Advancing the Mission Day brings mission fields, Pastoral Center staff together

Bishop Daniel Felton addresses Advancing the Mission Day at the College of St. Scholastica Aug. 10. (Photo by Susan Dunkerley Maguire)

On Aug. 10, Bishop Daniel Felton, the diocesan Pastoral Center staff, and representatives from the mission fields serving the diocese came together at the College of St. Scholastica for a day of dialogue and fellowship as the local church continues to implement Bishop Felton’s pastoral letter. 

“The purpose of the Advancing the Mission Day was to begin a conversation between the mission fields and the Pastoral Center as to how together we can collaborate and cooperate in our common mission of helping people to grow closer to the healing, hope and joy of Jesus,” Bishop Felton told The Northern Cross. 

“I liken this relationship to a slinky,” he said. “For the slinky to fulfill its purpose and mission, it must flow back and forth between the right and left hands. A slinky that flows in one direction and stops is ineffective and counterproductive. Likewise, there must be an ongoing dialogue between the mission fields and the Pastoral Center so that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing and together we advance our mission.” 

Gina Lemke, the new diocesan chief of staff, was a key organizer of the day. She said the priests of the diocese were invited and asked to bring one person from their parish, such as a trustee, finance council member, a secretary, or DRE. School principals and administrators were also invited. All told, about 120 people were there. 

In the bishop’s pastoral letter, “The Dawn from on High Shall Break Upon Us,” issued last Christmas, he calls for a change of culture, including a deepened relationship between those working in the mission fields and those in the diocesan pastoral offices. 

“We really hadn’t had an opportunity as a Pastoral Center and as the mission fields to meet face-to-face, to kind of take it to that next level,” Lemke said. “So the whole day was designed to provide a format to elicit feedback and also a format to allow for fellowship and networking, so just a beautiful opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move between us and amongst us as we discern what our next steps will be.” 

The day included introductions of the Pastoral Center staff and an address by Bishop Felton, where he spoke about the pastoral letter and the efforts undertaken on it so far, as well as the unveiling of the new diocesan website, an initiative that was, itself, partially a result of input from the mission fields. 

But much of the day was spent in breakout sessions with many of the Pastoral Center’s departments. While those responsible for those departments provided a brief overview of their efforts, most of the sessions were discussion — like that “slinky” analogy — talking about which programs should be maintained, which could be stopped, and what might be added to that work to better support the mission. 

John Ball, diocesan director of human resources, leads a breakout session at Advancing the Mission Day Aug. 10. The breakout sessions were designed to let pastors and other representatives from the mission fields learn about and give feedback on the work of the diocesan Pastoral Center. (Photo by Susan Dunkerley Maguire)

Lemke said just being together in the wake of the Covid pandemic was “a beautiful blessing” both personally and professionally, and others seemed to share that assessment. 

“I heard lots of positive feedback from attendees that day and the post-survey response[s] that we had were very favorable,” she said. 

Lemke said the information gathered will be put to good use. 

“We plan to compile all that we learned to share that with the mission fields and to help us really ascertain and discern what would be any program changes or service changes we’re going to make,” she said. “We really are committed to using all the information people did share with us.“ 

The day was made possible by generous support from the CREED Fund, the Catholic Community Foundation, TurnKey Direct Marketing, and the College of St. Scholastica.