Chancellors weigh troika success after year

A year after the historic appointment of a priest, woman religious and layperson to share the position of chancellor for the Albany Diocese, the trio have declared their efforts at collaboration so far a success.

Two years remain before a decision is made about whether to make the three-chancellor model permanent.

Sister Kathleen Turley, RSM, chancellor for planning and pastoral services; Rev. Geoffrey Burke, chancellor for personnel and public information; and Jay Feeney, chancellor for finance and administration, told The Evangelist that the past year has brought both challenges and opportunities.

Busy year

The challenges have been many: Both Sister Kathleen and Father Burke kept their previous positions when they became chancellors, respectively heading the diocesan pastoral planning and priests' personnel offices. Having retired as deputy comptroller for the State of New York to take up his position as chancellor, Mr. Feeney said he had to face being "the new kid on the block."

In addition, the three chancellors' work over the last year has included:

* implementing the pastoral plans of parish clusters,

* instituting a strategic planning process for diocesan departments,

* helping to plan the Diocese's 150th anniversary celebrations,

* overseeing the largest building boom in Catholic schools and parishes seen here in 40 years, and

* introducing the "Renew 2000" program to the Diocese.

Each chancellor has also taken over the supervision of a group of diocesan departments that fall under their area of expertise.

Communication

Every week, the trio meets to exchange information on the specific work each chancellor is doing. Then they meet with Bishop Howard J. Hubbard to present their reports to him. The greatest value in this system, the chancellors said, is their ability to get one another's input on their work.

"Our major areas of collaboration have been in the pastoral planning process," explained Father Burke. "We've done a lot of background work, looking at [cluster] plans, finances, buildings, administration of parishes."

Having three perspectives on complicated issues is an advantage their predecessors lacked, the trio said.

Budget

In his work, Mr. Feeney explained, "almost everything is determined by the budget. Everything I deal with is shared with these chancellors, then with the Bishop."

For example, when Mr. Feeney is approached with a financial problem that requires pastoral planning knowledge to be solved, he can get Sister Kathleen's opinion before proceeding. Father Burke was pleased that in dealing with future viability of parishes, the trio could look at monetary, personnel and pastoral planning issues according to their own experiences.

Having offices located near Bishop Hubbard's has proven to be another advantage for the chancellors "in terms of his being able to pop in, so you can ask him two or three questions that you need a quick answer on," added Father Burke.

Confusion

The chancellors admitted that there is still some confusion among diocesan departments regarding which chancellor to approach with a problem.

"I don't think it's completely understood," Mr. Feeney said of the three-chancellor configuration. If a department under Sister Kathleen's supervision has a financial question, for instance, it has not yet been resolved whether they should go to "their" chancellor or to Mr. Feeney, since he handles financial matters.

Juggling the dual workloads of chancellorship and heading diocesan departments has been far from easy for the trio. The chancellors joked that when their predecessor, Rev. Randall Patterson, left his position to become pastor of Our Lady of Victory parish in Troy, he left them three typed, single-spaced pages of notes just explaining his work as chancellor.

"It was too much work for one person," Mr. Feeney stated.

'Balancing act'

Father Burke called managing both his share of the chancellors' duties and the priests' personnel board "a bit of a balancing act. One situation can completely consume your time -- [for example,] if you have a pastor who's sick in a rural area, how you're going to provide a priest [for the parish]. Everything else goes on hold."

The chancellors agreed that they are still struggling with "prompt turn-around time" in responding to questions and problems. "We've been taking in a lot of information," Sister Kathleen commented. "We're working on, `How do we get back to people in a timely manner?'"

Another issue to be considered is the emotional impact of their work. When dealing with the future of parishes in the Diocese, "you cannot make decisions quickly, because so many of the decisions touch people's physical, spiritual and emotional lives," Father Burke stated. "You have to not just act from an administrative point of view."

Collaboration

The trio expressed gratitude to Bishop Hubbard for "very gently bringing that pastoral dimension above other things" when they get too enmeshed in administrative decision-making.

Overall, the chancellors were pleased at the opportunity to demonstrate to parishes of the Diocese that they aren't the only institutions working on collaborative ministry.

"Working together in a collaborative manner can be seen as, `That's for parishes to do,'" said Father Burke. "We're saying, `This is for the whole Diocese to do.'"

Model

Sister Kathleen added that the fact that a priest, woman religious and layperson were selected for such leadership roles "models that there is a role for all of us. There are roles on all levels of the Church."

Having three chancellors supervising departments and reporting to him has given the Bishop "the opportunity to be more pastoral," she said. "In the past, most of the departments had reported directly to him."

After only a year in their new positions, the chancellors said it was "difficult to evaluate" whether the three-person model would be kept after its trial period is complete.

"I don't think anything has happened this year that says this should stop," Mr. Feeney said.

Using three people who can share their particular talents instead of requiring one chancellor to be an expert in everything may be a stroke of genius, he added: "You don't have to know everything to run an organization, but you have to know enough to hire the people who do."

(10-16-97)