Roman Catholic Churches
Strongsville, Ohio
Cluster Plan
October 2008
Version 1.0: October, 2008
Presented by: Fr. Robert Sanson, Fr. Robert Kraig Pastors and Cluster Planning Team
Cluster
Information
Approval: Yes_________________________________________________
Date: ______________________
Parish Information:
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Parishes |
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Address |
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City, state, ZIP Code |
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Phone number |
440-238-5555 440-238-1770 |
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Fax number |
440-238-1059 440-238-2030 |
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Contact name |
Fr. Robert Sanson Fr. Tony Sejba |
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Title |
Pastor Associate |
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Phone number |
440-238-5555 440-238-1770 |
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Fax number |
440-238-1059 440-238-2030 |
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rsanson@sjohio.org frtony@sjnohio.com |
Clustering Planning and Coordination (“CPC”) Team Information:
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Parishes |
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Team Member |
Mary Hill Fr. Robert Kraig |
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Team Member |
Deacon Robert Lester Chris Barringer |
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Team Member |
Andrea O’Brien Leo Burkardt |
|
Team Member |
John Shimko William Scheible |
|
Team Member |
Michael Yantek Michael Zofchak |
Pastoral
Strengths and Existing Collaboration
St. Joseph
and St. John
Ministerial:
§ Parishes are willing to work together in several areas, including sharing information, facilities, and coordination of Liturgy. There is also desire to work together to strengthen areas where there might be a weakness in the other parish.
§ Priests and Staff are dedicated and involved in working with the youth especially through the life Teen and Edge Programs.
§ PSR Organization and Programs. Nearly 1700 students attend PSR programs
§ Active ministries including several prayer, and out-reach ministries.
§ Special emphasis is placed on Faith Formation for the Adults of the parishes.
cOLLABORATION:
§ Pastors from both parishes are fully behind collaboration between parishes.
§ Coordinating and combining Liturgies.
§
§
Several Ministries are working together reaching
out to parishioners and community of
§ A number of other ministries have either initiated contacts or have had meetings to explore ways that their ministry could join together to share, coordinate or combine, somehow work together to enhance their ministries. Pastors from both parishes are fully behind collaboration including combining Liturgies.
Areas of Concern
§ Advancing age of pastors in light of decreasing number of priest in diocese.
§ Maintaining quality Catholic Education of our children.
§ Become more effective in reaching out to Community of Strongsville.
§ Being an effective partner in the “Church in the City” Program.
§ Decreasing attendance at weekly Liturgy.
Key
Realities and Trends
Demographics Trends
Claritas projections out to year 2012 show a slight decline in population from approximately 40,170 in 2007 to 39,785. Accordingly we anticipate a very slight decrease in Catholic Households during the same time period.
The average household income is estimated to be $93,700
for the current year, while the average household income for the
Catholic Education, including our Interparochial school and PSR programs has been extremely active over the last 10-years. Recently number of Kindergarteners have increased, thus, indicating continued emphasis in Catholic Education.
Sacramental Statistics
The community of
Staffing (excluding school staff)
Both
Both pastors believe that the number of full- and part-time support staff each has is sufficient to efficiently and effectively maintain their parish.
Financial Status
St. John Neumann has had, for the last several years, positive net cash flow from Operations, and expects it will continue. They have as of June 30, 2007 cash savings that equal one-fifth of a year’s expenses or measured in another way nearly 4 times non-diocese liabilities.
Facilities Situation
Sts. Joseph and
Cluster
Plan
Issue One: Evangelization and Re-Evangelization:
Goals:
§ Conduct a city-wide census by utilizing parishioners of both parishes with Diocesan guidance.
§ Increase weekly Mass attendance.
§ Reach out to inactive Catholics.
§ Reach out to un-churched in Community.
§ Improve / Increase visibility of Catholic Faith in Community.
§ Coordinate Adult Faith Formation Programs with both parishes.
§ Improve Welcome and Registration of new parishioners.
Issue Two: Strengthen the Presence of Catholic Education
Goals:
§ Provide Fiscal Assistance to families who cannot afford Catholic Education.
§ Each parish should assist in promoting Catholic Education.
§ Increase the number of students who attend mass.
§ Work with school staff to ensure that education is thoroughly Catholic and encouraging of vocations.
§ Encourage active faith life within families.
Issue Three: Impact of Future Clergy Transitions
Goals:
§ Create Long-Range Planning Committees to study future needs when there is a significant decrease in number of Priests in our Cluster Parishes.
§ Encourage Vocations.
§ Reduce unnecessary duplications or redundancy in Priestly Ministries and establish Priest and Deacon Priorities and communicate them to parishioners.
§ Strengthen Lay Ministries and Leadership including lay participation in the Administration of the Parishes.
Issue Four: Share Parish Services related to Community Outreach and Social Justice
Goals:
§ Provide links to websites directing people to information of Services available to local community.
§ Focus on Ministry of the Poor (comparable to St. Vincent DePaul Organization) to determine their needs in helping the poor.
§ Select Justice Projects to build awareness of root causes of poverty.
§ Find ways to educate people regarding legislation on peace, justice and life issues.
§ Strengthen Parish Coordination of ministries to incorporate above goals
Issue Five: Support “Church in the City”
Goal:
§
Action Plans
Specific action plans including the required resources to achieve the goals identified as that which the parishes will follow are outlined in Appendix A.
Consultation
– Parish Leaders & Parishioners:
Summary
The Clustering Team recognized the importance of input from parishioners in the finalization of the Cluster Plan and, with insistence by the pastors, that communications to the parishioners be not only relevant but open.
As the clustering process progressed the team developed bulletin announcements highlighting important steps achieved in the process, and a communication via the parish websites. Then in June and July 2008 a comprehensive report was presented to the parishioners, finance councils, and pastoral councils. This report summarized the key documents reviewed by the CPC Team, and their significance to the parishes, in addition; this report identified the significant Issues that faced our Clustering Parishes, and the goals we established to help us focus on these issues.
During the months of August and September parishioners were invited to participate in open joint-meetings of Financial and Pastoral Councils at each parish.
This final “Cluster Plan” is the culmination of work by the Clustering Team that takes into consideration input from parishioners and council members of both parishes.
Methods of Communications
In addition to written copies of “Clustering Planning and Coordination Report to Parishes” that were made available by the Clustering Team, (over 300 were picked up by parishioners), and many parishioners were contacted via email. The email included links to our parish websites that allowed them to view extensive detail of background information of both parishes or to voice their thoughts on the Clustering process and the results of the process.
The parishioners were also given different methods to communicate with members of the Clustering Team, and numerous opportunities to voice their opinions, concerns or suggestions. Methods included face-to-face dialogue with team members, newsletters, written (preliminary) results of the Clustering process, emails, and websites.
Results of Communications
The responses were favorable, expressed appreciation for the work done by the CPC Team, and indicated a consensus of approval for the Cluster Plan. Additional comments by parishioners included the following:
- Young Adults and the youth need to be reached out to and take more active role in the Church and in our ministries.
- Agreement that Catholic presence and cooperation can be enhanced through coordination of ministries.
- Several
raised questions on purpose and procedures of conduction of a city-wide
census. This particular goal was
appropriately explained at an open Pastoral and Finance Council meeting at
Appendix A
Specific Action Plans
October 2008
Issue One:
Evangelization and Re-Evangelization
Issue Two:
Strengthen the Presence of Catholic Education
Issue Three:
Impact of Future Clergy Transitions
Issue Four:
Share Parish Services Related to Community Outreach and Social Justice