HCH photo by Anna Weaver

A small group discussion gets underway at the leeward Oahu vicariate planning session, April 16, at St. Jude Church in Kapolei.

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Strategic planning arrived at the diocese’s largest and fastest growing region and received an enthusiastic welcome.

Members of all 12 Leeward Oahu parishes gathered at St. Jude Church in Kapolei on the evening of April 16 to hear and discuss preliminary findings of the diocesan strategic planning committee for their vicariate.

The vicariate, with 12 parishes, one mission, 20 priests, six parish schools, and about 362,000 Catholics, is the biggest of eight vicariates, geographical districts, in Hawaii.

“This is our first take on the Leeward vicariate,” said vicar general Father Marc Alexander, who led the meeting with diocesan director of planning Tom Papandrew. “I feel a lot of energy and enthusiasm here tonight.”

The approximately 140 attendees listened closely as Father Alexander and Papandrew gave an overview of five short-term and two long-term “recommended actions” that were culled from individual meetings with the parishes between October 2006 and January 2007.

Easels displaying in large-print the findings of each of the 12 parish meetings stood like sentinels along the side walls of the St. Jude sanctuary.

After initial discussion about the current and future status of Leeward Catholic schools (see accompanying story) and what happened to Synod 2000 recommendations, attendees broke into 20 small groups.

The groups discussed the findings and chose what they thought were the top three short-term vicariate priorities. Groups also discussed who should be responsible for the recommended actions — the diocese, vicariate or parishes.

As each group reported, with Father Alexander typing the results on a laptop whose screen was projected on a screen, the top three priorities emerged: 1) youth and young adult programs, 2) leadership development, and 3) homeless programs.

At the end of the meeting, Papandrew announced for the first time in public the $6 million purchase by the diocese of 23 acres in Ewa for a multipurpose vicariate and diocesan gathering and worship space (see accompanying story). The announcement received a round of applause.

Reflecting on the April 16 meeting the next week, Father Alexander said he thought it went very well.

“It was a great representation of the vicariate,” he said. “I think the priorities they focused on demonstrated a real interest not only to the church internal but to the outside world.”

Papandrew agreed, saying, “I was pleasantly surprised that the homeless issue was placed as such a high priority by everyone.”