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Models of British parish life: Offer a systematic and critical analysis of the use of models of parish life and how these may or may not promote the ongoing pastoral renewal of parishes.

'So of course renewing our Church will mean renewing our parishes.

But so much of that renewal -- spiritual, liturgical, pastoral -

will come from the communities forming and meeting in our

parishes our parishes should see themselves as a primary focus

for renewal.'

(Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor,2005)

Of late British parishes have been in severe crisis: applications for priesthood have dwindled,congregations have in some places halved, churches have been closed and their land sold, and others forced to merge with their neighbours. Many of the Church's critics have implied that this decline is irreversible. Cardinal O'Connor's words suggest something different. They suggest that a fundamental renewal and restructuring of British parishes can reinvigorate pastoral and spiritual life of the Church and that of the parishes themselves.

This essay examines several possible future models of British parish life and evaluates each of them to measure their fitness to bring about this parish renewal. After assessing each of these models, the essay looks at two specific examples of the implementation of these models to British parish life. To begin though, let us briefly consider the circumstances that make the introduction these models of renewal necessary; what is it that needs to be renewed?

For centuries the parish was the focal point of British Church life; parishes were replete with congregations and candidates for priesthood; they knew pastoral success, spiritual vitality and financial security. A parish was typically ministered to by apastor who was supported by fellow clergy and a secretary and bookkeeper. Laity had an important, but discreet and limited role in the leadership and organization of the parish (Horns by-Smith, 1999). The past thirty years have witnessed a profound collapse in the fortunes of the parishes of Europe and Britain in particular. This decline is usually assigned to the growth ofsecularization and increasing hesitancy and doubt about the Church's and its parishes' ability to perform their spiritual and pastoral tasks.

This crisis has become so intense that throughout the United Kingdom dioceses and parishes have been forced to contemplate radical restructuring and re-organization of centuries old traditions. Certain 'models of parish life' have been proposed by theologians and parishioners as ways to renew the pastoral life of these parishes (Sweeter, 1993). These models commonly have the following features. They involve the amalgamation of several parishes into a larger single parish; they depend far more upon the assistance and participation of laity; they seek to incorporate broader faith communities into their structures. Presently this essay examines five such models. The first is that of the 'cluster' parish.

(1) The 'Cluster' model of parish is swiftly replacing the traditional parish model and establishing itself as the dominant alternative type of parish. According to this model, two or more parishes are fused together and tended to by a single pastor, or pastoral team. Each parish nonetheless keeps its distinctiveness and independence as required by both church and state law. Each parish retains the right to have its own program of ministry and its own staffing hierarchy and structure (though in practice however 'clustered' parishes generally adopt a centralized administration and ministry).

According to diocesan instructions, clustered parishes can maintain a joint pastoral assembly which is attended by members of each individual parish. Individual parishes must keep their own financial assembly, although the various financial councils of different parishes may convene together at any time to discuss collective policies or proposals. The purpose of clustered parishes is to promote collective community activity. Thus parishes in a cluster are described as 'yoked': they are separate entities, but joined in a common purpose and direction. The distinct advantage of such parish models is that they facilitate the sharing of 'pooled resources' (financial, staffing, congregational etc.,).

These collective activities are intended to produce 'cluster plans' whereby several parishes devise a blueprint for the short-term and medium-term future of these several parishes. In Bedford shire for instance: the parishes of Shillington, Barton and Shefford came together to hire a lay minister to coordinate social services, an educational advisor for nine local schools, and a director of lay training. This is an instance of a high level of 'clustering' activity; it is argued that if other parishes were to adopt such schemes then the contemporary pressures of finance, staff and congregation shortages would be much improved.

British parishes might learn from the example of the United States where cluster parishes have proved very successful. For instance, in the diocese of Rochester Bishop Clark's scheme 'Pastoral Planning in the New Millennium' (Bishop Clark) has been administered successfully to several parishes. 'Clusters' are also seen asa vital way of rejuvenating and refreshing the leadership structure of parishes. The 'Notre Dame Study of Parish Life' (Notre Dame) affirmed the ascendancy of lay staff within the parish structure. The accumulation of various professional experiences brought together by clusters allows for a broader training and expertise for lay ministers. For instance, laity can be trained to minister Sunday Communion Services minus in the absence of a priest. Parishes can also employ lay staff -- including women -- to work in parish ministries as 'pastoral assistants' (Hoge, 1998).

