ACBC-ACU Office of Pastoral Research

      4. Strategies, Resources and Roles

      4.1 Strategies

      The ACBC-ACU Office of Pastoral Research fulfils its mission by:

      A. Pastoral Research & Development

    • Planning, cumulating, and communicating pastoral research;

    • Advising the Bishops on the research needs of the Church (especially in  the area of the social sciences), and on the pastoral and policy  implications of research findings;

    • Undertaking research projects according to professional standards which  will assist the work of the Church, and analysing the data obtained;

    • Encouraging collaboration between agencies and researchers;

    • Assisting in the staffing and funding of pastoral research;

    • Developing pastoral strategies which are best adapted to the situation of  the Church as understood through pastoral research.

    • Specifically, by analysis of the data from the CCLS1996 and NCLS2001  (Catholic), supplemented by analysis of data from the NCLS Community Survey  1998, World Values Survey 1983, 1995, NSSS/ISSP series and Censuses, and the  2001 Priests survey;

    • Pursuing the longer-term projects on parish vitality and secularisation.

      • B. Communication / Dissemination of Research Findings

    • in reports to the ACBC and individual dioceses, parishes and church agencies
    • in professional conference papers and journals
    • in Catholic popular media
    • in presentations to national, diocesan and parish groups of clergy and  laity
    • in monographs intelligible to the ordinary educated Catholic;
    • by development of a website for the dissemination of findings to  Conference, dioceses and at large.
    • in order to support pastoral planning at national, diocesan and parish  levels. This involves providing detailed information to ACBC, dioceses and  parishes in order to help them understand their own strengths, weaknesses,  opportunities and threats and thus to assist them in their efforts to  increase their vitality
    • responding to requests for research findings relevant to particular tasks  of church agencies or individuals;
    • making known research done by others relevant to the Church's mission.

      • C. Research Training

    • Assisting other researchers with pastoral research techniques;
    • Training researchers at Ph.D. level in pastoral research, specifically the  three APA(I) candidates engaged in research arising out of CCLS1996.

      • 4.2 Resources

    • Financial

      • The ACBC Office of Pastoral Research is funded jointly by ACBC and ACU  according to the terms of their Memorandum of Understanding. Funds are also  obtained from religious orders, Industry Partners, research collaborators  (such as CRA) and from the Australian Research Council (ARC).

    • Personnel

      •           a) Director of the Office
                b) Research assistants who may be employed for particular projects

    • Other resources

      • ACU provides office space, a computer, access to library and bibliographic  database resources, research support, and the scholarly community of  colleagues and fellow-researchers. The ACBC Pastoral Projects Office provides  census data and liaison with other ACBC pastoral projects. In practice, its  Director is the closest collaborator with this Office.

      4.3 Roles

    • Director of the ACBC Office of Pastoral Research

      • The role of the Director is to fulfil the mission of the Office, reporting  regularly to the Board of management of ACBC Pastoral Projects, and fulfilling  ACU responsibilities as a member of the Institute for the Advancement of  Research.

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