Dear Friends,
In recent years, our Parish Annual Report has been a one page re-cap of the sacramental and financial history of the past fiscal year. This year Saint Patrick Catholic Church is taking a more comprehensive Past-Present-Future approach that (1) looks at our 10 year historical trends; (2) assesses our current situation in light of Archbishop Sartain’s vision for the Seattle Archdiocese, and (3) provides a vision for the future direction of our parish in light of our past and present.
10 Year Parish Profile
The information contained in the 10-year parish profile speaks for itself. Though statistics can be misleading, the trends they reveal are clear. While our parish income has remained fairly steady, our parish population is shrinking; Mass attendance and the celebration of the sacraments are down. We are not going in the right direction as a parish community. However, on the plus side is the expected addition of 3,500 residents in the Tacoma area by 2020. We need to be prepared to reach out and welcome them to our community.
Archbishop’s Vision
In Archbishop Sartain’s remarks at Priest Days, (an annual gathering of all Diocesan priests in June), he acknowledges these trends throughout most of the diocese, and then lays out his reasons to hope for a brighter future and the steps we need to take to move towards that brighter future. I highlighted what I felt were the major points of Archbishop Sartain’s vision, followed by my sense of where our parish stands in relation to those issues. Like Archbishop Sartain, I have great hope for our future.
Our Mission | Values | Priorities
It is our firm belief that always lifting up Jesus Christ as the centerpiece of our faith will help both current and existing parishioners to form a deeper personal relationship with Him, and will strengthen, enliven and eventually grow our faith community. I was thrilled to discover that the Mission | Values | Priorities we had uncovered for Saint Patrick Catholic Church were consistent with the vision Archbishop Sartain has for the diocese. One last comment, our Mission | Values | Priorities, they will provide us the guidelines within which we decide how to tackle some of the challenging opportunities that lay ahead for Saint Patrick Catholic Church: Collaboration with neighboring parishes and partnership with St. Rita; potential capital campaign for our school and the Diocesan Priest Pension campaign; Evangelization, Discipleship and Radical Welcoming; and our new Youth Minister and new opportunities for Youth.
Gratitude
As always, I am so grateful for all of you and all you do for our parish and the surrounding community. I pray you share this same sense of gratitude for Christ’s presence in your life through the Eucharist and through each other.
Saint Patrick – Pray For Us!
Kevin Lovejoy
Pastoral Coordinator
