-
September 23, 2020
As we mentioned last week in our news section, Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish has formed an advisory task force in order to begin our planning for our future as a parish – ministries, evangelization, and the creation of a sustainable Catholic community in Monroeville and Penn Hills. In forming this task force, we’ve invited CDS parishioners from each of our predecessor parishes to participate as task force members. We’ve also attempted to draw on the experiences of people with a variety of skills and professions. The members of our advisory task force are:
DeeDee Adams
Jim Gilboy
John Kearns
Jack Myler
Joe Vento
We anticipate that the work of the task force will take a number of weeks. As part of the work of the task force, they will tour all of the buildings on the six locations of our parish.
Once they’ve completed their evaluation of our buildings and resources, they will meet to discuss a range of questions, including:
- What kinds of ministry and evangelization do we expect that Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish will perform, both now and in the foreseeable future?
- What resources are needed in order to support these needs?
- What costs are associated with these resources?
- What costs are associated with all of the buildings at our six locations?
- What recommendations can we make, with respect to how we utilize our resources most effectively?
At the conclusion of their discussions, they will present their findings and recommendations to our parish’s finance and pastoral councils. We will then ask our council members to pray and discern over the information that the task force has presented. Then, we’ll ask our council members to provide their advice to Fr Thom and Fr Larry. Finally, Fr Thom and Fr Larry will also pray and discern, and will lead a parish assembly to discuss the findings of our task force and councils.
Finally, we expect that the parish will draft a proposal to the diocese, which will include a recommendation for how we utilize our buildings and our locations. As you might recall, when we announced the merger of our parishes into the new “Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish” last year, we mentioned that no buildings would close in 2020. We continue to follow that plan – at the present, all of our six church buildings continue to be utilized (e.g., for funeral Masses, patronal feast day Masses, Taize services, First Holy Communion and Confirmation Masses, etc). No decisions have been made at this time regarding building utilization, but our work over the next few months will help provide clarity regarding our needs for ministry and evangelization, as well as our ability to support these activities.
Please keep Christ the Divine Shepherd Parish in your prayers!