Parish Partnering

With pastoral staff and parish volunteers stretched thin, collaborating with nearby parishes can effectively help foster more ideas and alleviate the drain on resources. Parish can consider this pastoral objective: Partner with at least one other parish by meeting regularly with parish leadership to identify opportunities to share resources. Let’s see what action plans these parishes created.

To save on costs, Holy Family in Galveston united with five other churches from the Galveston area to share the position of Youth Minister. The Youth Minister is responsible for developing programs and resources to engage the youth of the archdiocese. The action plan states, “Hire a youth minister.”

St. Michael's Director of Social Justice Ministry established a collaborative approach to invite St. Raphael's youth to St. Michael's Youth Faith Formation programs and events. The annual Christmas Party for children became a joint effort with great success for both parishes. Also, both parishes enthusiastically created an annual St. Raphael Festival beginning in October 2013. While engaging the youth in the community they “Partnered with a ‘sister´ parish on youth/young adult activities.”

In cooperation with St. Anthony of Padua, teams from both St. Anthony and Sts. Simon & Jude in The Woodlands developed a Hispanic Ministry Council that delivers Spanish liturgy and access to Spanish Sacraments, as required, at both parishes every weekend. The parishes hired a bilingual retired priest and share the cost. The parish is also pleased to see former parishioners returning, who had migrated to other parishes offering a Spanish Mass. The action plan underscores the advantages of working with nearby parish and sharing resources: “Partner with ‘sister’ parish on multi-cultural activities.”