Paul Keenan‘Time to re-imagine parish and diocese’ – Primate
Priests and bishops need to get used to “letting go” of the central role in parish communities if faith is to be re-energised, the country’s most senior Churchman has said.
Archbishop Eamon Martin predicted that the “centre of gravity” in Irish parishes in the future will shift from “the parochial house or diocesan curia to the little domestic churches and gatherings of families on the ground.” However, he insisted that “more energised, connected families approaching Sunday Eucharist as the summit of their week” was the “dividend” accruing from this.
Realities
Archbishop Eamon insisted that it is time for the Church in Ireland to “re-imagine parish and diocese” in the face of modern realities.
He cautioned that “it will of course mean a certain amount of ‘letting go’ by priests and even bishops”.
Speaking at a gathering in the Seamus Heaney Home Place in Bellaghy, Co. Derry at the weekend, the Primate of All-Ireland offered the clearest signal yet of the impact of clerical shortages when he described a future in which the parish will be a very different place, albeit one still of “community and faith”.
“We are in a transition time between the relative security and certainties of past times and discovering what the Spirit wants of the Church in Ireland today and tomorrow,” he said, adding the warning, “It will be impossible for us to hold on to the ways we lived parish in the past.”
Describing lay people as crucial to this new imagining of parish, he went on: “The parishes of tomorrow will be communities of intentional disciples” sustained by committed and formed lay people.
“The key to this will be the formation of cells, or smaller gatherings of committed people who meet and pray and develop together their understanding of faith, and who find there the courage to engage in mission and outreach.”
Archbishop Eamon pointed out that the seeds of this are already evident in parishes through “prayer groups, lectio divina groups, adult faith groups, youth groups or adoration teams”.
Journey
Projecting to the future, the archbishop asked: “What if a number of families were to begin meeting together to pray, share their joys and struggles in faith, read the Word of God together, talk about their personal faith journey, discuss and study together aspects of faith, commit to mission, and then, on Sunday join together with similar cells or ‘families of familie’ in the Parish Sunday Eucharist?”