Council of the Baptized logo
 
LAY NETWORK 
CLAIMING OUR VOICES
in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
   
 
 Dear 

First, a reminder: Council of the Baptized Open Forum--Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Ka thryn Lien, a local liturgist, and other lay liturgists who worked on recommendations for the Pastoral Recommendations Project will present their ideas on the needs of parishes and how the Archdiocese can support them. Is good liturgy important to you? Do you have meaningful liturgy at your parish?
 
Come discuss this with us at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, 700 S. Snelling, St. Paul, 7-8 p.m, Tuesday, June 14.  

Speaking of the Pastoral Recommendations Project , where are we on that?  On schedule! The final set of recommendations is being put into a booklet for delivery to the Archbishop right now to be ready by June 15.  The Steering Committee wrote to Archbishop Hebda at the end of May, asking for an appointment as soon after June 15 as he could conveniently arrange it.  They are awaiting a response.  

Remember that you can see the preliminary working drafts of the recommendations at   http://www.cccr-cob.org/archdiocesan-pastoral-plan-project/prp-recommendations-to-date.html   The final, complete document submitted to the Archbishop will be posted after it has been delivered to him.  You will have the opportunity to endorse this initiative, name or no name, when the final document gets posted.
 
What else can you do?
We are counting on Archbishop Hebda's encouragement and support on these recommendations, but the work of fleshing out the plans and implementing them can be up to us, the laity of the Archdiocese.  We cannot assume that the Archdiocese will have the staff necessary to do all the work, and we have experienced people (that's you!) in every field the recommendations touch upon.  If we want our local church to be the sign of the Kingdom of God that Jesus envisioned, we have to roll up our sleeves and make it happen.  Isn't that what the Holy Spirit is energizing us to do?  

Would you be willing to email us with the recommendation you will team up to help implement?   [email protected]     Would you be willing to study the recommendations and choose one you could start implementing in your own parish?  Email us with your plan to implement the recommendation and we will share with others in this Lay Network Update.

Many people have already volunteered to help implement recommendations during the drafting phase.  With Archdiocesan support, the next phase is up to us.

 
Reminder: "Talk to Your Pastor" Campaign-- We will report on the status of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council in the July Lay Network Update.

Remember that we emailed all the pastors on our list in April, giving them a heads-up that you will be talking to them about a new Archdiocesan Pastoral Council.  In 2012, CCCR-Council of the Baptized recommended that the Archdiocese set up an APC for two-way communication between lay people and Church leadership. We are recommending it again in 2016.  We are concerned that the plans for a new APC have the following provisions:
  • lay members elected from deaneries
  • open agenda items
  • meetings open to the public.  
Our thinking: If there is no opportunity for representative people to speak up in honest and open ways and there is no accountability to the Church at large, what good is an Archdiocesan Pastoral Council as an advisory body?  
Your pastor is in a position to get our ideas to the decision-makers.  Please bring the topic of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council up with him and ask him to call the dean of his deanery with your ideas.  There are 15 deaneries with about 12 parishes in each.  A pastor of one of the parishes is the dean and meets with the Archbishop in a Presbyteral Council of all the deans.  Maybe your pastor is the dean in your deanery!  We can let the deans know we are paying attention and care very much about channels of two-way communication.  
 
In joyful hope,
The CCCR Board and Council of the Baptized