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Pastoral planning is still on the minds of every parish leader and pastoral council member in the Albany Diocese.

Projections indicate there could be only 57 active diocesan priests by the year 2020. The conversations have turned to being proactive and collaborative: "Now, the goal is to not simply survive, but to thrive," said Deacon Frank Berning, director of the diocesan Office of Pastoral Planning.

Diocesan leaders are recommending "a model that calls on laypeople to be better formed, better trained, so that they can actively participate in the growth of the parish," he said. "This is a better model for growing our Church."

Deaneries are making recommendations to Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger for the newly-reinstituted pastoral planning committee, which will begin to compile best practices for collaboration.

"We need to be sure we hear the voices from the rural communities, the urban communities and the suburban communities," Deacon Berning said.

Working together
More and more, leaders are taking on multiple parishes. Communities are discussing joint pastoral councils and finance committees and hiring financial administrators to allow pastors to concentrate on more complex pastoral duties. Parishes in the same deaneries are coming together to strengthen communities and come up with solutions before there are problems.

For example, St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph's parish in Rensselaer is beginning to share resources and personnel with St. Mary's parish in Clinton Heights. The two finance councils will have a joint meeting in September, as will the pastoral councils - but will remain separate entities.

Staffing gaps are being filled with an eye to collaboration: St. John/St. Joseph's parish secretary will serve both parishes when St. Mary's secretary retires. St. John/St. Joseph's parish life director will help at St. Mary's when its pastoral associate for parish administration also retires.

The part-time superintendent at Holy Sepulchre, the Rensselaer parish's cemetery, was recently brought on full-time to also do maintenance at both parishes. St. John/St. Joseph's parish nurse will start helping at St. Mary's in January.

Ahead of curve
"As time goes on, we will begin to expand the roles of staff at both parishes," said Deacon Gregory Mansfield, parish life director at St. John the Evangelist and St. Joseph's. "This is certainly a cost-saving move, [but] nothing changes as far as the structure of either parish.

"We're trying to be ahead of the curve on this. We all realize that as vocations continue to decline, we need to really look at what we can do to be proactive."

The pastor at St. Mary's, Rev. David LeFort, is starting to help celebrate Masses in Rensselaer; Deacon Mansfield is returning the favor by serving at St. Mary's.

A letter to parishioners of both communities this summer stated that, "although change is not always easy or expected, our parish communities know that prayer and faith will lead us to where God intends us to be."

The leaders of parishes in Warren and Washington Counties have been meeting to discuss pastoral planning and how to divide liturgies among available priests. There are 22 parishes in the deanery and 10.5 priests; in five years, there will be half that number of clergy.

Limited priests
In northern Columbia County, three parishes recently began sharing leadership when pastors retired: St. James in Chatham, St. John the Baptist in Valatie and St. Joseph's in Stuyvesant Falls/Stottville, which has two worship sites.

"They recognized the fact that a limited number of priests would be available," said Rev. George Fleming, who has been pastor of the group of parishes for a month. "It is a lot of work. It requires patience of the people knowing that you're pulled in different directions."

The parishes will hire a pastoral director of operations to oversee administration and buildings and grounds. There's talk of a joint pastoral council or having councils collaborate. Father Fleming wants to see more joint events, "to build a community and a sense of ownership.

"The last thing I want to be is like the negotiator," he said. "We really want to see a collaborative model."

Rev. Daniel Quinn, who was ordained in 2012, is now serving as associate pastor in northern Columbia County. He started before Father Fleming and was the only priest for a while after the former pastors retired.

Father Quinn knew when he entered the priesthood that he'd shepherd multiple parishes someday, but said he "could not have predicted doing it alone and in a situation where they had not been doing it [yet].

Eight Masses, two of us
"It was difficult for a couple of months, not being experienced in administration," Father Quinn told The Evangelist. "I'm very blessed to have a pastor now. I'm not in charge, but I've been here longer than Father George and know more people than him. It's really weird."

Father Quinn's Spanish language skills are helpful in St. Joseph's Hispanic ministry - although having an ethnic community as well makes it feel "more like five communities than three," he said.

Among the three parishes, there are eight weekend liturgies to be celebrated. Fathers Quinn and Fleming are splitting the responsibilities with retired priests and a Holy Cross priest from St. Joseph's Center in Valatie. The two parish priests work together for funerals, hospital visits, emergencies and other pastoral duties.

"We've got this nice system now," Father Quinn said: An emergency phone line calls both of their cell phones; voicemails are also transcribed into text messages.

Father Quinn refers to the new setup as "like a boss with three different businesses." Father Fleming says it's like "a group of sisters." [[In-content Ad]]

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