Posts Tagged ‘Resurrection Church’

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Again, let me state this very clearly: Resurrection Church is not closing – but lets be real it’s “on the table”.

Every parish in the diocese is currently engaged in a strategic planning process with the bishop. The “Christ Jesus, Our Hope – Diocesan Strategic Planning for Parishes” plan is to evaluate the current status of local parishes for the long term stability of the church.  Meaning… closings of churches are “on the table” – across the board – across the diocese.

All churches have very low attendance, and there seems to be a lot of different reasons for the low attendance, but according to the report some factors include “demographic shifts, small and large from the migration of many Catholics away from the Northeast to changes in ethnic groups within certain neighborhoods.”

The Bishop does not want what happened to schools in their decision of closing to happen to churches.  To that end, he is making everyone alert to what is going on.

Some churches cannot support themselves because they are either in poor areas and are not being supported by parishioners, so the diocese has been subsidizing them.  Some are receiving up to 40%. Selling church property is not an option, Real estate will probably go back up.  Some churches are very close in proximity and some have very high maintenance costs and falling apart.

The bishop has appointed a committee to go to the churches and evaluate buildings, structure, cost efficiency, maintenance. They are also looking at the “sacramental life” of the church e.g. baptisms, weddings, communions, confirmations etc.

As far as Resurrection goes, the buildings are in very good condition, and they do have the leasing of the school building as a steady source of income.

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Nobody freak out and read what I am writing clearly: Resurrection Church – is not closing - at least not just yet.

Apparently, there was a meeting last week held by Father Farrell and it came out that Resurrection Church (constructed in 1953) may have to close their doors because of low attendance.

Ironically, this highly publicized meeting was not very well attended since they only publicized it in their bulletin.

At the meeting attendees discussed openly the problems with the parish and tried to figure out ways to possibly save the parish. A handout was passed around for people to submitted written answers to questions like “What are the greatest signs of vibrancy and life that you see in our parish?”. These questions and questions like it are to try to figure out a way to keep the church together. One of the main reasons why people felt was the cause of the lack of attendance was was the closing of  Resurrection School. Many feel as though the decision “ripped the heart” out of the church and may be the eventual downfall of the church.

Ultimately the decision for Resurrection to close is up to the diocese and a decision is expected to be made sometime around September. The diocese will be looking at many factors like the solvency of the church, attendance, the building conditions, monies. Resurrection has all of those things going for them except for the attendance.

There are some things you can do to prevent this from happening: Resurrection is not asking for your money (although I’m sure they wouldn’t turn down your donation). However they are asking for your participation and attendance in your community church.