Guiding Excellence: Parish Growth Strategies & Standards for Success

1. Yakima Finance Policy ReviewStandards of Parish Excellence: Future Direction for Parish Growth Bishop Joseph Tyson February 22nd 2012

2. Questions to ask ourselves (every school and every parish): • What are we doing well? • What can we do differently? • What should we stop doing? • What should we start doing? • How do we get everyone to excellence? • What does it take to grow, improve and develop?

3. Excellence SCHOOLS • Academic Excellence • Stewardship • Accessibility for All Kinds of Learners • Good Governance • Catholic Identity evident in School life PARISHES • Parish Liturgical Excellence • Stewardship as a way of life for all parishioners • Accessibility for all kinds of parishioners of all kinds of backgrounds • Good Governance of the Parish and its School Mission • Catechetical Excellence for all ages and all learners.

4. 5 STANDARDS of EXCELLENCE: • Liturgical Excellence • Stewardship • Accessibility • Governance • Catechetical Excellence

5. Creating a Process to Achieve Excellence What does Excellence look like? What Policies support Excellence? How do we find our where we have it and where we can improve? Who should be involved? What are the leadership roles?

6. ROLES supporting Parish Excellence • Bishop • Key Governance Roles • Pastoral Center • Diocesan Finance Council • Diocesan Pastoral Council • Vicars / 6 Vicariates • Parish Visiting Teams

7. Bishop’s Role “As bishop I strive to teach, govern and sanctify in a manner that animates our ecclesial movements and assists the parish, schools and agencies of the Diocese of Yakima grow and flourish drawing all closer to Christ and His Church.”

8. Pastoral Center Role • “….pastoral center clergy and staff to provide technical and catecheticalconsultationandsupport so that every parish can helps its parishioners grow closer to each other, to Jesus Christ and to His Church.”

9. Diocesan Finance Council • “… assists the bishop in holding all parishes, schools and agencies to standards of financialtransparency and good facilitymanagement so that they may become every better stewards of their parishioners gifts of time, treasure and talent.”

10. Diocesan Pastoral Council Role • “… holds the parish, schools and agencies to standardsofexcellence based on commendations and recommendations provided to this bishop for his consideration as he teaches, preaches and governs the Diocese of Yakima.” • Initial surfacing of names done by clergy this last year but will be surfacing names during our consultative processes on policies.

11. DIOCESAN PASTORAL COUNCIL ATTRIBUTES: • Council members should have parish volunteer expertise in at least one of five standards: • Liturgical Excellence • Stewardship • Accessibility • Governance • Catechetical Excellence • The Diocesan Pastoral Council should reflect the racial, cultural, geographic and age diversity of the diocese. • Who would you propose to be on the council?

12. 6 Vicariates

13. The Vicars of the Diocese of Yakima • “The role of the Diocesan Vicars is to assist their community of brothers and sisters in embracing diocesan standards and developing key responsibility areas (KRA’s) with clear SMART goals for their respective Diocesan ministerial areas.”

14. Vicariate for Parish Life: Father Osmar Aguirre PARISH VISITING TEAMS • Formation of Visitation Teams: Sister Kathleen Ross, Father Osmar Aguirre • Visiting Team: Area Representative, Diocesan Pastoral Council Member, Visiting team members • Year-Two Review: Diocesan Pastoral council member and visiting team members. • Visiting Team Findings Review: Diocesan Pastoral Council, Area Representative, Father Osmar Aguirre • Report to Parish: Final Recommendations and Commendations for Parish based on date to the bishop – Father Osmar Aguirre

15. Visitation Teams & 7-Year Plan Each member of the Diocesan Pastoral Council will be an anchor for a Parish Visiting Team. These teams of members will formed by Sister Kathleen Ross & Fr. Osmar Aguirre to lead a review process of parishes and prepare findings for the Bishop in the form of commendations and recommendations for best practices. When fully operational in 7 years there will be 10 teams. A limited number of parishes each year.

16. Visitation Teams • Area Representative • One member from the Diocesan Pastoral Council or Finance Council • 3 members who are Parish Staff or Volunteers who align with expertise to the other standards (below) not covered by other members: Liturgical Excellence Stewardship Accessibility Governance Catechetical Excellence

17. Visitation Teams A TEAM 5 persons makes 3 or 4 visits in one year visitation tied to 5 color standards 2 years later: 1 team member and the Area Representative checks for evidence that the parish is working on their self-identified recommendations for improvement

18. Excellence Recognized & Best Practices & Expectations Shared • Commendations: Pastoral initiatives to be uplifted from the local parish and shared with other parishes in the Diocese of Yakima as models and examples. • Recommendations: Pastoral recommendations from the visiting team based on the best practices of other parishes and measured against policies of the Diocese of Yakima.