Did You Know?

Christ the King Parish Survey

Did you know that by 2012 the number of priests in our Richmond Diocese is estimated to decline by up to 22? That number may not sound like much but in a diocese that has a current requirement of over 120 priests, a drop of 22 represents a decline of almost 20% across Virginia. The gloomy forecast is even more troubling if we consider that many of the remaining priests will be approaching their 70s and 80s. Simply put: in four short years, there won’t be enough priest to assign to every parish, including Christ the King.

Bishop DiLorenzo has already commissioned a planning effort to help parishes work out options within their regions to meet these challenges collectively. Specifically, the Bishop is asking that each parish proactively and comprehensively prepare to move from a one-pastor-one-parish expectation, to a new model of church focused on the concept of “cluster,” where one priest may be assigned to multi parishes. Though there are many uncertainties ahead, one message is clear: it will be up to us, the parishioners, to take the lead and find the right set of options that makes the best sense for CTK. In short, the future of Christ the King is literally in the hands of the lay parishioners. Father Brian has often said that the heart and soul of any parish is not the priest but the parishioners themselves. Those words are both prophetic and a call to action for all of us.

What do we do next? The first step is to start with you—every member of our Parish: church and school. We have almost 450 families in the Church and another 220 families (285 students) associated with our School. We want and need to hear from all of you; first to get your thoughts, insights and recommendations; secondly to provide you with information and an assessment on the “State of CTK,” like explaining what our Parish Vision is; our Mission, what our seven core Parish Ministries are and who is leading them. In short, what we need to do is conduct a comprehensive interactive Parish survey.

How will we conduct our Parish survey? Here’s the plan—

· What we’re after is to get a genuine sense from as many people across our Parish, both church and school. Reaching everyone may not be realistic. But we think it is possible to get a wide representative number of respondents to increase the validity of the survey: parents, teens, seniors, students, young single adults, etc.

· We’ll use a variety of methods: web-based questionnaire; hard copy survey handed out after Mass; and interactive small group sessions (12-15 folks) following the 8:30 and 11:30 Masses that will run over 3 consecutive weekends and 1 weeknight starting Mar 2, 2008.

· To be efficient and effective with our time and resources—and to avoid over-taxing your busy schedule—our survey teams will visit as many groups that already exist across the Parish during their normal meetings to conduct the survey.

· For instance: we plan to visit the church choir group during one of its practices to survey them. We’ll do the same for the teens, parents and Sunday school teachers attending CCD (Confraternity of Catholic Doctrine); same goes for those associated with our CTK School; etc.

· For those who are not associated with these groups, we will hold our small group sessions on the following days at the school:

ü Sun, 2 Mar, 9:45-11:15 (up to 3 groups); 1:00-2:15p (3 groups)

ü Sun, 9 Mar, 9:45-11:15 (up to 3 groups); 1:00-2:15p (3 groups)

ü Wed, 12 Mar, 7:00-8:30p (one large group ~ 50+)

ü Sun, 16 Mar, 9:45-11:15 (3 groups); 1:00-2:30p (3 groups)

· Town Hall Meeting: the goal is to be completed with all the surveying by Easter—and then compile and analyze your input and report the findings back to you at a Town Hall Meeting, scheduled for Sun, 20 April, 1:00-3:00p at the school.

· Want to learn more? Visit us at our homepage: www.ctkparish-norfolk.org