How Long Should a Parish Change Take?
The honest answer, most of the time, is: longer than you think.
Formation · a reader pathway
For The Priest
The essays and templates most useful to this role, gathered across the four practices.
Templates and worksheets
A Proposal for Parish Change
The artifact that converts a parish change idea into a structured proposal. It is designed to be filled in collaboratively, after the "What Already Works" audit (W3) has been completed, and before any change conversation becomes public.
Forming a Champion: A Short Guide for the Priest
For use in the days before you commission a Communications Champion in your parish. Read slowly, perhaps more than once.
Invitation, Not Buy-In: A Short Guide for Those Proposing Change
For agency leads, diocesan staff, priests, PPC chairs, and consultants entering parish work. Read before proposing any change.
Parish AI Use Policy
A one-page policy template that helps a parish articulate and document its approach to AI in communications. Adapted by the parish from the template; signed by priest, parish secretary, and a PPC member; reviewed annually.
Parish Communications Audit
A structured worksheet for producing an honest, non-judgmental view of a parish's actual communications output over a specific period. Usually reveals that the output is structurally flat across the liturgical year.
Parish Communications Champion: Commissioned Role
This document contains two parts:
Parish Ministries Audit
A structured worksheet for making the parish's whole communications ecosystem visible in one view. Used by the priest or PPC chair, usually alone or with the parish secretary, in a dedicated sitting of ninety minutes to two hours.
Safe Environment Communications Protocol
A specific interface document between parish safe environment and parish communications. Not a safe environment policy: the parish safe environment officer has that, following diocesan and bishops' conference guidance. This template closes the gap between…
Syndicate-Once Policy
A one-page policy template that deaneries, dioceses, or clusters of parishes can adopt (and adapt) to eliminate duplicate content across organizational levels. Names where each content type originates, where it syndicates to, and who owns each.
The Parish Communications Starter Pack: A Cover Note
This pack contains four documents. Together, they are enough to start a parish communications system from something like zero.
Three-Seasons Pacing Guide
A reference document for project sponsors, agencies, and priests responsible for the pace of a parish change. Read at the start of a project and reread at the start of each of the three seasons. Not a one-time read; a working companion.
What Already Works: An Audit Before Change
The honoring-before-proposing exercise. A structured worksheet that forces the discipline of understanding what is currently good, and naming it specifically, before any change is proposed.
When Silence Serves: A Reflection Guide for Difficult Decisions
For the priest, parish secretary, or curator facing a communications decision they are not sure about.