When is our Listening Sessions?
The Listening Sessions for Holy Redeemer Parish will be this Tuesday and Thursday, October 18th and 20th from 6 pm to 8 pm. Our Listening Sessions will be held in our church. Because of the Tuesday Listening Session, Eucharistic Adoration will conclude at 5 pm.
How do I sign up for our Listening Session?
You will have to register in order to attend one of our Listening Session. You can go to our website and find a link that will get you to registration.
As of last week we had about 100 registered for Tuesday and 140 registered for Thursday.
What will happen at our Listening Session?
Glad you asked.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis will host over 350 listening sessions throughout our 178 parishes, between October 8 and November 19, 2022. Parishioners must register in order to attend a Listening Session. You can register from our website.
Our listening session will be facilitated by a volunteer parishioner from a different parish.
These trained facilitators will share pre-recorded messages from Archbishop Rozanski and Fr. Chris Martin, the Vicar for Strategic Planning, with an overview of All Things New, an overview of our Planning Area, and multiple DRAFT model options to consider for the respective planning area. A brief time will be allowed for small group discussion and facilitated large group feedback.
Basically this is the same format that our Key Parish Leaders went through back in September. Along with the draft models, there will probably be some other ideas that you will be able to comment on and give input.
How important are these Sessions?
Honestly, they are very important. So far, the planning has been looking at the BIG picture, as it should. Now, we hope to get the wisdom of the people in the individual parishes. I think it is vital that people get involved for the simple reason that the outcomes of these sessions could have some very powerful ramifications. As I have mentioned in the past, the differences between the models for Holy Redeemer are very distinct and pronounced. I believe that your input could be very crucial.
Haven’t they already made up their minds what will happen?
In a word, no.
What if I cannot make our Listening Session?
After the final listening session in each planning area, the Archdiocese of St. Louis will make pub- lic the content presented at all the parish’s Lis- tening Sessions in our planning area and will offer an additional opportunity for parishioners to pro- vide open-ended feedback through an online sur- vey. The survey will remain open until December 31, 2022.
Parishioner feedback to the models is critical, as it will be used to help shape the future of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
What about our school?
Great question. Nothing has been decided yet. Obviously, the decision on our Catholic schools will have to come by the beginning of the New Year since registration and teacher contracts need to be finalized this winter. There are a couple of goals here: we want good schools, stable schools, affordable schools and we need to be able to pay our teacher’s a just and liveable wage. That is no small task, but it is a vital one.
How do I prepare for the Listening Session?
You can download our Parish Workbook from our website. This was the data we used in drafting our response to the Archdiocese. I think you will find it fascinating.
Anything else?
Yes. Please be hospitable to our facilitator. He is a guest in our parish. He is simply here to help us respond.
Father Kevin