IPS program for parishes inspires constructive conversation
 Clergy and lay members of the Pastoral Leadership Team from Chicago parishes participate in an INSPIRE-sponsored workshop at Loyola. |
Gast says it’s easy for parish community leaders to become fragmented, tending to their own responsibilities and losing sight of larger goals. INSPIRE supports collaborative leadership within the parish. Teams follow a program proposed by Drs. Mary Elsbernd (MSIR ’99) and Peter Gilmour (BS ’64, MRE ’71) of Loyola’s Institute of Pastoral Studies, in partnership with the Chicago Archdiocese.
INSPIRE originally was funded in 2003 with a five-year, $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment’s Sustaining Pastoral Excellence program. Now, the endowment has pledged a four-year, $2 million matching grant. It is one of the largest grants in the program, with $1 million coming from the Lilly Endowment and $500,000 each coming from Loyola and the Archdiocese of Chicago.
According to Craig Dykstra, senior vice president for religion at the endowment, INSPIRE “has not only helped scores of parishes in greater Chicago, but is also providing a significant model nationwide for ways that priests and lay ministers can work together.” Five years in, parishes largely report breakthroughs and successes.