Transitions at St. Bridget Parish

I've been a full-time minister at St. Bridget Parish for nearly a quarter of a century -- I'm entering my 25th year this July. This "Jubilee year" will be one of change for me and for our parish. As our parishioners know, this coming July we will embark on a year without a pastor. Instead, we'll have a newly retired priest helping us with Mass and the sacraments on weekends, and another retired priest helping with Mass on Wed-Thurs-Fri. The day-to-day leadership of the parish for this year will be in my hands. It's not that there is no priest who would want to come to St. Bridget to be pastor; the Archbishop assured me of that. It's that he has someone in mind, and experienced pastor, who won't be available for another year. In the meantime, St. Bridget is without an everyday priest pastor.

In the late '80's, when this concept first impacted the consciousness of the average parishioner in the Seattle Archdiocese, it was completely new. There was much uncertainty, a lot of anxiety, and a fair amount of anger. In the last 20 years a lot of those feelings have changed for the better, as more lived experiences of this have circulated within the Catholic community in the Northwest. The Archdiocese now initiates processes to help parishes make the change, such has asking the parishes to identify a "Transition Team" to work with an Archdiocesan field staff member. Our "TT" here at St. Bridget has met twice, and is planning a great going away party for our retiring pastor. The following letter to the parish was inspired by the team's most recent meeting. It says a lot about our parish.


Transitions at St. Bridget
May 20, 2007

Dear Parishioner,

In the middle of last month we sent all our parishioners the Archbishop’s announcement of the appointment of Fr. Gary Morelli to St. Bridget to be our sacramental priest for weekend Masses and for other parish celebrations of the sacraments. He also appointed me as Pastoral Coordinator for St. Bridget, entrusted with the day-to-day leadership of the parish. Both of these are to be one-year appointments, and sometime next spring we can expect the appointment of a full-time pastor for the parish, to begin in July of 2008.

A second letter to the parish was included in the parish bulletin at the end April, explaining the canonical meanings of these assignments. Both of these letters are available on our web site, and copies are also available at the parish office. I’ve tried to be clear so that we can know what to expect and what not to expect in the way of a priestly presence for the coming year here at St. Bridget. I will repeat here what has been written before. Fr. Morelli will be with us on weekends and at other liturgical times, such as Ash Wednesday or Holy Week, or for special occasions such as funerals and weddings. As a priestly presence for us during the week, our friend Fr. Dick Basso, who has been with us whenever Fr. Connole has been away on vacation, has agreed to continue to help us with morning Masses on Wed-Th-Fr, and on those times when Fr. Morelli is away on his vacation. Both priests have indicated that they will help with our emergency needs, such as the anointing of the sick.

To assist a parish during time of change, the Archdiocese asks the parish to pull together a “Transition Team,” which helps to serve as a bridge during the time of transition. One of its important functions is to make sure that the parish has a fitting farewell celebration for its outgoing priest, and I’m sure you all know about our parish celebration for Fr. Connole on the afternoon of Sunday, June 3rd! Tyera Enquist, who is both a member of the Transition Team and one of the leaders of our Social Committee, has been actively recruiting volunteers from many of our parish organizations, to help make this event a successful goodbye celebration. Please join us in saying a fitting Thanks! to Marlin, for the seven years of faithful service he has given to us.

At the meeting of the Transition Team a few days ago, I asked them two questions:

●What are some of the characteristic strengths of St. Bridget which we should keep in mind during this time – things we should maintain and which we can rely on?
●What are the things we should be careful about during the coming year?

I’d like to share with you their answers – and if you want to respond to them or add your own answer, please feel free to do so.

Strengths of St. Bridget Parish

St. Bridget
●is a very social parish
●is very committed to charitable outreach
●is strongly supportive of Catholic education
●has a wide variety of opportunities for community
●has lots of places to “plug in”
●has a strong involvement of its parishioners in the life of the parish
●has high standards
●has very capable parishioners
●is a very diverse parish, and is nonetheless very stable
●may be a little too homogenous, racially and economically
●is friendly, informal, and comfortable
●is inclusive as a mode of operating
●likes a challenge
●is very blessed financially – and that enables us to look beyond ourselves
●pays a lot of attention to collaboration and processes
●has an openness to commitment
●is a “high functioning” parish, with the ability to trust the community and its leadership
●is well-sized – its scale is an asset; can be personal fairly easily
●supports its music program; we attract quality singers and musicians, and offer a diverse program of music

As you look over that list, do you see “St. Bridget” in those characteristics? Would you add others?
Now, how about these areas, identified by our Transition Team, that we need to be conscious of, as we move forward this coming year:

●Communication, communication, communication! Essential during times of change.
●Just how are things going to work this coming year, without a full-time priest? People need to have some understanding of this.
●We need ways for parishioners to ask questions and get answers – there should be some kind of feedback system, formally or informally.
●We should try to minimize the amount of change, especially liturgically.
●We’ll need for people to know and see that we are not “rudderless”
●Parishioners should know and be reassured that if they have a spiritual need, we/they will know what to do.

And along with that, there were two items of advice for me:

●Denny has to help the parish to keep its focus; needs to have time to attend to the parish priorities; needs to find things that he can delegate and people to delegate to.
●Denny needs to not seem too busy for people to call on him when they are personally hurting or otherwise need the presence of the Church.

Are there other things we should be conscious of? Is there other “advice” you would have for me?

I had hoped to cover a couple of other items, but there’s no space left. More to come!

Deacon Denny Duffell

There were two other "transition notes" that have been circulated, available on the parish web page, on the right-hand side of the home page under the heading Transitions.

These situations are growing in number as the priest shortage becomes more widely felt. For this year, I'll be pretty involved in the practical side of this reality, and probably won't appreciate the wider implications until a few years after it's over. But I'd enjoy speculating about them...