Guided by the Spirit Facilitators

The process of diocesan reorganization will present many opportunities for the blossoming of parishioners’ faith and an increase in the holiness of parish communities. To ensure that the Guided by the Spirit process can continue toward a successful conclusion it will be necessary to have persons available who are both capable and qualified to facilitate discussions between different groups, be it pastors, core committees, cluster committees, or the planning commission. These persons should be good communicators and to some extent a ‘cheerleader’ for this planning process.

The expectation is to have a pool of facilitators who are geographically spread out throughout the diocese and when needed, they would be asked to facilitate a meeting, be in communication with certain leaders, answer questions about the process, refer parishes to diocesan resources, and give their impression of the Guided by the Spirit process as it is occurring throughout the Diocese. The hope is that these facilitators, as local people, could be a liaison between persons, the parishes, the diocese, and the Reid Group. It is likely that each facilitator from the pool would have 1-2 groups that they would facilitate during Guided by the Spirit between October 2006 and June 2007.

The goal is to have trained facilitators who can create agendas, run small group meetings, and help groups accomplish their goals without having a stake in the outcome, but with enough local knowledge to understand the situation. The facilitator’s role is not to make decisions or pass judgments but to ensure that there is mutual understanding and where possible, to help groups come to consensus about the issues in question.

These facilitators are paid for their time and reimbursed for their travel expenses. Each facilitator has attended one of the Core Team Training Sessions and will attend a Facilitator Training session November 13 put on by the Reid Group.