Facilities Task Force Recommendations and Next Steps
Our On Mission for the Church Alive journey has taken place over the past three years now. Along the way, we have made every effort possible to communicate and to share the information about our parish merger with everyone. There have been opportunities to come together for assemblies, discussions, and ZOOM meetings. Our parish bulletin and website has contained weekly updates. On July 1, we became one new parish, Saint Paul Cathedral Parish.
Many decisions have had to be made along the way and will continue to need to be made for the good of our parish family. As we seek to create a vibrant parish that is able to do all the things a parish must do in ministry and outreach to the faithful, we have to find ways to move from maintenance to mission – spending less on our buildings and more on ministry and people.
After much prayer, deliberation, and consultation, we have made the decision to accept the recommendations of our parish Facilities Task Force regarding our four church buildings. The recommendations put forward unanimously by the Facilities Task Force are:
As you know, these recommendations were approved by the clergy team, by the parish finance council, and were communicated in a presentation on the website and discussed in two ZOOM meetings. I realize that these are difficult decisions, but ones that must be made in light of our parish needs and resources as we move forward. We are not able to focus on just “simply operating” or “getting by” in this present moment. We are making decisions that will help us to be a viable, strong, and faith-filled parish community for the long term.
As we study the demographic and financial data of our parish, and look at our long-term capital improvement needs, we find that we do not need – and are not able – to operate four different church buildings. Even more importantly is to realize the goal of On Mission for the Church Alive: to bring people together and to focus on the needs of ministry. This requires fewer church buildings and fewer Masses to serve the needs of the faithful for the long run.
To this end, and in light of acceptance of the recommendations put forth by the parish Facilities Task Force, we want to inform the faithful of Saint Paul Cathedral parish of several important decisions:
In order to determine the viability of this service, we need those interested to sign up and indicate for which Mass they need transportation. This would be a weekly sign up so that we can make the arrangements. We are asking anyone who would like to use the shuttle service to notify the parish administrative office in advance at 412-621-4951 or email at info@saintpaulcathedral.org. We will need to know your intention to use the shuttle no later than 3:00 pm on the Thursday of the week you intend to use the shuttle. If you have signed up and find that your circumstances change such that you will not be using the shuttle that weekend, please call the parish office as soon as possible at 412-621-4951 to notify us of that change. Since there is a cost to the parish for utilizing the shuttle service, we do not want to operate the shuttle unless there are people who have signed up to use it.
I would continue to ask for your patience and understanding as we do all that we can to bring our parish together into one community of faith. Change is never easy for any of us. But let us never lose sight of the big picture and why we are here in the first place: to grow more deeply in our love for God, to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, to open our hearts each day to the amazing grace of God given to us in the Church and especially the sacraments, and to serve the needs of others, so that we can gain the only thing worth gaining – life forever in heaven. Saint Paul, pray for us.
We have reached the point of making decisions about the use of our church buildings moving forward. A Facilities Resource Task Force has worked over these past months, in accordance with the policies and protocols of the diocese, to evaluate our church buildings in light of what our new parish needs for ministry and what our parish can afford given our resources. These are not easy decisions to make. The whole reason for merging our four parishes is the reality that we cannot continue to support all the church buildings that we have and there is not a need for using them all for regular public worship.
Our goal has been and continues to be moving from maintenance to mission – allowing our much-needed resources to move from bricks and mortar to the needs of the faithful in our parish community. We want to touch the hearts of the faithful and be able to serve their needs and to help bring them closer to the saving love of God and life in Jesus Christ.
I would invite you to view the presentation below that explains the process underway and provides the recommendations that the Facilities Resource Task Force has made to me about the use of our church buildings moving forward. You will see the many challenges confronting us with declining offertory revenue, significant capital projects needed for some of our buildings, changing demographics, the number of clergy available and the need to reduce our Mass schedule. These recommendations from the Task Force come after much investigation, study, reflection and prayer and represent for us the best opportunity we have to create a vibrant, life-giving and financially stable parish for the long term. I am grateful to the Task Force and the fidelity, professionalism, and care with which they accomplished the very difficult task they were given.
I know that these decisions will affect people deeply. Change is never easy. But I am inviting each of you to consider the most important questions of all:
FACILITIES RESOURCE TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS
Q & A from the input received in the ZOOM meetings and other means
We do not want to lose a single person as we move forward with whatever decisions have to be made. It would be sad indeed for a person to make a decision to leave Saint Paul Cathedral parish simply because they cannot attend Mass in a particular church building. Each of us has to work hard to try and convince our family, friends and neighbors to remain a part of our new parish, to get involved, and to bring the history and legacy of our four former parish communities into the makeup of our new parish. But in the end if people want to leave our parish because of a building and have no desire to remain, then we wish them well and will keep them in our prayers. If someone makes a decision for the good of their own faith journey to move to a different parish then it would be our hope and prayer that those who leave will continue to practice their faith in whatever parish they chose to attend.