Two Parishes Becoming One Family
Partners in the Gospel is a strategic pastoral planning effort taking place across the archdiocese to re-invigorate and renew our local Catholic Church. St. John the Baptist Parish will be partnered with Holy Spirit Parish in Kent. This takes effect July 1 and over the next three years, these two communities will decide how to best become one parish. This does not necessarily mean one campus. The process is meant to be slow, guided by prayer.
Currently, the parish staff is preparing a transition workbook that describes the governance of our parish, our councils, and commissions as well as our programs and procedures. This will be of help to the priest(s) who will be assigned to this parish family. So far, our report is 30 pages long! Next month, there will be workshops on transitions for pastors and up to two staff members from every parish.
By mid-April, priests’ assignments should be finalized. Most priests will be moving, though there will be some exceptions. The experience of other dioceses, who have done this restructuring, indicate that there are struggles if one pastor stays. The other parish(es) in the family feel like the neglected stepchild. When all the priests are new to a parish family, all the communities have a greater feeling of equality as they begin planning on how to become one parish. I am not sure if the fact that both Fr. Carlos at Holy Spirit and I are both relatively new in our assignments will have any bearing in the decision-making or not.
See the Article in Northwest Catholic nwcatholic.org/news/jean-parietti/how-is-your-new-pastorbeing-chosen.
For more information on Partners in the Gospel, go to archseattle.org/partners/.