By Pentecost Sunday 2027, all Sandhurst Parishes are expected to have a Parish Mission and Pastoral Plan in line with the Sandhurst Strategic Mission and Pastoral Goals (SMPGoals) or, at least, submitted a progress report. It’s a significant task, so how do parishes actually get there?
The Office of Mission and Pastoral Life has prepared resources to help parishes understand the SMPGoals, assess where they are on their planning journey to implement these Goals and, importantly, to understand and implement key parts of the planning process, including Discernment and Decision-making in the Church along with Conversations in the Spirit.
The hope is that parishes find in these resources to be a practical support in the planning journey, guided by the Holy Spirit.
“The expectation is that parishes activate ‘on purpose’ planning and action, enlivening parishioners to go deeper into discipleship and wider beyond community to where the Holy Spirit sends them,” said Geoff Gowdie, Assistant Director of Mission and Pastoral Life, during an online “Unpacking the Resources” session on Wednesday morning.
The task for parishes is to create a plan around the SMPGoals. The resources provide an overview of the goals and recognise that understanding them is fundamental to the parish’s implementing them well.
“It’s difficult to plan together effectively if we don’t have a common understanding of what we are planning for,” Geoff said.
The Goals are divided into three Strategic Directions:
- Gospel, Mission and Pastoral Outreach (going wider)
- Belonging and a Sense of Community (going deeper)
- Life-Giving and Empowering Formation (getting ready)
Interestingly, Archbishop Shane pointed out that there is a synergy between these three Strategic Directions and the three pillars of the Synod on Synodality, i.e., Communion, Participation and Mission, which are profoundly interrelated and vital to the life of the Church.
“Each parish is unique, each parish is in its own place, and each parish will start the planning process from a different starting point,” Geoff said.
“The resources aim to help parishes identify where they are along the planning journey by providing four scenarios as starting points. A parish might not align perfectly with any one scenario, but there will usually be one that is a close enough fit to help a parish determine which resource section to use at the start of the journey.”
One of the critical first steps for a parish is to establish a Parish Planning Team.
“The obvious group is the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC), but there are other options and factors to be considered,” Geoff said.
“This is not ‘business as usual’, and a PPC will not be able to do this as part of its scheduled meetings. It’s going to need dedicated time when the PPC is free from organising other parish events. Human nature tends to prioritise urgent matters, while planning gets kicked down the road, so we have to plan to plan. How a Planning Team is set up is important.”
Geoff suggested that the process is as important as the plan itself. The steps in the journey are simple, but not always easy to implement.
"One of the things to come out of the Synod on Synodality is the expectation that every parish, all over the world, will go through processes of synodal decision-making, intentionally and actually inviting the Holy Spirit into the conversation and discernment process."
The Overview section outlines the eight steps in discernment and decision-making in the Church. These steps were taken from the Final Document of the Synod which Pope Francis declared was part of the ordinary Magisterium of the Pope. Steps 4 and 5 in that process are the place for an effective way to listen to the Holy Spirit and to one another. It is called Conversation in the Spirit which includes prayer, reflection, focus questions, and then generally three rounds of conversation where every person speaks, every person listens, and there is discussion leading to discernment.
“Sometimes parishes have to go through some discomfort, or even pain, to honestly assess where they are,” Geoff said.
Every parish is in a different place, and no parish will be able to implement all of the goals at the same time. Even parishes that already have a Mission and Pastoral Plan may find that it does not fully align with the SMPGoals, or that the process used to develop it was not synodal and therefore may need revisiting.
On the other hand, there will be many things that a parish is already doing which line up with a number of the goals. It’s very important to make that as explicit as possible and see where that be built on, improved or further developed with another dimension that an SMPGoal might point to.
The key question for us to ask ourselves is:
“Jesus is co-missioning with us here, and the Holy Spirit is prompting - so, what are they calling us to do?”
The resources also provide suggestions around the implementation of Parish Mission and Pastoral Plans, discussing the importance of leadership in various dimensions.
“Everyone in the parish is called to lead something at different levels,” said Geoff. “Even if we are just leading ourselves.”
Monitoring, accountability and review feature in the last section of the Resources. There is wisdom and sound advice here which will not be unfamiliar to many who have worked in various organisations in the general community.
The resources also provide a visual reflection for parishes to identify the important distinctions between input, output and outcome.
“Sometimes in parish life we don’t think too much about outcomes, but we do need to focus on the outcomes we want and then discern what inputs are needed to lead to the desired outcomes.” What we do (outputs) may well need to change if we want a different, more fruitful outcome. For that to happen, we will probably need new inputs – ideas, energy, ways of looking at things, models–- and be willing to seriously consider them.
Geoff recommends that parishes take up the MPL’s offer to provide support to parishes with the planning process.
“We all have trouble stepping back from our own perspectives. Sometimes it helps to see ourselves from the outside, and that is where accompaniment can really help,” Geoff said. “Someone with wide experience and insight can bring new life to your mission and hopefully give some great ideas to help with the journey.”
The Mission and Pastoral Life Team can offer the following workshops and services to support parishes on their journey:
Workshops on:
- understanding the Sandhurst Strategic Mission and Pastoral Goals
- selecting specific SMPGoals to focus on
- the Spirituality animating the SMPGoals
- unpacking the Resources for Parish Planning
Facilitation and accompaniment to:
- develop a parish plan
- conduct Conversations in the Spirit
- use a synodal decision-making process.
“If a parish is not sure where to start or what to do, make contact and a simple conversation can take things forward from there.”
To download the resources, please go to: https://www.sandhurst.catholic.org.au/item/3077-resources-for-parish-planning
For enquiries, please email the Office of Mission and Pastoral Life at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Image above: Geoff Gowdie, Assistant Director of Mission and Pastoral Life faciliates an online "unpacking" the resources Session on Wednesday 3 June.
Return to Sandpiper e-News 123 (5 June 2026)
