Parish Clusters / Mergers
  • Susdem
    Posts: 31
    Hi all,

    Does anyone work in a parish cluster (one pastor over multiple parishes) or a combination of parishes that have been merged into one parish (but with multiple "church sites")? If so, could you talk about how you handle the logistics of choir? We are currently part of a cluster of two parishes with a probability of becoming a cluster of four. The trend in our diocese is that you become a cluster of multiple parishes and then are eventually merged into one "parish" with multiple church sites.

    Last year, the religious ed programs were merged which means that all faith formation for both parishes bounces back and forth between the two parishes (even though we are still technically two parishes). Elementary and middle school faith formation are on Sunday mornings at my parish. High school formation is on Sunday mornings at the other parish. This has been fairly devastating to my choirs since it now requires several families to go to the other parish twice a month on Sunday mornings. It also means that my youth choristers who attend faith formation are not able to attend the pre-Mass warmup and rehearsal. I also lost several of my strongest singers either because they were catechists as well as choir members (which was not previously an issue) or because they had children who they now had to take to Mass at the other parish to attend faith formation. Faith formation is also now linked to Mass so attending faith formation and then coming over to my parish to sing in choir is not doable.

    If anyone else has or is in this situation, I would really appreciate any tips as I am trying to decide whether I need to limit the choir to only singing on the "non faith formation" Sundays, a move I really don't want to do but am feeling like that may be my only option.

    Thanks in advance.
    Susan
  • LScott729
    Posts: 4
    Pretty much all of Maine (where I live) is only the "one parish, many churches" structure. The logistics of it get pretty complicated. Especially where there is one director for the whole parish who oversees multiple churches. Often there is a struggle to try and combine choirs from the other churches because choir members feel very attached to their own church, and not to the clustered parish as a whole. In regards to religious ed I am not too sure.
  • Susdem
    Posts: 31
    If I was in a position of one director for the multiple sites, it would be easier because I would just merge the choirs and follow the religious ed (and the donuts!). But, I'm only over the music at my parish site. My pastor is suggesting just run with cantors only on the Sundays when religious ed is at the other parish but I just really don't want to do that. I know I may have to do it but I really don't want to do that.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 3,372
    FWIW, I was speaking to a few people just a couple of days ago at a conference and their approach was that the main adult choir alternated between the two sites every other week so each community got equal treatment. In their cases, there were only two sites, which helped simplify things. I suppose the model could even be extended to a clump of 3. After that, I would imagine things go downhill.
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