(2) Single Parishes are the traditional and ideal form of the British parish. Despite the crises affecting British parishes and the increasing tendency of dioceses to cluster their parishes, there are still single parishes being created in the United Kingdom. A single parish is established to meet the need of a growing an expanding Catholic or Anglican population in a particular area. The enormous demographic shifts of recent decades have meant that large numbers of people have flocked to previously sparsely populated areas, and, vice-versa, large groups have moved from heavily populated areas leaving them sparsely populated (Harrington,1997).

Faced with these mass movements parishes have often had to shift and alter their boundaries to accommodate the movements of their parishioners. Some single parishes have been closed; others have been reconstituted or invented to cope with the demographics of their congregations. As such, some single parishes take over the areas of other parishes that have now been closed. Increasingly this overlapping is happening where many parishes are adjacent to one another. Many parishes that are closing were originally established to minister to different nationalities (an Italian or Polish immigrant community for example) in heavily populated parts of cities. The purpose of a single parish is to strengthen a faith community, raise finances for building projects and development programs, and create a system of pastoral care for its parishioners.

(3) The Single Parish With Multiple Worship and Ministry Sites is a new type of model that involves the complete union of two or more separate parishes into a single parish. The individual facilities - church, lands, other buildings -- of each parish are retained and used by parishioners, but there is now a single paris hand one faith group. The newly created parish is given a new name, takes a new pastor and pastoral administration and ministry leadership. Frequently one church from these amalgamated parishes will be transformed into a site for ministry education or sold to another community organization.

(4) In the Single Parish with Multiple Faith Communities model a single parish assumes responsibility and care for several faith communities - hospitals, schools,prisons and so on. If a school, for instance, is in the vicinity of a particular parish, then the vicar or chaplain for that school is placed on the pastoral leadership panel of that parish. In this model the parish assumes direct pastoral responsibility for the school. This coming together of different faith communities is intended to reinvigorate the pastoral work and spiritual vitality of the parish and to promote greater coordination within different faith communities. The leadership of the parish is made more multi-cultural and can draw upon a more diverse panel of expertise to supervise its pastoral care.

(5) A similar model is that of Multiple Parishes with Multiple Faith Communities. In this model several independent parishes foster a partnership to supply pastoral help to the various faith communities within their collected parishes. In addition to faith communities such as hospitals and schools, these schemes give pastoral care to special faith communities like the physically or mentally disabled, immigrants, victims of domestic violence and so on. In these instances the joint parish partnership shares the financial cost with the faith community that it helps. In such instances, the ministry of the parish may be based in a single parish or be a collective representation of each of the several parishes. In Luton, for instance, several parishes work together to provide aid for the local Pakistani and Indian immigrant communities.

In addition to these new models of parish life, many parishes are considering alternative models of leadership and ministry. This essay briefly examines three of these now. Joint Programs are ministry programs run as a partnership program between several parishes, rather than as separate programs as has been done traditionally. These programs also tend to be centered in a single site to improve efficiency. This scheme has been piloted in America in the Monroe County's Catholic Schools with the partnership board of the Monroe Country Parishes (Monroe) - and this model may prove a successful introduction here in Britain. (2) Joint Staff programs allow several parishes to hire one member of staff who runs minister programs throughout these several parishes. This is a particularly inventive way to use the larger numbers of laity who are becoming involved in parish life. (3) Independent Single Parish Programs are the traditional model of parish ministry and some single parishes are still wealthy enough to completely finance their own ministry programs. Numbers of such independent programs however are diminishing in favour of either of the two types of program described above.

