UPDATE...Thank you to everyone who has completed the parish planning survey, we have had 40% participation. If you have not had a chance to complete the survey, it will be open for a few more days. Please click the button below. The average time it takes to finish the survey is currently nine (9) minutes and all parishioners 16-years and older are encouraged to participate. Hard copies can be picked up at the parish office.
Brothers and Sisters,
I have very much enjoyed getting to know the parishioners of Saint Simon as well as the history of our parish. As I have listened I have learned that before my arrival Father John had been working with the Pastoral Council on beginning a strategic planning process. It is my understanding that the last time the entire parish did strategic planning it was for the move from our former location on Roy Road to our current location. The Pastoral Council has continued to work with me to get a strategic planning process underway and we are ready to begin.
To bring you up to speed this is what has happened since I arrived. Sue Weber, who led Saint Simon through the planning process when we moved from Roy Road to our current location, was invited to come to a gathering where members of the Parish Pastoral Team, Parish Pastoral Council, Parish Finance Council, and the School Commission were present. She presented to the group a proposal for how she would lead Saint Simon through the process and there was a nice conversation with many questions and answers. After this meeting, I asked for members of the above-listed parish leadership groups to commit to being a part of a Strategic Planning Core Team. That core team met with Sue for the first time early in October. This planning process will include, but is not limited to a parish-wide survey, focus group interviews, a parish planning retreat, the drafting of a pastoral plan and then finally, God-willing, the fulfillment of the pastoral plan.
What can you do to help? First and foremost you can pray for the success of the strategic planning process. Please ask that the Holy Spirit would guide our parish to work towards fulfilling the plan God has for us! Second, please participate in the process. There will be several opportunities to get involved in the process and I ask that you participate in as many of them as you can. The first opportunity is the parish-wide survey which we hope you will take at saintsimonsurvey.com . Finally, you can help by encouraging others to participate in the strategic planning process.
With God’s help, we are looking to complete the strategic planning process in the spring and have a pastoral plan that we can then start working to bring to completion. I am looking forward to our planning and all of the wonderful things God has in store for us.
God Bless,
Father Doug