If you were at Mass this weekend, you heard me preach about the Archdiocesan process called “Partners in the Gospel,” through which nearly ever parish in the Archdiocese will be combined with neighboring parishes to make them stronger and better equipped to preach the Gospel. This newsletter is here to fill in some details.
Startling Statistics
In my homily, I spoke about losing approximately 1.1 million Christians in this country each year. You can find that statistic in the most recent Pew numbers, which are an update from their must-read religious landscape survey from 2015.
In addition to the Pew numbers, the work of Ryan Burge, an American Baptist Church pastor and professor of political science, is deeply helpful in understanding religious demographics in the U.S. I have scrolled his Twitter page for hours. Below are a few statistics from him that I either referenced or think are helpful.
- Episcopal Church: Median age and general congregation size.
- Age demographics in different religions.
- Catholic weekly attendance has dropped precipitously since 1972, while other Christians have better attendance.
- 23% of people raised Catholic have left Christianity.
Archdiocesan Resources / Explanation
In response to these statistics (and other, local realities which will be presented in April), the Archdiocese is undertaking an initiative called Partners in the Gospel. The master webpage explaining everything is at https://archseattle.org/partners/.
I particularly want to highlight the following:
- The 10-minute video, which can also be found here.
- The Q & A which is excellent and thorough.
- The newsletter sign-up (bottom of this page), which will provide automatic updates so that you do not have to keep checking the website.
- This article from Northwest Catholic.
You can also hear my own homily from this weekend, either the Saturday night version, which ended up being unexpectedly emotional, or the Sunday morning version, which did a better job presenting the practical points.
Laying a Foundation
Even though we will not learn about our family configuration until October 2023, there is still a lot of work that can be done between now and them. Three things specifically:
- Pray. As one of my favorite Psalms says, “Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build.” Everything we do here will be meaningless unless it is first and foremost the work of God. We need to beg for his grace and favor if we hope to succeed. You can use the prayer provided by the Archdiocese in English, Spanish, or Vietnamese.
- Forgive. As I mentioned in a few of the homilies this weekend, if there has ever been a time to forgive, it is now. Maybe we have been hurt by a local parish, priest, or fellow Catholic, and we responded to that hurt by switching parishes. Unfortunately, we no longer have the luxury of living apart, and we have to do the hard work of forgiveness, lest we find ourselves in the same parish family. If you need to talk out what forgiveness might look like for you, please feel free to meet with me (https://frmoore.com/bookings).
- Suggest. The main question I am asking myself, the parish staff, and the Pastoral Council at this point is “What do we need to do now to lay a solid foundation for this process?” What initiatives do we need to complete? What programs do we need to bring to a close, or maybe start up? Come July 01, 2024, I want our parish to enter into this process without any distraction or hinderance. How can we use the next 18 months to give this process its best chance of success when the time comes?
If you have opinions on these questions, you can let me know, or a member of the parish staff, or a member of our Pastoral Council (Melissa Alves, Bill Attebery, Rik Dalvit, Kelsey Harrington, John Purdie, and Sue Ungern). While I appreciate hearing from all of you, these are the two groups with which I collaborate most closely.
May the Lord bless you, and our parish, through this process!
Fr. Moore 