Congress Participants Focus on Mission, Relationships and Change
The Parish Councils Congress, not held since 2019, returned to the Mary Mother of the Church Pastoral Center on Saturday morning, November 19, 2022.The Congress brings council leaders from both Pastoral and Finance Councils, including Trustees and Pastors, together for communal prayer and discussion around significant issues of pastoral importance, and is hosted by the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. Invited to the event were pastors, administrators, parish directors, trustees, APC members, deanery assembly representatives, pastoral council members, and finance council members.
The morning event began with Archbishop Listecki celebrating Mass at 8:30, featured full assembly presentations and a choice of breakout sessions; and concluded shortly after noon. Approximately 150 people participated in the Congress event. The Congress followed a new format this year - no separate breakout sessions for pastoral council, finance council and trustees. The event planning team recognized that we all share in the same mission that we were given at Baptism, so together we will work to grow our parishes and focus on our priorities of Catholic identity, evangelization and stewardship. All sessions were open to all participants.
Keynote speakers focused on that very mission our parishes embrace, the strength of relationships we have with each other and with Jesus to carry out that mission, and how we need to embrace the challenges of change in our parishes and communities.
Rich Harter, Director of the Saint Clare Center at Cardinal Stritch University, shared that our parishes do not have a mission, but they are a mission. He further explored the source and nature of a missionary parish.
Fr. Don Thimm of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said, contrary to the popular book from the 90s, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” everything he learned about relationships, he did not learn in kindergarten! He gave practical examples of how to be welcoming to all in our parishes and provided specific examples of how to build relationships with each other, culminating in building a relationship with Jesus.
Dr. Kathleen Cepelka, former Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, reminded us that most of us don’t “do change” well. She provided practical guidelines for approaching and implementing change within the context of a parish or school, while describing the major components of complex change management, what to do, and what to avoid in processing change. Finally, she offered the audience a perspective on change as an opportunity for growth.
Breakout sessions included discussions on family engagement in our parishes, starting small faith-sharing and discipleship groups, and the work of effective councils.
Take a closer look at some of the presentations and handouts our speakers offered at the Congress.