"Excellent" parishes shine in New Orleans!

by Louise Bauer, OSF

About two years ago, the pastoral team of the Catholic Area Parishes were interviewed by Paul Wilkes, a researcher who visited parishes in the United States in search of excellent Catholic and Protestant parishes. His findings were published in two books, one about the Protestant and one about the Catholic churches, Excellent Catholic Parishes - A Guide to the Best Places and Practices (Paulist Press). The Catholic Area Parishes is the subject of one of the chapters.

The parishes featured in the book were invited to participate in the Pastoral Summit May 30-June 1 in New Orleans to share about their ministries. The pastoral team and six parishioners presented four workshops at this national conference which was the first ever gathering of Protestant and Catholic clergy and laity focusing exclusively on the local church. In the two and a half days of workshops, talks, discussions, worship and community, all participants explored the best traditions and experienced the power and potential of a number of Christian churches from all over the United States.

Three workshops were given by Sister Clara Stang, OSF, who coordinated and participated in each of them along with six members from the parishes and three team members. They were as follows: "Creative Evangelism" workshop was presented by Sister Darlene Gutenkauf, PVBM, DeGraff, Jack and Roxanne Shekleton, Murdock, "Church as Missionary was given by Sister Louise Bauer, OSF, Clontarf, Carol Kobberman, Benson, and Stella Kalthoff, DeGraff. "Partnering and Clustering" was led by Father Steve Verhelst, Benson, Kathy Dolan, Danvers, and Nancy O’Leary, Danvers. The fourth workshop was a soul breakfast. The topic, "They call her Pastor - women meet the challenge of excellence", featured Sister Clara Stang of Danvers, with Patricia Ferris, First United Methodist of Santa Monica, CA, and Valarie Chapman of St. Francis of Assisi, Portland, OR.

Jack and Roxanne Shekleton of Sacred Heart parish, Murdock, felt that the experience of the summit was one of a very warm and open atmosphere where everybody had respect for everyone’s way of worshipping." It was a wonderful step forward in our call to unity. The most vibrant churches were the ones with much lay participation."

Stella Kalthoff of St. Bridget’s, DeGraff, said that attending the Pastoral Summit recently held in New Orleans was a truly awesome event. "I think we went to bring our tiny piece of faith to the huge puzzle and left with a huge piece of faith as the puzzle got smaller. We are all in this together and need everyone to do the job. Our faith communities are working toward the same goal, to share the Good News and bring Jesus into our everyday lives."