Pastoral Plan 2018-19 - St. Dominic's Roman Catholic Church Barbados

PARISH PASTORAL PLAN 2018 – 2019

Dear Parishioners,

The Parish Pastoral Council would like to present our Pastoral Plan for the Parish of St. Dominic’s 2018-2019. Completing our plan we focus on the theme:

according to the Diocesan Mission Statement:

This plan also reflects the results of a mini-Assembly held at St. Dominic’s church on November 9th, 2017. The purpose of the Mini-Assembly was for the Church Leaders, to prayerfully discern the direction that St. Dominic’s should take for the upcoming year. It presented an opportunity to provide, in a structured setting, their thoughts, ideas and key objectives, where they would like to see our Parish and our Ministry in 2018. This Parish Pastoral Plan, is really the road map of our members’ discernment before, during and after the Mini-Assembly.

Completing the Pastoral Plan we have realised that the parishioners of St. Dominic’s are generally professionals of the middle to upper middle classes with corresponding income levels and of a variety of races and cultures. In recent years the number of our parishioners has been increasing as Catholics have moved from other parishes and the number of converts, though not large, has been increasing steadily. We have well-organised Programs led by a Parish Priest and Assistant Parish Priest of the Pallottine Order who have been working here for the past 9 years. The ministries and Groups include: Care Ministry, Eucharistic Ministry, Liturgical Group, Catechetical, Lectors, Altar servers, Choirs, Fellowship, Decorators, Youth Group, St. Vincent de Paul, Cursillo, and Men’s Group.

OUR GOALS AND PLANS FOR 2018

INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: Continue Sessions on Catholic Social Teachings, continue to offer formation for Lay Leaders, Promote Catholic Social Teachings through Parish Bulletins and other media

FORMING MATURE DISCIPLES:
Make reading/discussing a passage of The Bible an important element of all Parish Activities. Continue current Bible Study classes with an eye towards connecting participants with other ministries. Ensure that all current and new Catechetical Programs have Bible Teachings as the foundation. Continue to focus on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, hold Sunday 9:30am special Mass for children to highlight Jesus’ love for little children. Introduce a children’s choir, and musicians to increase involvement of Children at the 9:30 a.m. Children’s Mass. Continue to provide Sunday School for Children beginning at age 3. Recapture the dwindling population of post First communion children to offer formation.
Focus on small groups: (Lectors, Catechists, Extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, Altar servers, choir members..etc).

Introduce Key elements: Prayer, Confession, Encouragement. True discipleship involves a process of spiritual maturation that simply cannot take place without the Word and other spiritual disciplines like prayer, confession, and encouragement.

BUILDING STRONG CHRISTIAN FAMILIES: Readers/Lectors ministry: To seek and encourage more participation of the laity especially men and youth in the readers ministry. To form an ushers ministry of youth and male ushers. To form an international men’s group e.g. “Knights of Columbus”.   To develop more training opportunities for all ministries particularly newcomers to the various ministries. To form a youth choir. To encourage more participation by men and youth in pastoral life. To seek opportunities for personal growth by attending Bible Study.

LITURGICAL GROUP:
To recruit and train more altar servers. To use the newsletter to explain parts of the mass, use of vestments, books and other articles used during mass, beginning in January 2018.
To have formal training for all the members of the Liturgical group.

Family:
Refer all Engaged couples to Engaged and Marriage Encounter Programs for Christ centred approach to marriage. Introduce Family Life Education. Reinvigorate and Expand Youth Outreach Programs with special guests and more focus on uplifting youth and helping them to become the best version of themselves. Reintroduce an Annual Parish Dinner and an annual Youth banquet. Organize Annual Parish Feast Day Prayer Breakfast. Continue Stewardship Fairs as an information and recruitment for all ministries and Catholic Organizations. Develop Pastoral Care Program for elderly parishioners over 60.

CATECHISTS GROUP: One of the desired outcomes of this group ministry is to expose the children to an encounter with Christ. Statement: To Foster a long lasting relationship with the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and give the children some tools that they can utilize now and in the future.

CONFIRMATION:  There is a need to determine the reactions of the two year program from the post confirmation youth. This information would be vital to help us successfully reach and meet the needs of the young people we serve. At the Last session of each confirmation year, (Nicole Davis) will come in to meet with post confirmation youth to get the feedback of what we could improve to be more impactful.
Create a simultaneous parents session and invite parents of candidates by email to inform them of parents’ session and to let them know that they are welcome to attend and/or sit in on sessions. (Alison Pile to facilitate). Saturday Adoration will become a part of the confirmation program.   We will now do a roster for Saturday adoration for the confirmation candidates.   Susan Worme to organize this effort.
To institute a meeting for all catechists every term.

SUNDAY SCHOOL:  There is a great need to increase the population of children in this formation level.
Alison Pile to send Emails to parents of children who were baptized in 2014, to boost numbers of the age 3-6 Sunday school.   We hope to have simultaneous parent sessions during the Sunday school, and other formation times. We need a catechist to facilitate this effort.

FIRST COMMUNION: First communion becomes a 2yr program.   Change Level 3 to Post First Communion Level 2. (Ages 8-10) Investigate the option of combining forces with Living Water for 11-12 year olds.

YOUTH GROUP: Youth leaders needed to attract and maintain a large number of youth. More catechists to be recruited to help. Another catechist needed to teach parents during the class times.

BUILDING VIBRANT COMMUNITIES: Focus on new designation as Shrine of Mercy Parish. Build community accessible outdoor prayer area and pathways to prayer. Identify and train community leaders. Print and distribute St. Dominic’s flyer to local hotels to inform visitors of St. Dominic’s church location, Mass and confession times.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY:  To revitalize, strengthen the ministry and recruit new members.
To include other parishioners in serving the needs of the SVP families. To collaborate more with the Care Ministry to better serve families in need. To become more aware of the marginalized in our parish.
Share more information about SVP to increase membership and community participation.
Assist with fellowship through an annual dinner on the church grounds to raise funds for SVP.

CHOIR:  Focus heavily on recruiting new members. To acquire a multi-media system to better present liturgy and songs to our church and larger community. To orchestrate various fund raising efforts to cover the cost of new equipment.

CARE MINISTRY: Plans are in place to expand the ministry by creating a shut-in program. Care Ministry members to get involved in fellowship. To increase membership, The ministry plans to encourage more people, specially the youth, to get involved in the Care ministry. Care Ministry also plans to do more fundraising to help support its multiple programs.

FLOWERS & DECORATING: Ministry mission: To enhance, and not to over-power our worship in the Mass with flowers or decorations.    To show the Glory of God by our talent by either decorating or using his creation of flowers and foliage and working as a team. To work with EMHC who visit sick and shut-Ins by providing a small flower gift once a month. To reach out to shut-ins as part of our ministry by visiting, praying and also reading to them. To encourage more Arrangers to come forward. Training interested persons to become flower Arrangers for the Church to beautify for The Glory of God. To do some basic floral classes for the community for those who are interested in learning this skill.   To raise funds , the committee is planning to have a Flower Festival in the St. Dominic’s Hall in 2018.

ADDITIONAL PARISH IDEAS AND GOALS WHICH CAME OUT OF THE RECENT PARISH ASSEMBLY:  Establish a Christian Meditation Group in the parish. Establish a Children’s choir in the parish.
Start a library/resource centre. Start a St. Dominic’s Business Directory to become more aware of, and to support our parishioners’ abilities, skills, professions, and businesses.   To erect a life size statue of the Divine Mercy in a meditation garden.