adjourned! report to Pastoral Council will be May 18

FYI -- our Pastoral Council meeting agenda tonight was packed so we moved the report from the G I F T team to our next meeting, Monday May 18. So feel free to continue to add comments about the report until about May 11.

draft report of planning team

4.14.09 DRAFT Report of G I F T Team to Pastoral Council

OVERVIEW
The parish-wide effort Growing In Faith Together is an embodiment of an ideal of the parish as a single unified faith community.

Borne out of the Pastoral Council's recognition of a sense of fragmentation expressed by some parishioners, the two G I F T events have had rich content but have not achieved a broad understanding of how G I F T serves the needs of the parish, or enhances the work of individual ministries. The G I F T planning team has candidly reviewed the experiences of the last two years and is prepared to move forward with a more sustained effort to engage more parishioners and ministries, culminating in another parish-wide G I F T event in 2010.

The success of that event will be determined by the degree to which G I F T is (a) recognized as helping to knit together our parish, (b) noticeably involves a broad range of ministries in event planning and execution, and (c) provides content and an experience that enhances our faith.

ORIGINS

• from 2007 parish Leadership Day presentation by John Roberto on inter-generational catechesis 'breaking through silos', through cross-ministry participation in a catechetical event, preceded by parish-wide preparation for the event
  
• grew out of common feedback in Parish about 'fragmentation'
• Pastoral Council efforts to increase sense of unity in parish + provide for catecheis
  

EXPERIENCE: Year One + Year Two
Companions on the Journey 2008 (based on Ignatian Spirituality and the parish's identity as 'a Jesuit apostolate')

• event was a fair (the main part presented 8 experiences of Ignatian Spirituality of which participants could select 2) followed by liturgy and a dinner
  
• event was preceded by 4 presentations of different experiences with Ignatian Spirituality (George Drance creation of his ikon, Ignatian Schola presentation of music, Rose Allocca talk about Ignatian Spirituality, a gallery of images reflective of Ignatian Spirituality)
• large planning team met multiple times
  

Gathering the Graces 2009 (based on the experiences of four spiritual graces)

• event was planned as presentations / experiences of the graces of Call, Gratitude, Co-Laboring, Healing to be repeated four times so that participants could experience each Grace (given the small group, it became a sequence of presentations in which all participated as a single group) followed by liturgy and dinner
• planning for the event was decentralized, with the 4 groups of ministries involved in each Grace meeting to plan each Grace presentation
  

FEEDBACK: What Did We Learn?

• there is still very limited understanding in the parish of what G I F T is (and is not: 'another ministry')
  
• much more sustained + aggressive outreach is needed to engage specific ministries in G I F T (Mission Outreach and Family Faith are key ministries for greater awareness + involvement)
• we talk too much in our events (verbal presentation / 'preaching' is our all-too-dominant mode; we need more art, play, visual and other varied modes)
• we will not engage children (and their parents) without experiences and content geared to them
• the build-up for Companions on the Journey was more effective for the parish (with four preparatory events)
• the preparation for Gathering the Graces by the four groups of ministries was meaningful for these four groups of ministries
• timing of the event remains a concern (length of the program, conflict with family vacations / school break)
• the process (how we plan) and the output (the event) both are opportunities and have value
  

GOING FORWARD

• planning team is prepared to go forward
• ideally, one event (post-Easter?) with significant preparation work across ministries / generations (as in typical Roberto scenario)
  
• must devote greater attention to the planning process, and have deeper + longer involvement by different ministries
• whether or not there are 'pre-events' (such as in Year One), there should be stages of ministry outreach, engagement + preparation
• one subject-matter idea is to focus on The Social Gospel, raising questions such as 'what is (should be) the response of the parish to Jesus' call to feed / clothe / visit / comfort my people?' (we have discussed alternative ideas for content, such as A Year Of Paul, but the how is probably more complicated than the what)
  
• there is a natural tie-in to the May 16 day devoted to ministry development and formation, in stimulating ministries to think about G I F T as reflecting the parish Mission Statement
  

notes from planning team meeting March 25

Luz, Aryanna, Boreta, Jackie and I met to assess feedback from this year's event, to discuss future possibilities and to plan for a report to Pastoral Council on April 20. It was a wonderful conversation (of two hours)!

Jackie will post notes from the meeting in the comments soon.

big question -- value of the process

Remembering that our 2 main goals for G I F T have been to learn (Grow In Faith) in ways that are parish-wide (Together), I'd love to hear if the people involved in preparing the Feb 21 event found The Process rewarding:

• did you find the meetings, calls, emails, reflection through which you prepared for Feb 21 helped you (personally) to grow in faith?
• did you find the meetings, calls, emails, reflection through which you prepared for Feb 21 helped you (personally) to get out of your 'silos' and connect meaningfully with people involved in very different ministries than your own?

As with my previous 'big question', my hope is to get feedback to help analyze whether the effort of putting-on-an-event is 'worth it'.

big question - 2 things we are trying to accomplish

Way back when -- 2 years ago when G I F T was named + launched -- there were 2 main inter-related goals: (1) catechesis (the "Growing In Faith" part) and (2) breaking through the 'silos' that can separate the parish into different groups (the "Together" part).

Focusing on those twin values, should G I F T move away from a single event focus toward ... something else? E.g., should we (instead? in addition?) be encouraging/facilitating/creating more catechetical opportunities that bring together 1, 2 or 3 groups throughout the year? Or (and?) should G I F T lead a parish-wide year of prayer on a topic such as Social Gospel (what should/could the role of the parish be in 2009 in feeding, clothing, visiting, comforting, sheltering, loving God's people?)?

This question comes from a certain level of frustration that the Feb 21 "event" took a lot of work from a lot of people and attracting relatively few other people. Maybe there is a better way to use our resources in ways that really engage parishioners, while Growing In Faith Together??

I hope to pose more of these "big questions"...

Seeking GIFT reviews!

Hi all,

Welcome to the GIFT Xavier blog! This is an online forum for sharing ideas about the recent GIFT event, future GIFT/spiritual events at Xavier, and whatever other related topics come to mind!

To start us off, here are a few questions about GIFT...

What was your overall reaction to the GIFT day on Feb. 21?

Positives

What did you like best about GIFT?

Suggestions for improvement

What would you have liked better at GIFT?

Length of program

Was the GIFT program too long or too short or just right?

Participation at GIFT

What could we do to encourage greater participation (attendance) at GIFT?

Presentation modes

How was the variety of presentation modes at GIFT?

Future GIFT blog topics

Please suggest any topics we would want to list on this blog for the entire parish to be able to answer.

Technology

Do you like the idea of this blog/discussion forum? Do you find it easy to use, post comments on, and navigate? Any suggestions for improvement?