Parish Listening Session - We Want to Hear From YOU!

Listening Session at St. Matthew's

On February 11, we experienced an historic event for the Church with Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation announcement—a truly momentous event to which we respond in hope and with prayers for our Holy Father and the Church!

On Saturday, February 23, here at St. Matthew’s an historic event for our own local church will take place—our Parish Listening Session in preparation for the Archdiocesan Synod. The Listening Session is YOUR opportunity to help shape how our parish will carry out its mission of bringing the light of Jesus Christ to our community over the next several years. We need your views on where we are and where we ought to be in the following areas of parish life: Worship, Faith Formation, Social Justice (Service), Community, and Stewardship /Administration. 

We will consider how our parish can be the best we can be by identifying strengths on which we can build and areas for renewal and development. The goal of the session is to assess the vitality of the parish and identify proposals for carrying on the mission of the Church. This is a major event both in the development of a vision and strategic plan for the parish in the next five years, and in the Archdiocesan Synod process, which will benefit from our work at the session.

What a tremendous opportunity to come together and discern how to carry out our mission as a parish. Remember that it is you who are the parish, and we together who are this local church. We need YOU on Saturday, February 23!!!! 

St. Matthew's Listening Session will be facilitated by Jeannine Marino, JCL, Program Specialist for Secretariat of Evangelization & Catechesis, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Jeannine is a former Faith Formation Director at St. Matthew's Cathedral (2008-2009).

Please contact us now if you plan to attend.
RSVP to 202-587-5143 or reply@stmatthewscathedral.org.
Thank you in advance for your generous participation!  

Archdiocesan Synod 

Parishes throughout the Archdiocese are holding listening sessions in preparation for the Archdiocesan Synod in 2014, the 75th anniversary year of the Archidocese of Washington.

  • For "What is a Synod? Why have a Synod for the Archdiocese of Washington? Why Now?," click here.
  • For a Youtube video of Cardinal Wuerl explaining what a synod is and how it will help guide the Archdiocese of Washington into the future, click here.
  • For a Catholic Standard article on Cardinal Wuerl's announcement of the Archdiocesan Synod, click here

Our archdiocesan synod will provide us an opportunity to look at the life of the local Church, to evaluate where the ministry of the Church is successful and the areas where there may be need for more attention so that we can better prepare ourselves to carry forward the work of the Church into the future. The pastoral priorities of our local Church will be examined, particularly within the context of the New Evangelization and in the spirit of the Year of Faith.
                                                                                   —Donald Cardinal Wuerl 

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