White Paper - February 19, 2006
Responding to the Call: Envisioning Our Future
A St. Andrew Pastoral Council Update to the Community
Parish Mission St. Andrew Parish recognizes that, as Jesus Christ was sent by God:
To bring the good news to the poor,
To proclaim liberty to captives,
And to the blind new sight,
To set the downtrodden free,
To proclaim the Lord’s year of favor,” (Luke 4:18)
So it is the mission of St. Andrew Parish to be a visible presence of Christ in our culturally and racially diverse neighborhood, rooted in the Gospel and nurtured by liturgy, prayer, and the community of faith. As such we commit ourselves to work with the poor, the powerless, and the oppressed for the liberation of all; to seek justice, compassion, and peace in our lives, community and world; and to proclaim and celebrate God’s unconditional love for all.
How can the St. Andrew Community best utilize its resources and facilities to serve the needs of the Parish, St. Andrew Nativity School and the surrounding neighborhood?
To help develop an answer to this critically important question, the St. Andrew Pastoral Council has been gathering information for more than a year. Over the coming few months, the Pastoral Council will present its findings at forums between the Sunday Masses, to be followed by a Parish-wide Town Hall meeting in the Spring. All members of the St. Andrew Community are encouraged to participate in these sessions, “Respond to the Call” of the St. Andrew Mission Statement and help “Envision Our Future.”
Significant changes in the demographics of the Parish and its neighborhood have lead to unmet facilities needs for the religious education, youth ministry, school, emergency services, and Hispanic ministries, all leading to the Pastoral Council initiating a year of listening, research, and reflection. The Pastoral Council has conducted an assessment of current programs, Parish needs, and neighborhood concerns, examining them through the lens of its mission statement.
The Council began the listening process during 2005 with the Lenten bi-lingual sessions followed by the STAR Gatherings in the Fall. After assessing input from these listening sessions, the Pastoral Council formed four committees to more thoroughly research issues of greatest importance and long-term impact on St. Andrew’s budget and use of space:
1. Emergency Services
2. Children and youth religious and spiritual education
3. Partnership with St. Andrew Nativity School
4. Hispanic parishioners.
At the Pastoral Council retreat in January 2006, each of these committees reported their findings.
Emergency Services
Emergency Services directly serves clients with food baskets, free furniture, free clothing, rental assistance and utility assistance. It indirectly helps clients by offering referrals to other services and programs. Lastly, the staff and volunteers listen compassionately and provide the opportunity for personal connections. Emergency services are offered to anyone living within Parish boundaries. It serves about 100 families a month through the Emergency Services office. An estimated 10-30 percent of clients each month are first-time visitors to St. Andrew’s ministry. The Community Basket alone serves 100 families each month. The Clothes Closet, open 2 hours per week, serves another 30-40 families each month. Emergency Services reaches a wide range of ethnic and cultural peoples representative of the surrounding community. Every family that visits the Emergency Services office is in need of financial assistance due to low or no income, physical disability, cognitive disability, addiction, or a combination of factors. Emergency Services is currently are staffed by one half-time paid employee, Kris LaGreca, and one volunteer parishioner, Gary Kasper, supported by 28 volunteers logging in 77 hours per month. Emergency Services uses space in several buildings, including the school basement, the Parish offices basement and the garage. Consolidation into one facility would improve its services and efficiencies.
Expanded information -
Emergency Services Ministry
Religious Education and Youth Ministry
St. Andrew children and youth programs, which are consistent with the Archdiocesan Renewing the Vision youth ministry, invite parishioners of all generations to participate in spiritually grounding children in their Catholic faith. Programs serving more than 100 children and youth are grouped by age and developmental stage:
- Sunday School ‘Catechesis of the Good Shepherd’ ecumenical religious education rooted in the Bible, liturgy, and the educational philosophy and method of Maria Montessori – ages 3-12, about 70 participants
- Faithways, the most comprehensive Catholic faith formation curriculum available for middle school grades 6-8 and used by over 1,300 U.S. parishes – ages 11-14, about 10 participants
- High School – grades 9-12, ages 15-18, about 10 participants (includes Confirmation every other year)
Between the Masses, the Sunday School Good Shepherd program for about 45 children uses a dedicated classroom in the school building known as the Atrium, but overflows into the hallway and two additional classrooms. Simultaneously, Spanish-speaking children are also meeting in the school upstairs. The Faithways program meets Sundays between Masses in a Parish Office meeting room. Wednesdays and Fridays about 25 children 3-6 attend Good Shepherd classes in the Atrium. Saturday RCIA classes are held in the Atrum for children preparing for baptism. Plans to share the Good Shepherd program with the Spanish-speaking community will require additional space. Looking ahead at the numbers and ages of currently enrolled children, the middle and high school youth programs will also need more space.
St. Andrew Nativity School
While Emergency Services has concentrated on the immediate needs of people, the St. Andrew Nativity School works on some of the root causes of poverty, and consequently is a good fit with the Parish and its mission. The Nativity School Board appreciates the association with the Parish and values the working relationship, having both board and staff members from the Parish, as well as 20 percent of its student body. The Board of St. Andrew Nativity School is committed to its mission of preparing students from low-income families to be successful in high school, college and life. It is committed to improvement of the school program to increase the probability of success for its students. Whatever these improvements might be, they will most likely require more space. Ideally the school would like the use of the entire school building. The Board also values the mission of St. Andrew Parish, and realizes that the Parish also needs space – some of which is in the school – to carry out its mission. The Board desires to work together with the Parish, and assist in resolving the space needs for both the school and the Parish.
Spanish-speaking Community
The Parish is truly challenged to meet the physical and spiritual needs of Latino members, due to the lack of sufficient bilingual staff who can effectively communicate and minister to parishioners. The greatest needs of the Latino community are immigration issues, access to adequate education, housing, jobs and health care, followed by a need for spiritual development for both youth and adults. The immigrant community is primarily young, transitory, and poor. The impact of these larger social forces results in weakening families impacted by divorce, substance abuse, and mental illness. The solutions identified are to provide greater referral and assistance to parishioners via more bilingual staff, as well as providing greater support to the spiritual needs of adults and religious education for children. The next steps will be a STAR gathering after Mass on April 23 for the Latino community, a Forum between the Masses in May, as well as the translation and distribution of a more thorough document addressing these issues both within the community and the broader Parish.
Expanded information - White Paper noon Mass: on the Latino community (in English)
