With the wrapping-up of the “Diocesan Road Map of Pastoral, Program and Facility Needs 2008-2013,” the planning document that steered Bishop Larry Silva’s opening years as Bishop of Honolulu, the diocese is looking for a new set of priorities to carry it into the future.
The Office for Pastoral Planning, headed by director James Walsh, has already canvassed the 66 parishes to determine what those priorities might be. The results were three top concerns and 14 lesser ones. The next step is to rank and distill them further at the higher vicariate level.
The diocese, on Feb. 5, had its first of nine vicariate planning sessions with the Central Oahu Vicariate session at Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Pearl City. Vicariates are geographical subdivisions of the diocese. The final vicariate session is for Maui on April 14.
The three leading parish priorities this time around happen to be the same priorities that topped the earlier Road Map — leadership development, youth and young adult ministry, and faith formation.
Lower ranking parish priorities included marriage and family life, stewardship, evangelization, faith formation, programs of the elderly, hospitality, communications and marketing, and a more welcoming attitude toward the gay and lesbian community.
The top six priorities for the 2008-2013 Road Map were leadership development, youth and young adult programs, faith formation, homelessness, repairs and maintenance of church facilities, and new parishes and management of land assets.
During the current two-and-a-half-hour vicariate planning sessions, parish representatives will be asked to discuss, assess, and finally, rank the top three priorities.
According to Walsh, after all nine vicariates have weighed in, the resulting goals will be given to the Diocesan Pastoral Council to implement.
The Diocesan Pastoral Council is an existing advisory group for the bishop made up of mostly lay persons. The previous Road Map had its own separate implementation committee.