New Resources for the Parish Encuentros

During the month of June, the V Encuentro staff has received feedback from many parishes and dioceses that are working on their Parish Encuentros. In response, today we are releasing several new tools to help the Parish Encuentros run smoothly, to help the consultation produce consistent results across the (arch)diocese, and to clarify the feedback that should be sent to the Diocesan Team. All of the resources are available on the Parish Resource Page under Parish Encuentros. The Participant Guide, Scheduletemplate, Pastor’s Letter template, and Evaluation form can be used together with the Parish Working Document and the Commitment & Delegate Ballot to produce a folder or packet for each participant. A prayer and worship guide for the opening prayer and closing liturgy may also be added, especially if projectors will not be used. Table groups should also be provided paper to take notes, which will be handed in to the Parish Team after Moments #2 and #4. After the Parish Encuentro, the Parish Team has about two weeks to send in their final report. The instructions for producing the final report are now posted on the website, and we have added a Post-Encuentro Supplement to the Working Document where the Parish Team can record insights from the Registration and the Evaluation, as well as recommendations from Moment #4, and the names and contact information for the delegates to the Diocesan Encuentro. If your diocese is not already utilizing the online form for capturing and analyzing the consultation forms, we would like to highly encourage you once more to make use of this tool. Preparing the Parish Working Document is not an easy task, but if you utilize the digital tools, the Template provides clear instructions on where to find the consultation data in the Parish Data Report to answer each question. If you do not yet see your diocese listed on the consultation page or mobile app, contact Ken right away to get started. Please keep in mind that all of these tools are provided for your assistance, but none are mandatory. If some of your parishes have already completed the Parish Encuentro, please encourage them to fill out the Post-Encuentro Supplement anyway, and send it in to the Diocesan Team, even if they did not make use of the Evaluation forms. Just have them fill out as much as they can, leaving the rest blank.