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Glossary of Terms

Accountability: A person who accepts the ownership of the successful completion of a task(s) or the achievement of expected positive outcome(s). This person may delegate certain responsibilities to other parties, but still holds the accountability for the overall success of the project.


Accountability Meeting: Parish Administrators meet every other week to make sure the tasks of the 6 Pillar Groups are being carried out in the respective parishes.


Activation Phase: Parishes begin to work together developing a transition plan working to form parishes into a Family. Development of a Family Council (FC) and Family Action Plan are an important aspect of this phase. This phase lasts until Inauguration.


Business Manager: The Family of Parishes (FoP) Business Manager is a leadership role in support of the pastor’s responsibilities to Family. This position has the overall fiduciary responsibility for the management of the FoP business office. The FoP Business Manager, as the head of operations, works with the clergy, staff, and volunteers to see that the temporal gifts of the parishioners are prudently accounted for and used to carry out the mission of the Family.


Chaplain: A priest or deacon with a specialized ministry that provides ministerial leadership to a specific area of responsibility. (ie: Hospital, Catholic school)


Director of Discipleship: The Director of Discipleship within the Family of Parishes is a leadership role that has oversight responsibility and in some cases direct responsibility for Catholic Education and Faith Formation.


Director of Mission: The Family of Parishes (FoP) Director of Mission is a leadership role in support of the Church’s call to be missionary disciples. The person will establish and oversee all committees that will help to make a good parish into a vibrant community. This will incorporate the pillars of stewardship and OutReach/InReach.


Director of Worship and Music Ministry: The Director of Worship/Music Minister is a professional musician who holds specialized credentials in music and has a thorough understanding of Roman Catholic liturgy. This person of faith is responsible for the effective planning, coordination, and execution of worship within the liturgical celebrations of the parish. He or she is gifted with a vision of how a local Church can develop its potential to realize that the celebration of the Mass is the source and summit of all Catholic worship.


Disciple Maker Index: A tool used by Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI) to assess parish strengths, challenges and areas of growth. This tool will help parishes develop their Family Action Plan.


Facilitator: A trained lay leader that assists at meetings within the Family during the Activation Phase.


Family Action Plan: A strategic plan for the Family that defines goals, strategies, expected outcomes and methodology for reaching a vibrant future with vitality and fiscal responsibility. The Family Action Plan will be strategic for short-term and long-term planning for the Family with clearly identified attainable outcomes.


Family Leadership Team: Family Leadership Teams assist and complement the pastor by adding their unique skillsets to help monitor current realities, create plans for betterment, and evaluate results. They act like executive committees—i.e., they are made up of individuals delegated to make decisions or execute specific responsibilities in the interests of the FoPs and can be made up of parish member trustees, lay leaders, lay ministers, priests, deacons but should not be dominated by clergy. It is recommended that the FLT meets at least once a month.


Inauguration Phase: The date in which a designated group of parishes begins functioning as a Family. This ends the activation phase for this particular Family of Parishes.


Initiation Phase: The phase when a Family of Parishes is informed of a specific activation start date. In the Initiation Phase, parishes begin the preliminary work to prepare for the Activation Phase.


Parochial Vicar: Priest assigned to assist the Pastor in a Family with specific areas of delegated accountabilities and assigned responsibilities within the Family.


Parochial Vicar with Specialized Ministry: Priest assigned to assist the Pastor in a Family with specific areas of delegated accountability that may be outside of the Family. Furthermore, this priest is also assigned to assist with scheduled liturgies within the Family.


Pastor: Leader of the Family of Parishes and Pastor of each Family member parish.


Pillars: There are 6 Church Pillars: Liturgy, Spiritual Life, Forming Disciples, OutReach / InReach, Stewardship & Administration. These are the 6 key areas of the Church that require constant planning, monitoring and evaluation within each Family of Parishes.


Pillar Group: A team of experts dedicated to working collaboratively to construct, monitor and evaluate the plan within each of the 6 Pillars that provide the foundation for the Family Action Plan.


Renewal Representatives: Those appointed by the Pastor/Administrator to represent the individual parishes in relaying information about the Renewal to the parish, and worked directly with Catholic Leadership Institute to be advocates for the Disciple Maker Index survey.


Responsibility: Person accepting control over something or someone, not always the person who holds the accountability for the completion of a task or certain positive outcome.


Transition Leader: Priests within the Pilot Program that have been identified to be the point person for communication with the Renewal office for their particular Family of Parishes. There is one transition leader per Family after Initiation.

wnycatholic
Author: wnycatholic

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