Thank you to all our priests and Key Parish Leaders from across the Diocese of Peoria for hosting Growing Disciples parish meetings to explain the second set of draft models and how parishioners could provide feedback. Gathering information from those parish meetings is a critical element in the ability to move forward in this important pastoral planning process.

The Growing Disciples Core Team received over 2600 electronic and paper surveys. Bishop Tylka received several hundred personal letters from parishioners and community members, sharing their feelings about the process and what our possibilities could be as we look to the future. The feedback has come from all over the diocese and all parishes. Not everyone in every parish, or even every family, agreed on the steps we should take moving forward.

What is clear is that this process is awakening within all of us that desire for us to continue to be the Church and to grow the Church. We are passionate about our faith. We are passionate about our parishes. We are passionate about our mission that Jesus has given to us to share the Good News.

We also know we are living in very different times. The generations that preceded us had their own challenges and opportunities to live out our faith. Ours is a very different time and we must discern a way forward to build a more sustainable, mission driven, vibrant church for tomorrow.

In the coming months, our Growing Disciples Core Team, our Diocesan Commission and ultimately the Presbyteral Council will be discerning recommendations, based on the feedback, to be given to the Bishop, who will make the final decision.

Let us remain a people of prayer: praying for each other and supporting one another as we go through this process.

The Diocese of Peoria is constantly updating the website (growingdisciplescdop.org), so check back frequently. Please continue to pray that all our efforts today will bear fruit for a brighter tomorrow.