning including the things we have done to build up our collaboration and cooperation. This month, we are focusing on how our Offices are going to collaborate.
The staff of both Parishes met over lunch on January 26 this year so that we can have an opportunity to get to know each other. The hope is that we can merge our offices together so that both our Parishes of St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen’s needs can be met. Please note that while we are merging offices, both office locations at St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen will remain open. Please also note that each Parish is responsible for its own finances (in other words each Parish pays its own bills). The merging of offices is to help our collaboration and cooperation and to reduce cost.
We had everyone in the office go through a behavioral assessment that focuses on strengths and motivators of each person as well as document every job description so that each Parish needs can be met and everyone knows each other’s roles. We are in the midst of identifying roles that will be merged and roles that will remain as is.
One change we will see is how we communicate. There will be digital message boards in each Parish providing events in each other’s Parish. St John Vianney will see its digital message boards installed sometime this week. We are also working on combining our Parish bulletins – one Parish bulletin that promotes both Parish events. We are currently working on a template that will meet the needs of both our Parishes.
The other change will be in our Religious Education Programs. Our Parishes are fortunate to have Leia Vranes and Jake Cortright in our Religious Education Programs and Youth Ministries at St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen. Jake Cortright will take a hybrid role beginning the summer of 2023 that involves teaching 8th Grade in Mary Our Queen School as well as continuing his role as Youth and Religious Education Director. He will be working with Leia Vranes who is the Director of Faith Formation at St John Vianney. As part of our collaboration and cooperation of both Parishes, how we are hoping to run our Religious Education Program is for Jake Cortright to coordinate the Religious Education Program for Junior High (Grades 6 to 8 – including Confirmation Program) in both Parishes and Leia Vranes to coordinate the Religious Education Program for Grades 1 to 5 in both Parishes. This includes First Communion and First Reconciliation. Please note that Religious Education Classes will be offered in both Parishes and that while we are looking for some programs for our youth that we can do together, our youth programs in each Parish will remain the same.
St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen had our first combined Confirmation on February 15,2023 at the Cathedral.
Once again, we are asking for your prayers and support as we begin the process of becoming a Family of Parishes. That we continue to foster an environment where faith is grown, and faith is shared. St John Vianney and Mary Our Queen, Pray for us.
Fr Richard Reiser and Fr Marc Lim