Five Year Plan For the Trinity Vicariate: Northern Edge Group

1. (Draft) 10/28/2011 - Revision 10
Six Parishes. One Vision
• Christ the King
• Corpus Christi
• Gesu
• Presentation Our Lady of Victory
• St. Peter Claver Catholic Community
• St. Scholastica

2.  Archdiocese developing plan to address changing
realities
 Decline in priests
 Reduced membership/Aging population
 High parish debt levels
 Excess facilities
 Parish operating deficits
 Key objective for Archbishop is “the strengthening
of the Church in the City of Detroit”
 Planning generally occurring at the Vicariate level
 Trinity Vicariate divided into 3 Planning Groups
 The NORTHERN EDGE GROUP is Christ the King,
Corpus Christi, Gesu, Presentation/Our Lady of
Victory, St. Peter Claver and St. Scholastica

4. 70 people from our 16 Trinity Vicariate
parishes have met 12 times since January.
Our parish is part of six
parishes forming a group
called the Northern Edge
Group.

5.  Vicariate Planning Meetings began in January
 Each Parish has been represented by at least 4 active
parishioners
 First Draft of APC Responses sent to AOD/Archdiocesan
Pastoral Council (APC) in June
 Archdioceseresponded with further
questions and a more detailed format for
plan submission
 Northern Edge Planning Day held on October 8th
 Draft plan, consistent with AOD requirements, is now
ready for review by the Pastors and Parish Leadership
 Plan due to AOD no later than November 18th

6. Since January, 2011, all sixteen vicariates in the
Archdiocese of Detroit are involved in 5 year plans
for their parishes Called Together In Faith II. The
Archdiocese requires our plan to address these
Priorities
1. Evangelization & Catechesis
2. Christian Service & Outreach
3. Youth & Young Adults
4. Lay Leadership
5. Stewardship & Administration
6. Catholic School Education
7. Vocations
Note: Worship was added as an 8th priority by the
Northern Edge work group

7. 3 Main Topics to address the required Focus
Areas:
Organizational Structure:
Covers pastoral leadership, lay leadership
and formation
Sustainability:
Covers Finances, Facilities, Stewardship,
Administration and Best Practices
Inter-Parish Programming:
Covers Evangelization & Catechesis,
Christian Service & Outreach, Youth &
Young Adults, Vocations, Catholic Schools
& Education and Worship

8. Archdiocese assumes the following:
 Number of priests for our group will be
reduced with no new priests added
 Lay Leadership roles will increase, but only
within the bounds of Canon Law.
 In most parishes, membership is in decline or
aging.
How will we face this situation?

9. After prayerful consideration and discussion,
the Northern Edge Group decided that further
reduction of Catholic presence in our
neighborhoods is not in the best interest of
“strengthening the Church in the City of
Detroit”
By “presence”, we mean outreach and
worship
 Worship without outreach fails to give witness
to Christ
 Outreach without worship fails to identify us as
Catholic

10. We believe it is essential to keep a presence
in local neighborhood communities.
Therefore we will:
 Create a structure of shared ministry among
all six existing urban parishes in the Northern
Edge.
 Collaborative professional leadership (lay and
ordained)
 Facilitate substantial ministerial formation to
create cohesiveness.

11.  Pastors and administrators will
coordinate the pastoral and
sacramental responsibilities
among the parishes
 Diocesan priests and religious
order priests in the six parishes
will develop a unique
relationship to serve their
parishes and orders.
 Will form a Northern Edge
Pastoral Council (NEPC)
 Must get AOD approval for this
unique structure

12. Archdiocese assumes the following:
 Two parishes have large outstanding debt
 One parish has no debt, but low attendance
 Due to decrease in membership and the
economy, offertory donations alone are
insufficient to maintain facilities

13. What we know:
Corpus Christi will pay its debt in-full after
the sale of property at the IHM Center
St. Peter Claver’s debt (inherited from St.
Francis de Sales) is not expected to be paid
back and should not be a factor in this
analysis. Also, St. Peter Claver has no
record of compensation from the sale of two
schools by the AOD. A letter regarding these
issues has been sent to the AOD Chancellor.
We have many creative ideas to help sustain
our parishes while we seek ways to increase
membership

14. Creative Ideas:
 Consolidate back-office activities like
accounting, purchasing, and contracted
services.
 Share best practices like Gesu’s Green Plan
that lowers water treatment costs
 Utilize existing programs like DTE Energy and
WARM Training Center to perform energy
analysis and facility updates.
 Use Schools of Architecture and Engineering to
develop plans to retro-fit and update facilities

15. Sharing Responsibility:
 Collaborating on the sale of unused facilities
 Updating Capital improvement plans
 Sharing ideas to pool purchasing power
 Utilizing Changing Lives Together for capital
improvements
 Downsizing facilities if necessary

16. Our goals and objectives:
Create a stronger bond among Northern Edge
parishes
Build and reshape our neighborhoods through
collaborative Outreach and Christian Service
programs
Increase community awareness, participation
and membership through Evangelization and
Outreach

17. We will organize this effort by:
 Create a Northern Edge Pastoral Council
(NEPC) with members from each parish
 Requiring all programs be approved by
participating parishes and the Northern Edge
Pastoral Council
 Allowing individual parishes to opt-out of
participation in programs that lack parish
support

18. Most of the programs selected
are easy to implement or are
already in progress.
A few already exist at various
parishes and we will either
share resources or expand to
cover more territory
A couple are long-term
projects that can have a major
impact within our
communities.

19. Short Term Intermediate Long-Term
Evangelization & Catechesis
• Joint Confirmation • Cooperative RCIA
• Alpha Training
• RCIA Retreat
• Visiting Parishes
• Interfaith Services
Christian Service & Outreach
• Adopt-a-Day Soup Kitchen • Job Club • Foreclosures
• Blood Drive • Tutoring • Emergency Housing
• Newsletter (Quarterly) • Transportation
with testimonials
Youth & Young Adults
• Youth Council • Inter-Generation Mentoring
• Youth Events
Vocations
• Career Day
• Vocation Promotion
Worship
• Collaborative Mass (yearly)
• Healing Service
• Stations of the Cross

20.  Clergy will begin meeting to develop
organizational structure
 Parishes will review the proposed plan and
give feedback
 Revised plan will be submitted to AOD / APC
by November 18th which is the final deadline
for submission

21.  Consortium Board Seeks to Coordinate
 Development / Outreach / Fundraising
 Marketing / Enrollment
 Curriculum / Academic Standards / Excellence
 GOAL: Health and Growth of all schools /
Providing Christ-Centered Education
 NeedAOD commitment of existing financial
support for 3 – 5 years with goal of reducing
need for AOD support for operating costs.

22.  Createcombined school approach called
“Central Catholic Consortium” (CCC)
but schools continue with independent
principals and strong parish connections (Gesu,
Christ the King, St. Scholastica, St.
Bartholomew, Holy Trinity, Holy Redeemer)
 Schools/Parishes send reps create to
governing board of CCC
 CCC Board hires paid Development Director
 May seek AOD grant to cover 5-year salary of
director staff
 Goal: self sufficiency