by Jim Beckman, director of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis
This past March, I focused my column on the Vision 2030 process going on for the archdiocese. I talked about how we were planning regional gatherings and listening sessions throughout this past spring. Those gatherings were quite successful, and it was a great opportunity to hear from people in various regional locations all over the archdiocese.
The primary focus of these gatherings was to get validation and feedback about the pastoral directions that were emerging from our strategic planning over the past 18 months. That feedback was overwhelmingly consistent, and the pastoral priorities that have emerged through this process have become more clear.
In the coming years, we as an archdiocese need to build a culture of conversion and discipleship in all of our parishes and schools, we need to strengthen education and formation at all levels, we need to strengthen marriages and family life, we need to address the unique needs of the young, and we need to better integrate our ministry efforts for the rapidly growing Hispanic population and other cultural groups.
Through this whole process, we heard an admonition that the liturgical life of our faith and our Catholic social teaching should be central to our efforts in all these areas of pastoral priority. The love of God, especially as it finds expression in the sacred liturgy and personal prayer, and the love of neighbor as expressed in our Catholic social teaching and works of mercy provide the general context in which we will pursue these five priorities. In that sense, loving God and loving our neighbor are simply “who we are” and “what we do” as Catholics.
We have captured these priorities in the image accompanying this column.
So, what’s next? The archbishop is working on the draft of the new Vision 2030 Pastoral Plan, outlining the priorities and fleshing out tangible ways we can begin pursuing them in our parishes and schools. The draft of that document will be delivered to priests in September. The final document will be released during Advent, which is the beginning of a liturgical year for the Church.
It’s an exciting time for our archdiocese. We just completed the very successful One Church, Many Disciples Capital Campaign. We’re in the midst of the canonization process for Blessed Stanley Rother. And, we are drawing to completion in the next six months or so the Vision 2030 process and releasing a new Pastoral Plan for the archdiocese. We are incredibly grateful for all those who have participated in various aspects of this process – Vision 2030 team members, priests, deacons and seminarians, those who attended the regional gatherings and listening sessions, parish staff and key leaders who have participated and contributed through focus groups, surveys and other forms of feedback. Special thanks to our staff at the chancery who helped in ways too numerous to mention!
We are excited to finish this process and have a clear definition of the pastoral directions the Holy Spirit is leading us to pursue in the coming years for the Church in central and western Oklahoma! You can access more information and details about this process and the pastoral priorities by visiting
archokc.org/Vision2030.