Pastoral Council: Goals and Operations

Mission

The Saint James Parish Pastoral Council exists to create an environment that will encourage parishioners to become closer to God. This, in turn, will help us to reach out and respond to the needs of the parish and the community. We will accomplish this by knowing, loving and serving God more fully, by committing ourselves to personal spiritual growth, and by working in service to others. We entrust ourselves to the guidance of the holy Spirit that we may work in a spirit of love, dignity and respect for one another and with an openness to the creative power and saving grace of God.

Responsibilities

1. Discern God's Will - To prayerfully discern God's will for the parish in order to provide direction for parish opportunities, challenges and issues.

2. Build Parish Community - To foster a unified and active parish community by promoting communication and understanding through all parish ministries and organizations.

3. Energize and Utilize the Parish Community - To energize the parish community to become active participants in carrying out the mission and ministry of the Church, local and universal, and to become more intimately involved in parish life and outreach to the broader community.

4. Build Spiritual Life - To build and revitalize the spiritual life of the parish by providing opportunities that will enable all parishioners to deepen their relationship with Christ both as individuals and as a community.

5. Evaluate Efforts - To review and evaluate the on-going progress in relationship to the established goals and objectives.

6. Involve Parish Members - To plan for the Parish's future by gathering and objectively discerning the opinions and suggestions of all parish members.

7. Assist the Pastor To serve as a consultative body to the parish pastor.

Structure and Membership

Term

The term of office for the members of the Pastoral Council will be for a period of two years. Members will have the opportunity to succeed themselves for an additional term. Members can return to Council at the conclusion of two consecutive terms by waiting for two years or one full term.

The number of members on the Pastoral Council will be a maximum of fifteen (15), twelve (12) selected from the general Parish, one (1) permanent member the pastor, and two (2) appointees of the pastor's choice and discretion.

A quorum will be necessary to conduct any official business.

Age

Members shall be a registered member of St. James Parish.

Criteria

Members of the Pastoral Council must be:

Baptized and confirmed Catholics.
In good standing with the Church
Registered and actively participating as members of St. James Parish for at least two years.
Knowledgeable and experienced in parish life in the Catholic Church.
Willing to listen and take into account ideas and opinions of others.
Committed to serving others and sensitive to parishioners' needs and concerns.
Prayerful persons with a desire for spiritual growth.
Willing to take an active part and give priority to serving on the Pastoral Council.

Vacancy

When a vacancy occurs, the following procedure will be followed. If a person who was called forth vacates his or her position, the pastor shall attempt to replace him or her with someone who was approved but not appointed in the most recent "calling forth" process. Otherwise an appointment will be made at the pastor's discretion.

Leadership Committee

The leadership committee shall consist of the Pastor, Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Recording Secretary, all of whom have discerned their desire to serve and do so with the full consent of the Pastoral Council.

Terms of Office

The term of office for the Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Recording Secretary, shall be for a period of one year with the option of succeeding themselves. The process of determining Leadership Committee membership shall be by consensus of the Parish Pastoral Council.

Responsibilities of the Officers

Pastor

The Pastor is expected to use his canonical authority to foster a collegial and participative approach to policy making and decision making. While the Pastor is not obliged to follow the recommendations of the Pastoral Council, it is understood that he would do so unless there is an extraordinary reason to do otherwise. When this is the case, he will make known the basis for his decision to those concerned unless there are confidentiality issues.

Chairperson

Using the Mission Statement of the Parish, the Chairperson keeps the Pastoral Council focused on its directives. He/She shall work closely with the Pastor and Council members to set the agenda for the Council meetings. He/She shall chair all Council meetings, encouraging all members to participate actively. During Council meetings he/she shall be responsible for keeping discussion of agenda items to accepted protocol and within time constraints.

Vice-Chairperson

In the Chairperson's absence, the Vice-Chairperson shall assume all duties of the Chairperson. During Council meetings, he/she shall be responsible for assisting the Chairperson in keeping discussion of agenda items to accepted protocol and within time constraints.

Recording Secretary

The recording secretary shall keep a record of minutes at regular and special meetings; distribute all minutes and agenda to the Pastoral Council; keep records of members in attendance; update Council documents; distribute information when needed; keep all correspondence and coordinate the maintenance of files and records with the appropriate parish staff.

