Our Lady of Divine Providence Family of Parishes and Beacons of Light: Where Do We Stand?
Our Lady of Divine Providence Family of Parishes and Beacons of Light:
Your Pastor Is Moving To A New Assignment: Where Do We Stand?
BACKGROUND
As members of one of our parishes, you no doubt have seen over the last couple of decades the declining number of people at our weekend Masses, decreasing parish collections, increasing costs of maintaining our parish properties, and decreasing numbers of volunteers supporting our various parish ministries and activities. It seems as if the same people are doing the work of fundraising, ministering, serving in various parish commissions and councils, singing in choirs, etc., and those people are aging-out in many cases. We have more funerals than baptisms, more young people growing up and moving away to live elsewhere, and fewer Catholic students in our Catholic schools. Adding to these concerns, the number of priests retiring outnumbers the number of new priests being ordained.
Beacons of Light is the planning process of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in response to the above trends. Parishes have been grouped together into “Families of Parishes” of various sizes, with the plan that these Families will unite into one parish, one institution, sharing all resources over a five-year period. This planning process has certain priorities and guidelines to facilitate this unification while remaining faithful to the Catholic Church’s God-given mission. We are now in year three of this process. Our Lady of Divine Providence Family consists of five parishes and one mission (archival research has discovered that Mother of Christ is not a parish in the strict sense of the term; rather, it is a mission of St. Bernard Parish).
BEACONS OF LIGHT: WHERE ARE WE NOW?
Our Lady of Divine Providence Family of Parishes is on target with the Beacons of Light process to date (Because of the great variation in number and size of the various Families of Parishes, there is a great elasticity in how the process is to be carried out.). I believe we have accomplished a lot already during my time here, with the assistance of Anne Ketzer, who is employed by the Family as the Beacons Pathway Lead. She is the key administrator and recorder of the Beacons process here and has the job of keeping us on track according to the rules set out by the Archdiocese. I also have been assisted by an Archdiocesan consultant (paid for by the Archdiocese) and have been helped tremendously by our vicars Fr. Haft and Fr. George, and Sister Margie, who is administrator of St. Bernard and Mother of Christ. I’d also like to mention the members of the various Parish Pastoral Councils, and especially those members who have served on our Beacons Planning Council these last two years who have given their time and supported us in this process to date.
The following has been accomplished during my two years and two months as your Pastor:
Anne Ketzer hired part-time to serve as our Beacons Pathway Lead to keep our family of parishes on track with the Beacons of Light program.
Continuous tracking of Mass attendance data at all parishes.
Archdiocesan Beacons of Light liaison contracted to consult at executive level (paid for by the Archdiocese).
Key leadership personnel within our family educated about the Beacons of Light parameters, principles, and goals.
Beacons Planning Council formed with two representatives for each of our 6 parishes, along with our pastor, vicars, and pastoral administrator. It has met over 13 times to date, toured each parish campus, heard presentations about each of our parish histories, etc. (There will be a structural overhaul of the Beacons Planning Council soon as it turns into the main Pastoral Council for our Family of Parishes).
Four Directors named (Administration and Finance, Evangelization, Worship, Love in Action - three from existing staff, one new hire).
Family Leadership Team formed from pastoral staff members met 14 times, meets regularly.
Name for our Family, “Our Lady of Divine Providence”, chosen by Planning Council members after eliciting suggestions from our parishioners.
Vision statement written and confirmed by Leadership Team and Planning Council.
Website established for our Family: www.OLODP.church (present plan is to make this the only website of our parishes by July 1, 2025).
Family prayer services, confession events, and liturgical and para-liturgical celebrations held at various churches in our Family.
Several family social and fundraising events conducted and some planned for future.
Multiple archdiocesan training and educational workshops and meetings attended by pastor, vicars, staff, and Planning Council members.
New Evangelization/Youth and Young Adult Ministry Director hired to oversee sacramental preparation programs, faith formation, communications, youth gatherings, retreats, trips, etc.
Organizational chart of staff developed in concert with archdiocesan liaison, Beacons Pathway Lead and Directors.
Finance and giving trends, donor ages data being analyzed.
Parish Plant Assessment Committee established to discover maintenance issues of the various parish buildings and properties.
Two annual reports submitted to Archdiocese regarding progress in Beacons process.
Pastor recorded two annual messages at all parishes, all weekend Masses to update everyone on progress (third message planned for end of September).
Third annual report to Archdiocese due October 1 now in progress.
Currently in Beacons of Light Phase III: Parish Culture.
Continual management of new maintenance, personnel, and pastoral situations by Pastor, Vicars, Directors, and Parish staff members.
SUMMARY
We are 1350+ active parishioners spread out over many miles with a mission to downsize and combine into one Parish Office Center with one main worship campus having at least three weekend Masses (and possibly one or two satellite worship campuses with one weekend Mass). Predicting how many parishioners will move with us into our one new parish is a concern, and now some additional uncertainty is imposed with changing leadership. As you know, I have been re-assigned and will be leaving for my new parish on October 11th. Fr. Haft has been named our interim parochial administrator, with a new pastor to be named July 1, 2025. I hope you will welcome Father Henry Hoffman as the new parochial vicar who has been assigned to this Family.
We do not know who your new pastor will be or what his plans will be moving forward. We also do not know who our new Archbishop will be and whether he will want to take a more active role in the decision-making. We are studying building/campus conditions, deferred maintenance, upkeep costs, donor and attendance trends. Some have said that we should rip the band-aid off, so to speak, just tell us now where to go, and we will make our decisions whether to go there or not. Well, that’s the rub!
To be practical, where people go, the money goes. There seems to be a benefit to making decisions slowly and carefully. Ideally our 1350+ worshiping Catholics will come together in a new main church when their present church does not have a weekend Mass that suits their schedule or worship style. Realistically, some people will likely choose to leave this parish Family for a different church when all is said and done. There are also employees to consider, outside leases and contracts to honor. It is a bit more complicated than just closing doors and turning off lights.
One huge consideration in all of this is the worship space and how it supports good liturgies: flow, clear vision lines, acoustics, music ministries, sung prayer of the assembly, and handicapped accessibility. In the future, if there are only four or five weekend liturgies in this Family, that means there could regularly be upwards of 300 people at any one or more of those Masses. The new parish church will need to have adequate, safe parking and a comfortable worship space for at least this number of people at a Mass. We currently have some churches in this Family that could hold that number, but each has some impediments that will need to be considered, such as adequate and safe parking, handicapped accessible restrooms, entrances, and exits. Please know that no decisions have been made to date, and studies are underway so the best decisions can be made.
May God help you as you become one new Parish that will have beautiful liturgies with excellence in pastoral music, prayerful environments, and beautiful sacramental celebrations, a full church at Masses, energetic ministry leaders, fun social events, meeting spaces to accommodate our vibrant ministries, secure buildings, and caring leaders. We already share one faith, one hope, one Lord, one Church. We are blessed.
So now you know that much has been accomplished and there is still more ahead for the Our Lady of Divine Providence Family of Parishes. God bless…
--Father Andrew Umberg