Parish Planning

The Office of Pastoral Planning serves as a resource for parishes, schools and other Archdiocesan entities as they undertake planning in support of the mission of the Church. In 2015, when he issued the call to missionary discipleship in his pastoral letter, A Light Brightly Visible, Archbishop Lori listed a number of obstacles to evangelization in our days – but evangelizing during a pandemic was not one of them. The Parish Planning Office has been challenged to think more creatively and to leverage technology to its greatest potential in order to continue spreading the Gospel in this context. Yet, many pastorates have seen the pandemic as a moment of clarity, an opportunity to take up the work of self-reflection, ministry assessment, and strategic planning in light of the many strengths and abundant needs that this time has revealed. Appeal grants continue to support the formation, tools, and facilitation necessary to help pastorates do this critical work and to craft locally-based, mission-driven plans aimed at shining the Light of Christ more brightly in every corner of the Archdiocese.