New Covenant in practice

Health Progress, Jul/Aug 2002 by Root, Christopher, Stenson, Jane

SPECIAL SECTION

celebration

The New Covenant Initiative Has Widespread Regional Impact Despite Ongoing Challenges

In 1996, Robert Smith, the director of the Department of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Lansing, introduced the concept of New Covenant to Bishop Carl Mengeling.

Interested in implementing New Covenant, the bishop called together the directors of the local Catholic social service agencies and key leaders of the two Catholic health care systems in the diocese, Genesys Health System and Saint Joseph Mercy Health System. All agreed that collaboration was essential to better respond to the needs of individuals and communities and supported further efforts to create a local New Covenant initiative.

Under Bishop Mengeling's guidance, a steering committee was formed to explore collaborative efforts. The first challenge was to understand New Covenant itself. Sr. Man, Lou Stubbs, DC, from the Archbishop's Commission on Community Health in St. Louis, MO, and James McCormack, PhD, coordinator of the Diocesan Community Health Alliance in Albany, NY, were invited to speak to the committee. They shared their vision of New Covenant and their successes and challenges. Encouraged by this vision, the Diocese of Lansing and the two health systems agreed to establish and fund a New Covenant initiative. The position of initiative coordinator was created, and in September 1998 I was hired to fill this post.

An advisory board of directors governs the New Covenant initiative in the Diocese of Lansing. The board consists of representatives from parishes, health care, social services, and education. My position as coordinator falls under the direction of the board and is housed in the Department of Catholic Charities.

The New Covenant initiative is best understood in the context of Pope John Paul II's new evangelization and the universal call to holiness, which prompts the question: How can we as a church best reflect the unity of the Trinity? The Diocese of Lansing has attempted to accomplish this by using a grassroots approach.

Understanding the importance of personal involvement, Bishop Mengeling was very interested in having the parishes-and more specifically, the parishioners-serve as the anchor and springboard of the initiative. Knowing the potential of the vast army of volunteers in the parishes, he wanted to know how the church could best use its resources to meet the needs of parishioners and how parishioners could become involved in meeting the needs of the community.

The bishop's desire to have parishes become central to the New Covenant initiative is reflected in the mission and vision statements and the role of the coordinator created by the advisory board.

Mirroring that of the national New Covenant initiative, the mission of the diocese's initiative is to foster a Catholic-sponsored collaborative effort among Catholic parishes, health care providers, social service agencies, and educational resources and to create environments that are spiritually, physically, socially, and emotionally healthy for persons and communities whom the Church is committed to serve.

In addition to the mission, the board articulated a vision for the initiative in the diocese:

By June 2002, we envision collaborative efforts between parishes, social service agencies, health care providers, and education throughout the Diocese of Lansing. Parishes will serve in their unique capacity for outreach and through their connections in the community to act as the anchor and springboard for local New Covenant initiatives.

Education, at all levels, will engage in this effort through its ability to educate the community and raise awareness for local needs.

Social service agencies and health care providers will lend their assistance through their professional talents and resources.

The role of the coordinator also reflected Bishop Mengeling's hope for a ground-level movement. My role as coordinator is to promote a sense of "common mission" among the participants; encourage regions to convene to address matters of concern as identified by assessments related to their communities; staff the steering committee and carry out its recommendations; build relationships with and between parishes, health care, social services, and education; explore ecumenical opportunities for collaboration; maintain and communicate a repository of outcomes, achievements, and measures of regional efforts; promote knowledge of resources in the regions; and serve as an ex officio member of local New Covenant initiatives.

As Bishop Mengeling directed, my role was to help parishes serve as the anchor and springboard of the local initiatives. When we launched an initiative in a new region, I contacted each parish priest, explained the New Covenant concept, answered questions, and expressed a hope to invite interested staff and parishioners to participate in the regional initiative. We sent out invitations to individuals that the priest believed would be interested in participating and also solicited additional members from the Diocesan Directory and the Regional Parish Social Ministry Directory. This group of individuals helped identify needs in their parishes and communities through various assessment tools and then engaged in a problem-solving process to determine how Catholic parishes, health care providers, social service agencies, and educational resources could collaborate to meet the identified need. The regional group then helped to facilitate the collaborative effort and evaluate the results.