Some parish leaders see the promise of joining efforts in youth ministry and solving common problems.

Others are seeking ways to share resources in health ministries and outreach to the elderly.

Still others see collaboration to enrich marriage preparation programs and singles ministry as crucial in plotting their future.

All these ideas and more were voiced in January and February as some 300 parish lay leaders, priests, women religious and school principals came together at a series of nine regional meetings at various locations throughout the diocese.

The regional cluster meetings initiated phase two of a three-year pastoral planning process which began more than a year ago with a diocesan-wide survey conducted at all 98 parishes, designed by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).

Since the fall, pastors and parish leaders have been evaluating the results of each of their own parish self-study surveys and exploring how the results can help shape the future of their parish communities.

Among the issues addressed at the regional meetings was a report on the diocesan survey evaluating seven key aspects of parish life, a discussion about how parishes are tackling areas identified as priority needs, and possible paths toward collaboration.

The meetings “were very effective in that for the first time for most of these parishes, they sat in the same room at the deanery level, listening to each other, and exploring collaboration together,” said Mercy Sister Eileen Enright, vicar for pastoral ministry for the diocese, who oversees research and planning services.

Addressing the challenges and opportunities of collaboration at a time when the diocese’s Catholic population is growing beyond 510,000, but has fewer priests to serve in parishes, she said, couldn’t be more timely.

While most of the 98 parishes are served by pastors, 26 of those men are 65 years or older and working past retirement age and some have plans to retire soon.

Sister Enright, who joined Bishop William K. Weigand and Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Garcia in attending the regional meetings, said getting lay people “excited about their call, their vocation to spread the good news” will go a long way in dealing with the shortage of priests.

Jesuit Father Gerald Robinson, pastor of St. Ignatius Parish in Sacramento and dean of the American River Deanery, led a team of parish leaders who attended a regional meeting at the Diocesan Pastoral Center in late January.

“For me the meeting provided a lot of positive energy,” he said. “It created a place where you could kind of imagine what was possible if we all get together and make what we dream a reality.”

Jeannne Anderson-West, a member of the CARA committee at St. Ignatius, said getting together at the meeting with two other parishes located in close proximity to one another was a promising beginning.

“I would like to see us get together in our cluster once a month, going from parish to parish, because I found there are areas of improvement we all share,” she said.

While St. Ignatius and Our Lady of the Assumption and St. John the Evangelist parishes in Carmichael each have active youth ministries in place, parish leaders see coming together to share a youth minister or combining programs as an idea well worth exploring.

“Kids want to go where other kids are. I think they would be happier going where there are 50 rather than 12,” said Anderson-West, whose parish currently has a vacancy for a youth minister.

Ruth Holewinski, a member of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish’s CARA committee, agreed that “the hot button” topic in the cluster group was youth programs.

“It’s just such a natural with all the parishes,” said Holewinski, whose parish supports a part-time youth minister.

Holewinski added that the groundwork for collaboration has already been laid between St. Ignatius and Our Lady of the Assumption, who have been partners in an adult education program for several years.

Another area the three parishes see the possibility of sharing resources to reach more people is in health ministries.

Fran Koscheski, who coordinates the health ministries at St. John the Evangelist Parish, assisted St. Ignatius parishioners in starting their health ministry program. She said contributing to collaboration efforts in this area is membership of several Sacramento-area and foothill parishes in the Health Ministries Association. The group, which meets monthly, she said, “is a forum where people can share ideas.”

Anderson-West said that St. Ignatius’ new elderly visitation program would not only be a beneficiary of enriched health ministries but is also a further possibility for future collaboration among parishes in a common geographic area.

Patty Cole, director of stewardship and development at St. Basil Parish in Vallejo, said a regional meeting for Solano and Yolo deaneries Feb. 3 in Fairfield was “very effective” in starting an important dialogue with other parishes in addressing CARA survey findings.

Following the regional meeting, representatives from four southern Solano parishes, including St. Basil, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Vincent Ferrer parishes in Vallejo and St. Dominic Parish in Benicia, held their own meeting.

“There was an enthusiastic desire to work together to develop some ministries that the parishes are struggling to establish on their own,” Cole said.

A case in point is ministry with single adults, which St. Basil had tried to start several times but always lacked the numbers to be successful. Dominican Father Bartholomew de la Torre, parochial vicar at St. Dominic, had identified a like concern within his own parish community.

“One of the facts that emerged from the CARA questionnaire was that a number of singles felt they weren’t receiving sufficient attention from the church,” Father de la Torre said.

Pastors at the four parishes plan to move to organize the first singles event soon after Easter.

Father Leon Juchniewicz, pastor of St. Basil, said a spirit of collaboration among parishes in the Solano Deanery, where he serves as dean, is not a new phenomenon. He said parishes in the Vallejo area have worked together for some time on hospital visitation featuring a rotating schedule for priests on call.

The southern Solano parishes are also working together in marriage preparation training involving more parishioners in pastoral ministry.

“I think we are making some progress,” Father Juchniewicz said. “Collaboration is not always easy, but comes about though an openness to collaboration from priests.”

For the eight parishes that make up the Siskiyou Deanery at the northern end of the diocese, it is not uncommon for priests to travel several hundred miles over the weekend to celebrate Mass in two or three communities.

Father Aidan O’Reilly, pastor of St. Anthony Parish in Mount Shasta and dean of the Siskiyou Deanery, knows well that pooling resources and “sharing the God-given talents” of people in neighboring parishes is a vital approach to ministry.

He said potential areas of collaboration that have already been identified are for parishes to work together in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and to more effectively reach out to returning or inactive Catholics.

Deacon Duane DuFault, a member of St. Anthony and coordinator of the parish’s CARA committee, said other possible areas of collaboration are in youth ministry and marriage preparation. Of some concern to most of the parish communities in Siskiyou County, he added, is the shrinking number of priests called upon to travel through snowstorms and over mountains to celebrate Mass.

Father Phil Wells, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Weed, is also concerned about the fact that there are just three priests to provide sacramental services for eight parish communities in Siskiyou County.

“The need for pastoral support to provide for the spiritual needs of the Catholics of Siskiyou County is critical,” he said. “Just as a newcomer I have observed the demands placed on my fellow priests in the area and I’m in awe of their enthusiasm and energy to meet the needs of their parishioners.”

To help address the lack of priests available for the pastoral and spiritual needs of parishioners, Mercy Sister Nancy McInerney has been serving as parish steward at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Dunsmuir and St. Joseph Parish in McCloud since September 1999, and Mercy Sister Anne Chester as parish steward at Sacred Heart Parish in Fort Jones and St. Joseph Parish in Yreka since October.

Sister Enright believes the success of parishes in working together will go a long way in assisting the diocese to meet the challenge of staffing parishes in the years ahead.

“After attending the regional meetings, I came away energized by the faith, good will and commitment of people to say, ‘This is my faith, and I am called,’” she said.

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