The Parish
Does the Parish system still work, or does it need changed? Alison Milbank and Stephen Watt give their perspective.
Pope Benedict XVI said, “the parish is a beacon that radiates the light of the faith and thus responds to the deepest and truest desires of the human heart, giving meaning and hope to the lives of individuals and families”. 1 The Parish at it’s most basic is a territorial area within a Diocesan boundary under the authority of the Bishop, who, through that authority empowers Priests to administer the sacraments and provide pastoral care. For most of us it is the building, one dedicated Priest and the Catholics in that area. However, is the Parish system fit for purpose in the 21st Century? In different Dioceses throughout Scotland we have seen amalgamations and closures and commonly now we find a number of Parishes run by one Priest, and a Deacon if your lucky. However their is still no joined up discussion or consultation on how we as a Church handle all the constraints within God’s overall plan for our nation. Hopefully with the Synod we will have this discussion but for now, it is interesting to look at how certain denominations within Protestantism who are facing similar issues have dealt with it.
This week we move our focus to the Church of England and ask Alison Milbank, Vicar, lecturer, author and one of the key proponents of Save the Parish to write about what is happening there. We did ask someone from the other side of this debate in the C of E to comment but they declined to write. However if your interested look up CCX which has worked to come up with new expressions and ways of doing Church.
To contextualise this for us, frequent contributor Stephen Watt comments on Alison Milbank’s article and how we should begin asking how we might look at our own Parish system.
https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20061210_star-evangelization.html