We are providing this newsletter in preparation of the upcoming Community Planning Event on September 27^th. We want to provide you with more background information on the nature of the community development process favored by the Archdiocese and used successfully by many church communities around the Archdiocese of Seattle. You will find below the comments of Father Bob at the time he initiated the Vision 2015 planning process and information from the Archdiocese of Seattle on the consultative leadership model to be used throughout the Archdiocese. 

 Additionally, we want to remind you of the importance of your participation in our community development process. Father Bob has described the Community Planning Event to be held on September 27^th as the single most important event for our St. Luke community for the year. The future direction of our community will begin to take shape at the Community Planning Event. As you will see in the documents from the Archdiocese, the success of the Community Planning Event depends heavily on the participation of the community. Please take every effort to make time to attend the Community Planning Event. 

Remarks from Father Bob on March 15, 2009: Here is a copy of the article prepared by Father Bob that was published in the bulletin back in March. We provide it to you to remind you about what the Community Planning Event is for and why we are engaging in this process.

Dear Parishioners,

In the book of Proverbs we find this: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” 29:18. Our vision as Christians should be to see ourselves as followers of the way, truth and life of Christ. To make such a vision come to life, we need a mission. Jesus gave us one at the end of Matthew’s gospel when he said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” In addition to the vision and mission Jesus gave us, I believe we at St. Luke’s need a more specific vision and mission to direct us in how to respond to the vision and mission of Jesus.

That’s why our St. Luke Pastoral Council has begun to discern a vision and mission for our parish. With a new vision and mission for St. Luke’s in mind, all members of our parish will then be invited to think about parish goals for the next five years. But it is not enough just to think of long-range goals. We need a process to ensure that such goals are realized. I have initiated such a process by formulating a diverse planning team made up of parishioners and school parents to guide us. The name for this process includes the year in which we seek to realize our goals: Vision 2015. The Vision 2015 team will develop a process over the course of the next year so that we may discern and achieve goals that match our new vision and mission. As a start, and in the next several months, this group will review past and present data from the parish and school to understand the demographics of our community and to work with the Pastoral Council to focus our efforts in long-term planning. 

After data gathering is complete, the Vision 2015 committee and I will then host a community planning event at which all members of our parish will be invited to dream and visualize what our parish can become by the year 2015. We hope for maximum participation from all members of our parish and school community. This event will be held in the fall.  Watch the bulletin for future updates on this gathering.

From this parish-wide meeting, tangible goals for the community will be developed. Then, as a community, we will begin to decide how we can implement our dreams. This process will offer an opportunity for everyone in the parish and school to share their hopes with me for the future of St. Luke’s. I am excited about this process and I hope that it will energize you as well.

May God bless you,

Fr. Bob

Consultative Leadership Model. Please utilize the following link to access the Archdiocesan Consultative Church Governance document. You will find that this document is very robust and provides detailed information on church governance and community development. 

We direct you to two specific portions of the document, the section on the Consultative Decision-Making Process and Appendix C, which provide a description of our Community Planning Event and the eventual creation of our Vision 2015 community plan. The section on the Consultative Decision-Making Process starts on page 43 and finishes on page 47. Appendix C starts on page 60 and finishes on page 63. We encourage you to review this material, as it will provide background and context as we move toward our Community Planning Event.

Please direct any questions you may have to Father Bob or to the Vision 2015 Planning Committee through the parish office.

Thank you for your time.

God bless,

Vision 2015 Planning Committee

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