St. Michael Roman Catholic Church, Glen Allen, Virginia, Richmond Diocese

The term "we live in exciting times" has been used often and for varied reasons. It certainly applies to the situation we face today as Catholic Christians in Virginia. Our Catholic communities, blessed by the Holy Spirit, continue to grow and prosper. At the same time, we continue to be tested by a reduction in the number of men answering the call to become priests.

Accordingly, in 2005, Bishop DiLorenzo, initiated a Strategic Planning Process, 'Our Journey of Faith', for the entire diocese (document found on the diocesan website). Bishop DiLorenzo stated "I believe that the Holy Spirit is at work leading us to consider a call to move away from a focus on individual parishes and church buildings and to build a new model of church focused on inter-parish collaboration to strengthen and renew the lived expression of Church."

A Pastoral Planning Commission was created; Local Planning Area (LPA) groups were created. All parishes were challenged to become active participants in the process of creating clusters which would support the model of inter-parish collaboration and declining numbers of priests.

The timeline for the process is:

Phase I	September to December 2007 GATHER IDEAS AND GENERATE OPTIONS. Share copy of Guidelines and Resources document to parishes; identify and train facilitators and chairs of the LPAs; hold vicariate-level meeting and begin discussions on clustering.
Phase II	January to May 2008 DEVELOP DRAFTS OF LOCAL PLANS. Hold LPA meetings; hold town hall meetings with individual parishes; complete draft of LPA Local Plan (i.e. specifics on clustering) and submit to diocese.
Phase III	June to December 2008 REVIEW AND APPROVE LOCAL PLANS. Commission develops/affirms Local Plans with input from Vicariate Planning Committees, Priests Council and Diocesan Pastoral Council; Bishop approves.
Implementation	Begins January 2009

St. Michael Catholic Church is actively involved in the process. It is a member of LPA 12 comprised of St. Mary's (Richmond), Church of the Vietnamese Martyrs, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Ann (Ashland), St. Mary Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, St. Jude and St. Michael. Parish representatives to the LPA are Fr. Dan Brady, Armando DeLeon, Ivonne Gordillo and Bonnie Campbell. The LPA is chaired by Deacon Andy Ferguson of St. Michael and facilitated by Frank Squillace of Incarnation in Charlottesville.

Ongoing Communication of the process will be through the Catholic Virginian, parish town hall meetings, Defender updates, St. Michael website updates and liturgy updates. As meetings are held and Notes/Minutes are created, they will be made available on the website. Documents produced to-date are included for your review.

Please read the materials and continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will guide all who are working to make this process successful for all of us.

In Christ,

Rev. Daniel O. Brady
Rev. Mr Andrew Ferguson
Bonnie Campbell
Ivonne Gordillo
Armando de León

Documents:

Parish Leadership Inter-Parish Reflections Report	Parish town hall meeting Oct 2007
Phase I: Inter-Parish Leadership Meeting Report	Central Vicariate meeting Nov 2007
LPA 12 Meeting Notes	LPA meeting Jan 2008
LPA 12 Meeting Notes	LPA meeting Feb 2008
St. Michael Strategic Planning update	Parish town hall meetings March 2008
LPA 12 Meeting Notes	LPA meeting Apr 2008
LPA 12 Meeting Notes	LPA meeting May 2008