These various models require a substantial restructuring of the traditional staffing model of a parish. Less than fifty years ago a normal parish was staffed by a pastor and perhaps several assistant pastors as well as a parish secretary and a parish accountant (Hoge, 1998). This parish structure was almost uniformly distributed throughout Great Britain. Now however parishes are beginning to show greater diversity: their staff is composed of a higher percentage of permanent deacons,priest pastors and laymen. This diversity of staff allows individual parishes to choose their staff according to the particular needs of that parish and the parish model it has chosen to adopt. Certain parishes for instance may employ retired priests or women to conduct wedding or baptism ceremonies.

Priest administrators are charged by bishops to act as administrators for parishes; they are essentially more efficient replacements for the traditional but now expensive type of parish bookkeeper. Permanent Deacons have been employed in diocese as far back as 1982. Permanent Deacons have several functions in a parish; they work at baptisms, funerals, wakes and so on. Deacon scan witness marriages, help at the Mass, and introduce prayers. Deacons have far reaching pastoral responsibilities: they are heavily involved in charity work and with care in the justice system. Declining numbers of priests mean that parishes are increasingly turning to permanent deacons for pastoral work and for helping exhausted pastors. Permanent deacons are increasingly working as ministers also.

Pastoral Administrators are delegated in accordance with Canon 517.2 to conduct pastoral work within a parish without actually being priests. Pastoral administrators do the work of pastors except they are not allowed to preside over sacraments intended only for ordained priests. Women with qualifications and lay people can be appointed as pastoral administrators. If a parish has a pastoral administrator then in addition a sacramental minister will be appointed to perform sacraments such as the Eucharist. Catechetical Leaders supply schemes of religious education for all members of a parish. They promote programs for various types of religious education: education for school children, instruction for sacraments, education for parents and catechumen ate for children awaiting Confirmation. Business Managers are increasingly necessary in modern parishes to organize the finances of a parish, their plans for building, staff costs, legal matters, accounts and so on.

Let us now turn to look at the effectiveness of the 'cluster' model for the renewal two modern British parishes. Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster,argues that 'cluster' type parishes will be the future of parishes within his own diocese of Westminster. The Cardinal's long-anticipated green paper 'Response and Analysis', delivered as a speech in Westminster Cathedral, declares that radical restructuring of Westminster parishes is required to ensure their renewal. To quote The Times on the day of the Cardinal's speech: 'Although just one diocese among 22 in England and Wales , the pioneering plans of Westminster, this country's ''mother'' diocese, to radically change the way it operates to cope with the rapidly declining numbers are being watched closely by church authorities throughout the West.'

That such a senior figure in the Catholic Church could make such a speech was interpreted throughout Europe to imply the seriousness of the need to reform parish structures. The Cardinal informed his parishioners that many parishes would face closure or merger, and parishioners were told that they can no longer expect a permanent priest in their parish and must adapt to this difficult change. The Cardinal also encouraged laymen to be far more involved in administration, pastoral work and prayers of parishes. He proposed that Masses be held less often than presently, and that parishes will be forced to coordinate staff, ministries, prayer and perhaps liturgies.

The Cardinal explained that these clustering measures were a response to the radically dwindling numbers of priests and congregations in recent years. In 1990 843priests were working in Westminster's parishes; the number was 623 in 2005 and is estimated to drop to 471 by 2015 - a 50% fall in a quarter of a decade. Westminster is implementing the cluster model to check these worrying numbers. Cardinal Murphy feels confidant the new measures will be successful, saying 'There is no reason to lose confidence in the Lord of the harvest who desires to send labourers His harvest' (Murphy-O'Connor, 2005).

The Cardinal quoted the 500,000 Roman Catholics that have joined the parishes of Westminster and also the record number (780) of people who were applying to enter the Church via its adult baptism program. Thus the Cardinal claimed that the reorganization of parishes is a necessary compensation for the changing structure and demographics of the Church. His green paper said that there would be a 'profound' change in the image and structure of the church over the next fifteen years. Parishes will also need to adopt a 'new mind set' to exploit the opportunities of lay leadership. Fundamentally: 'The Church in Westminster will need to move away from the idea that the viability of a parish is contingent upon its resident priest' (Murphy-O'Connor, 2005).

