Our Mission Statement proclaims…
Our Roman Catholic community is a Trinitarian people whose spiritual journey
- invites participation in the very life of God through communion with the incarnate Word by the power of the Holy Spirit who is love;
- develops through a life of prayer which is the ongoing cultivation of relationship with God rooted in divine initiative;
- produces holiness as growth in conformity to our true natures as human beings created for union with the triune God;
- attends to the many dimensions of the human person and of the God-world relation; and
- is singularly attentive to the quality of relationship between and among human persons.
We come together as community to hear the Word and share in the Sacraments and through these to be transformed into the mind of Christ for service to each other, to our neighbors, and to the world community. To fulfill our service we have committed to a parish mission and to address that mission we have organized ourselves, constituted as a Pastor and Parish Council.
Our Constitutional Parish…
St. Vincent’s Parish Council operates under the provisions of a Constitution, first adopted in 1974 and amended in 1992. The constitution provides for collegial decision-making, stating “…The Council shall therefore collaborate with the Pastor to establish policy and direction for the life and ministry of the parish. Pastor and Council should relate to each other as closely as the harp and the strings, so that a concordant note may be given to lead the whole community of disciples in singing the praises of God.”
The Parish Council and Its Committees
Under the Constitution, committees are agents of the Council and accountable to it. In a mission-driven community, this takes two forms:
- The committee acts for the Council in addressing the needs and concerns of the parish community specific to its charter and mission sector; and
- The committee through its chair, a designated member of the Council, or the chair’s designated committee representative ensures that the committee’s mission responsibility is actively considered in Council consensus decision-making. In a mission-driven community, the committees, through their chairs, become an integral part of the Council.
The Council has responsibilities to the committees:
- To understand the scope of the committee mission and its particular challenges;
- To undertake parish-wide assessments of community needs to inform mission sector annual planning;
- To provide a venue for cross-committee consultation and support;
- To assist the committee with an effective means of parish communication; and
- To evaluate parish programs as appropriate.
In everything, the Council and the committees through which it functions exist to support the parish community and therefore the Council owes the community transparent access to information, effective venues for the expression of needs and concerns, and accountability in all its actions.
The Parish Council has established five committees to implement our mission:
Three mission-driven committees
- Liturgy – Sacrament;
- Education & Enrichment – Word; and
- Social Action – Service
Two mission-support committees
We acknowledge that the realities of institution and community are foundational to our parish life for they express very basic human needs for personal relationships (community) and the fulfillment of those needs in organized structures (institution).
Institution gives a living link to our rich faith tradition and its structure supports the effective use of resources and staff and volunteer efforts. Yet we believe that too much emphasis on institution leads to centralized power and excessive reliance on suffocating rules and procedures.
Community envisions the parish as a mystical communion united more interiorly and personally than through organizational charts, more as a family of families, one in grace and spirit. Yet we realize that with too much emphasis on community, a parish risks turning inward and nurturing itself almost exclusively, becoming elitist.
Accordingly, we must hold both the institution and the community realities in grace-filled and creative tension as we discharge the responsibilities of our missions of sacrament, word, and service.