Our Contemporary Class visited Holy Family of Nazareth Parish, today. It is an established parish of about 2500 households, highly diverse with parishioners from a variety of backgrounds including African and Hispanic. Masses are requested for special holy days in Spanish, Swahili, and French as well as in English.
The staff is very collaborative with high respect for one another. They work on the assumption that they are advocates for their various constituencies. The focus is on being a family as their name suggests. Their motto: All are welcome in this place.
Our class had a wide-ranging discussion at the end of the visit. They were picking up the themes we talked about in class... collaobration, empowerment, presidency, and so on. The structural questions appeared as well. "Who holds the parish to be true and accountable to its mission? How do we handle finances in regions where ministry is supplied but in different parishes?
The questions are rich and real!
