Please post your comments at the bottom of this page. You can also follow discussions connected to recent books.
Online Book Reviews
- Vincentian Center for Church and Society, A Concise Guide to Catholic Church Management, in the Concise Guide Series, edited by Kevin E. McKenna (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2010).
- Debra Snoddy, Jim Campbell, and Andrew McNally, Parish Pastoral Councils: A Formation Manual (Dublin: Veritas Publications, 2010).
- Sr. Brenda Hermann and Msgr. James Gaston, Build a Life-Giving Parish: The Gift of Counsel in the Modern World (Ligouri, MO: Ligouri Publications, 2010).
- Charles E. Zech, Mary L. Gautier, Robert J. Miller, and Mary E. Bendyna, RSM, Best Practices of Catholic Pastoral and Finance Councils (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2010).
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- As the parish changes, there’s always something new to consider.
Dan R. Ebner, Servant Leadership Models for Your Parish (Mahwah and New York: Paulist Press, 2010).
Resources
Pastors and councillors who want to improve their work can benefit from a free online Introduction to Parish Pastoral Councils. It offers an overview of the Church’s teaching about councils, with lectures, quizzes, readings, and reflections. Councillors who take the course individually at home can then discuss what they learned when they reassemble for the next meeting of the council. Click here for PowerPoints about the purpose of councils and the relation between pastors and councillors. Covering the same material as the online course, it is suitable for orienting new members or refreshing the knowledge of veterans.
General Comments
Want to engage others in a discussion of pastoral councils? Please post a comment below. Click here for past discussions.
What is your criterion for saying the parish councils are increasing and that they are successful? I have served in several parishes that did not have a council or had one that did not come close to serving its purpose.
First, let’s begin with the number of councils. The most recent figure, to my knowledge, is from Chuck Zech and his associates, Best Practices of Catholic Parish and Finance Councils. This 2010 survey of 661 parishes (out of the 18,000+ parishes in the USA) found that 93 percent have a pastoral council. My own research in 1998 estimated that 75% of U.S. parishes have pastoral councils.
Second, let’s consider whether councils are successful. Zech and his associates identified the features of successful councils. Some view themselves as planning bodies. Others view themselves as bodies that coordinate ministries. Zech and his associates reported that both types of council are effective. Councils that plan are more effective than councils that do not, and councils that coordinate are more effective than those not involved in coordinating (p. 131).