Since 2012, Old St. Pat’s had the mission statement: “Encounter the God that loves you. Engage the community that welcomes you. Serve the world that needs you.” In 2020, that mission statement (a short summary of the “what” and “how” of what we do) was joined by a vision statement: “Leading a movement of change within the Catholic church marked by radical inclusivity, exquisite worship, and transformative kinship.”
Beginning in January 2025, a group of 17 Old St. Pat’s members and staff (supported by consultants from CCS Fundraising) gathered to pray, discuss what drew us to Old St. Pat’s and keeps us here, and ask where God is calling us now. Our existing mission and vision statements have served us well–so well that we discerned that our existing vision statement (a bold, future-oriented, memorable encapsulation of the future we work for) was more like a mission statement: radical inclusivity, beautiful worship, and transformative kinship are the how of this particular community’s responses to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
The vision that came from those weeks of collaboration is meant to be bold. It is not meant to be something we can accomplish in the next five years (or ten years. Or…) It is meant to be something we aim for, something we come back to: something that reminds us that our faith is not just about us: but that if we keep these words of Jesus, if we live our faith, we will bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives and freedom to the oppressed. We will hear “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” We will “disarm our words to help disarm the world.” We will heal the world.
Beginning in January 2025, a group of 17 Old St. Pat’s members and staff (supported by consultants from CCS Fundraising) gathered to pray, discuss what drew us to Old St. Pat’s and keeps us here, and ask where God is calling us now. Our existing mission and vision statements have served us well–so well that we discerned that our existing vision statement (a bold, future-oriented, memorable encapsulation of the future we work for) was more like a mission statement: radical inclusivity, beautiful worship, and transformative kinship are the how of this particular community’s responses to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
The vision that came from those weeks of collaboration is meant to be bold. It is not meant to be something we can accomplish in the next five years (or ten years. Or…) It is meant to be something we aim for, something we come back to: something that reminds us that our faith is not just about us: but that if we keep these words of Jesus, if we live our faith, we will bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives and freedom to the oppressed. We will hear “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” We will “disarm our words to help disarm the world.” We will heal the world.
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Fr. Pat McGrath, S.J.'s Homily
2025 Vision and Mission |
A Message to Chicago from Pope Leo XIV
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Thank you from the 2025 Old St. Patrick's Visioning Team.
We encourage you to embrace and live the Mission and Vision every day
as part of the Old St. Patrick's community!
We encourage you to embrace and live the Mission and Vision every day
as part of the Old St. Patrick's community!