The Cardinal's message ramifies throughout the parishes of the United Kingdom: he says that every parish must now think very hard about whether they will close, merge, be assimilated by a larger parish or be 'clustered' with other parishes'. The Cardinal warned of the consequences of not heeding these changes: 'In some ways the Church and parishes in Europe and particularly in Great Britain is at such a time now. It is a time of dying and rising. It is a time of crisis.' The Cardinal defined 'crisis' as 'a time of decisions' and unpredictability; but one in which opportunity was present. Speaking of the need for renewal he said 'We should not be surprised at the challenges and the nervousness and the fears that face us here in our own country' (Murphy-O'Connor, 2005). It can then be said that the parishes of Westminster are tentatively optimistic about the introduction of 'cluster' models.

In the diocese of Salford proposals for new models of parish life have been less welcome(Harrington, 1997). The Diocese of Salford covers the country of Lancashire and the parishes of the towns of Manchester, Bolton, Rochdale, Blackburn, Oldham,and Bury. The Bishop of the diocese, Bishop Terence Brain, recently sought to employ cluster models to resolve the crisis of numbers of priesthood applicant sand congregation attendance. The number of priests in Salford is predicted to fall from 216 today to 113 in 2018. Bishop Brain warned his parishioners that 'Redundant buildings will, on the whole, be demolished and the sites disposed of'(Harrington, 1997). Fifteen churches are proposed to be shut, and seventeen have been shut since the 1960's.

According to one parishioner the Bishop's proposals read like 'the business plan of a chairman compelled to arrange the 'downsizing' of a firm's factory' (Harrington, 1997). Outrage continued when parish churches were demolished whilst the diocese went ahead with a planned office building its Manchester parish at the cost of 1 million. Parishioners suggest that what is needed is not a restructuring of parishes based upon models of parish life, but a reinvigoration of the spiritual side of the Church. 'Only a Church in love with the Eucharist generates holy and numerous priestly vacations' (Harrington, 1997) quoted one passionate parishioner. The apparent commercialisation of the Church under such cluster models is a cause of deep concern to parishioners of Salford. They argue parishes should cease building-schemes, particularly for diocesan offices, and instead focus on conscription of new priests from Brazil, the Philippines and Eastern Europe where their numbers are increasing. Parishes that are called to close or coalesce should only have to do so if their corresponding dioceses are closed or coalesced as well.

In the final analysis, it is agreed by most Church and parish leaders that parishes are in a pastoral crisis. A serious pastoral and spiritual renewal of parish life is required, and there is wide appeal for this to be done by applying to parishes new model of parish life. The 'cluster' model seems both in Britain and the United States, to be the model of choice. It is thought to provide the practical benefits of streamlining parish costs whilst bringing various otherwise disconnected faith communities together. Critics of such models complain of the commercialisation of parish life, and call for a return to the simplicity and effectiveness of the single parish model that worked so well for centuries. A middle position is to suggest 'cluster' models should be a temporary model that can be replaced in the future by the traditional single parish model, once Christianity has recovered its authority in the United Kingdom.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books/Journals

-- Dolan, J. P. (1989). Transforming Parish Ministry: the Changing Roles of Catholic Clergy, Laityand Women. Crossroad,New York.

-- Hammersley, J. (1998). Training for Parish Ministry. Blandford Forum: Parish and People.

-- Harrington, D. (1997). Parish Renewal: Reflecting on the Experience (Vol. 1). Black Rock, Co. Dublin.

-- Hoge, D.R. (1998). Patterns of Parish Leadership: Cost and Effectiveness. Sheed & Ward.

-- Hornsby-Smith (1999). The Changing Parish: a Study of Parishes, Priests and Parishioners after Vatican II. Routledge& Kegan Paul, London.

--Lundin, J. W. (1997). The Church for an Open Future: Biblical Roots and Parish Renewal. Fortress Press.

-- Mallison, J. (1981). Creative Ideas:For Small Groups in the Christian Community. S.U. Specialist Productions, London.

-- Murphy-O'Connor (Cardinal). Green Paper: Response and Analysis, May 2005. Archbishopric of Westminster. The term is believed to have been first used in a 1987 publication of the National Pastoral Life Centre entitled 'Alternative Staffing of Parishes'.

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