Parish Pastoral Plan
The Parish Pastoral Council have finalised our Pastoral Plan for the next two years (2020 - 2021)
Some people ask why we need a plan.
We want to be pro-active in our approach to the future, rather than letting ourselves be shaped passively by external forces.
It allows us to name our common vision, not only for ourselves and for others who want to know what we are about.
It enables us to draw on individual wisdom towards a communal vision and gives us a common language to speak about our God given mission into the future.
It gives us the opportunity to focus our gifts and resources on our highest priorities as we work together as one Body of Christ.
Many of you are now familiar with our Parish Vision. “At St Mary of the Cross MacKillop we gather as a community of believers in Jesus, to grow as his disciples, using our gifts, to proclaim the Gospel.”
We hope to achieve this vision in the next two years in three priority areas. Each of these areas have strategies to do this with actions, time frame, persons responsible and desired outcomes for each strategy.
Our three priorities are Community, Growing as disciples and Stewardship.
1. We gather as community and accomplish everything with, and through, community. In community, we gain strength from each other, we listen and respond to the Gospel message and find spiritual union with Jesus and so are brought closer to God. Our strategies include improving our liturgies, better communications with the whole parish and establishing a social committee.
2. Growing as disciples is the key to growing as Church and was expressed in the mandate given to us by Jesus, to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20). By growing as disciples we connect, understand and minister to each other and follow the example set for us by Jesus. Our strategies look at tools for greater evangelisation including Alpha or Cafe, greater flexibility in our RCIA or RCIC so that people who have expressed interest in becoming catholics can more easily be welcomed in to the church, and improving our safeguarding by finding a safeguarding person and taking steps to become more inclusive.
3. Stewardship is an act of love where people are invited to give of their time, talent and treasure in their pursuit of the gospel and to build up the Body of Christ. Strategies include extending the finance committee to look at fundraising and alternate ways that people contribute and establishing a gardening committee.
Reviewing Our Progress
The Parish Pastoral Council of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop commits itself under the leadership of Fr Philip Thottam to reviewing the progress of our goals, strategies and actions at the beginning of each PPC meeting each month in collaboration with the leaders of ministry groups named as responsible for each action. Progress reports will be shared through the parish bulletin and the achievements and progress of the groups will also be shared at the Parish AGM.