In June, 2006, Bishop Hubbard called Pastors, Parish Life Directors, Heads of Departments in the Diocesan Offices, and other leadership personnel to announce a Pastoral Planning process "Called to Be Church." The Bishop stated, "That rather than looking at pastoral planning only through the negative lens of realignments, reconfiguration, closings and consolidations, we must," he said, "view this process as an opportunity for imagining and creating our future. In this regard our pastoral planning process must be focused not on structure, not on buildings, not on personnel statistics but on mission. It is the mission which needs to determine our structure and not vice versa."

All in the Diocese have been invited by the Bishop to join him on this two year journey of looking into the future design of the Church of Albany. Such a vision will assist us in determining what we will need in terms of administrators, educators, catechists, assistance for the poor, management and all other aspects.

To have as many people as possible involved in the planning of The Church of The Future, the Diocese was divided into 39 Local Planning Groups. The Local Planning groups are designed to have anywhere from two to five parishes involved. We are members of Local Planning Group #2 (LPG#2). Parishes of LPG #2 are: Our Lady of The Assumption - Rotterdam, St. Margaret of Cortona - Rotterdam Junction, Our Lady of Fatima - Delanson, St. Gabriel The Archangel - Rotterdam and St. Madeleine Sophie -Guilderland.

Each of the Local Planning Groups are to look at not only its own parish, but at the other parishes within their group. Local Planning Groups will meet once each month, following the schedule, discuss and come to conclusions about the topics shown below. The schedule for 18 months is shown below:

Before considering the numerous topics included in the schedule, the Mission and Ministry of the Church were discussed. You might recall that in the fall of 2006, Town meetings were held and the Mission of our parish was discussed in October and the Ministry of the Parish was discussed in November.

In January, Core Team Members were chosen and At Large Members were selected.

The Core Team members for St. Madeleine Sophie are Fr. James Belogi (Pastor), Cathy Golas, Julie Petti, Paul Doyle, and Sue Hanson. The functions of Core Team Members are to pray, to dialogue, to communicate to parishioners, to plan and to prepare recommendations for the Bishop's review and decisions regarding the future of the Church in their local planning group area

At Large members are: Rev. Robert Powhida, Deacon Earle Flatt, and Caroline Schafer. The Functions of At Large Members are to participate in the process and give vital input throughout the 18 month process. They are not involved in making recommendations, but they are advisory to the Core group.

January Meeting
There were two intended outcomes for this meeting:

A summary of the small group discussions led us to the following tentative description of Local Planning Group #2 (LPG #2): Parishes are Rural and Suburban; forty marriages were witnessed in the five parishes during the past year. Several Masses are celebrated on the weekends; several different models of Faith formation are being used; about 20 percent of the parishioners seem to be attending Mass.

February Meeting
One discussion question was - What can we do immediately to better fulfill the goals of Evangelization? The following suggestions were made: 1) Have the Bishop do another Retreat on TV, 2) Adapt to our usage the Evangelical Churches practices, 3) Revitalize the Greeter ministry, 4) Pool resources for speakers, education, etc., 5) Use technology better (websites, I-pods, DVDs, etc.)

March Meeting
During the ensuing months, we are asked to focus on programs for specific groups. Our focus in March was on programs and activities for the child from baptism to five years of age.

Unmet needs were : 1) We have a need to send out better information concerning programs to parents, 2) Provide services for blended families, 3) have a sensitivity to single parents, 4) welcome new parishioners, 5) encourage young people to attend liturgies, 6) look at potential for intergenerational activities, 7) Invite, invite, invite, welcome, welcome, welcome

April Meeting
Local Planning Group #2 focused on the areas which will be strengthened/ improved as we meet the needs of children (Ages 6-18; Grades 1-12), their parents and families. The need for a variety of models (i.e. Vacation Bible School for elementary, retreat for high school) was used as an illustration. There is a need for programs to be multi-faceted (i.e. Art, Music).