Toward Becoming One Parish (IV)

By Fr. Steven Lewis, Parochial Vicar

            We have been discussing how our joint pastoral councils have identified Pillars of Unity to help us focus our discussions about becoming one parish. You may have recalled from previous columns that the four marks of the Church (from the Nicene Creed) were used to help us categorize our efforts. Let us look at those helped us categorize potential Pillars of Unity in greater detail.

One:

helps our community to have communion (broadly defined) with each other

helps us have communion (broadly defined) with the local Church (diocese)

Holy:

helps individual members of our community to fulfill their vocation to holiness

grow in Christlike-ness: love & serve the Lord & be happy with Him forever in heaven

Catholic:

dictionary: universal. Adjective to distinguish from other Christians.

helps our community to know what Christ taught and what the Church teaches

fosters communion (broadly defined) with the universal Church

Apostolic:

Apostle: one who is sent

sent forth from our community to spread the Gospel or help those in need

Other:

doesn’t seem to fit into any other category

            We have already identified that there is a tension between Music and Liturgy as two Pillars of Unity. The first, Music, categorized under Holy, seems to suggest an opportunity to “be all things to all people," that our larger size as one parish may help us accommodate different preferences at different Masses. The second, Liturgy, categorized under One, seems to suggest an openness to predictability, that our parishioners should be able to attend Mass at any of our churches and have a substantially similar experience.

            This doesn’t somehow make the process we are in “wrong” or “hopeless,” but speaks to the importance of talking about topics in advance with the help those responsible for them, to help us make sure we do the best we can to get it right.