Ministering together

Health Progress, Jul/Aug 2002 by Sullivan, Joseph M

Collaboration Is Vital in Building the Church as a Communion

This article is a progress report on Phase IV of New Covenant's "Ministering Together." The New Covenant Steering Committee, which is developing Phase TV, is composed of leaders recruited from major ministries of the Catholic Church in health care, social services, education, dioceses, and parishes. The 18 committee members come from the ranks of religious congregations, diocesan clergy, parish laity, national organizations, the episcopal conference, and diocesan staffs.

One of the unique blessings in the Catholic Church is the experience of convening people, many of whom have never met before, and seeing how quickly they bond. There is implicit trust, a respect for one another, a generosity in sharing, and a willingness to listen and understand the variety of experiences and different points of view. This is the experience of the Steering Committee for Phase IV. The Steering Committee is charged with the task of broadening the collaborative efforts of the church's ministries beyond health and social services to include education and parochial ministry. The health and social service ministries have collaborated at the national level through the efforts of the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and Catholic Charities USA. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has worked closely with both these organizations on public policy issues. The National Coalition on Catholic Health Care Ministry has been an effective forum for dialogue among the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, CHA, and Catholic Charities. It is to this coalition of ministry leaders that the New Covenant Steering Committee will report and make recommendations.

The Steering Committee met in New Orleans in October 2001, realized the daunting challenge of its charge, and set about discussing the essential nature of the challenge. We realized that Phase IV was to incarnate the vision of New Covenant, which would give expression to ministerial collaboration at the local level of the church, the diocese, and the parish. We recognized the great diversity of the church across the country-its demographic differences, varieties of institutional presence, regional geographics, material resources, clerical and religious personnel, lay participation, organizational structures, and episcopal leadership. We instinctively knew that we could jump-start only a limited number of local initiatives in the 12- to 18-month time frame we had to work in. Our energies would have to be focused on communication of the vision. We needed to choose a strategic direction that would focus our efforts-"leverage the gifts and talents of all leaders in ministry."

We concluded that Phase IV would embrace the other New Covenant strategic directions: transforming existing structures, uniting in a common message on public policies, and connecting church collaborative ministries with other community organizations of good will. It was necessary for us to identify people with leadership capacity and interest who would undertake the role of initiating collaboration at the diocesan level. We committed ourselves to assume local leadership in our own local dioceses or organizations. We would try to model for others what we expected of them. We organized ourselves into four subgroups:

* Communications This group will develop a comprehensive media/communications plan, including a multimedia presentation, to explain the New Covenant vision and invite participation.

* Best Practices This group is collecting and will share illustrative stories about local collaboration.

* Leaders/Champions This group will identify, recognize, and connect current "champions" of collaborative ministry.

* Technical Assistance This group will compile and develop selected technical resources to assist in developing new or strengthening existing New Covenant efforts.

Representing the Steering Committee, I will report on our work to the historic joint meeting of CHA and Catholic Charities in Chicago. Toward this end, Catholic Charities and CHA have commissioned a study of existing collaborative ministerial efforts across the country. Stories of collaboration will provide encouragement for others to launch local collaborative initiatives enabling them to discover the elements of successful efforts as well as to learn from the errors of failed undertakings. These stories of collaboration across traditional ministerial boundaries have the potential for creating networks within states and regions and across the nation. Ecclesial collaboration is more the work of risk-takers, people willing to take the initiative, who have faith in God, and whose hope sustains them as they hurdle inevitable barriers. Collaboration, however, should not be solely dependent on entrepreneurs who are primarily interested in outcomes and results. It is the work of design, of pastoral planning, of an understanding of the church as a community. It rests on the foundation of the human person as a social being-a member of an assembly, a church that sees itself as a mystical body in which all the parts have a role to play, in which each is essential to the health of the whole. No one is left out. The church is inclusive and seeks active participation of all.