Relationship to Parish Staff

The Pastor will represent the Parish Staff. The Parish Staff shall support the Pastoral Council in its mission and appropriately assist the Council in the fulfillment of its responsibilities as outlined in the Mission Statement. The Parish Staff shall be an important, ongoing source of information to the Council from all the organizations and groups of the parish.

Decision-Making Process

As more lay people join our Pastor in the work of leading St. James Parish, it is necessary to develop new forms of cooperation to promote unity and accomplish our Mission Statement goals.

Our Parish Pastoral Council uses an approach called "Shared Wisdom", which emphasizes that all members of the council have valuable insights that must be sought out and incorporated into the decision making process. This approach has been publicized in the book "Sharing Wisdom", by Sr. Mary Benet McKinney,O.S.B.

In this approach, a consensus is prayerfully and actively sought in the solution of problems, issues and the determination of directions for various parish activities. The key to consensus is the recognition that no one person has all the gifts, talents or wisdom to effectively lead the parish community. From this perspective, the Parish Pastoral Council has been "called forth" to bring together a wide variety of parishioner experience and training in different disciplines so that many points of view can be explored and incorporated into the decision making process.

In this model, neither the Pastor's authority as the recognized leader of the Parish, nor any elected leadership committee member is to dominate the discussion process. Rather, they are to facilitate the process of drawing out the opinions and questions of all council members, with special attention to those who tend to be quieter and less vocal.

The Pastor has the ultimate responsibility for the welfare of all parishioners and the adherence to Catholic doctrine, and may in the final analysis opt not to follow the advice of council. It is expected that such cases will be rare and that he would explain his reasons, unless confidentiality issues are involved.

A member of the council may assume the role of facilitator, keeping the process progressing, finding points of agreement, filtering out elements that may be non-essential and generally moving the process toward general agreement. This must be done in an objective manner, not one in which the facilitator actually presses his/her own point of view.

This is not a simple, nor is it the most efficient process. It may be necessary to discuss issues and then table them for another time if a clear consensus cannot be reached. In such cases, a council member(s), may be requested to research the issue and report back to the council.

If a consensus cannot be reached in two meetings, it will be necessary to frame the matter into a form that can be voted on by the council. A simple majority will prevail. It should be noted that votes are counter to the desired Shared Wisdom process, and should be infrequent.

Calling Forth

Forming and Renewing St. James Pastoral Council

The responsibilities of the St. James Pastoral Council require that its formation, and bi-annual renewal, be conducted with patience and discernment. "Calling Forth," or forming and renewing the Council, will require adequate time to inform and educate prospective members. With the timetable proposed below, commissioning the new Pastoral Council would occur in April. Informing and educating prospective members would need to begin in the previous October.

A few individuals from the current Pastoral Council will volunteer to guide the Calling Forth process. These volunteers will serve as the Discernment Committee. Working with the Pastor and Parish staff the Discernment Committee will conduct the following process, culminating in the selection of a new Pastoral Council.

Awareness and Education

Activity

(October through December) A series of bi-weekly articles will be published in the Parish Bulletin describing the role of the Pastoral Council and the responsibilities of its members.
(November or December) Following a Mass, a member of the Discernment Committee will be invited to present information about the process to the congregation. Parishioners will be encouraged to offer their own names, or names of other parishioners, as prospective members.
(January) Prospective members will be invited and encouraged to attend a retreat where they will develop an in-depth understanding of the Pastoral Council. This will be lead by a facilitator, and members of the Discernment Committee will be invited to attend. The format of the retreat will involve much personal reflection and discernment as the prospective members seek to confirm their purpose, motivation for participating on the Council. At the conclusion of the retreat, perspective members will write a letter to the Discernment Committee confirming their interest and describing their reasons for wanting to serve on the Pastoral Council.

Discernment, Selection and Installation

Activity

(February to March) A series of two or three meetings will take place among the prospective members and the Discernment Committee. The Pastor will also participate in these meetings, which will help reinforce the purpose and function of the Pastoral Council.
(March) Following the meetings the Discernment Committee and Pastor will meet again for discusssion and agreement on final members.
(March) The Discernment Committee and Pastor will present the list of members to the Pastoral Council for confirmation.
(April) The new members will be notified and installed.

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