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Shared Ministries

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ByronArn

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My diocese is trying out "shared ministries", where a priest and/or deacon serves two or more congregations. The priest and the deacon who serves at my congregation both serve another congregation as well that's about 40 minutes away. My church has the 8:30 am service, and then our priest stays for half an hour during coffee hour, then leaves to do the 11 am service at the other church. Our deacon seems to alternate Sundays between the two churches. My understanding is that my diocese is doing this because of a lack of priests and deacons.

Anyone else have any experience at a parish that has this kind of shared ministry with another? What's your impressions of it?
 

Liberasit

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This happens in the CofE, but not because of lack of clergy, but because these individual parishes cannot support a full-time stipendiary minister. It lack of churchgoers, not lack of clergy.

Other churches, such as my own, have many clergy, so if you were to average it out, there would be plenty to go around.

There is everything in between as well. House for duty ministers seems to be a good way of having someone serve in a small rural parish. They don't get paid, but have a house for a few hours work per week.

Nexr, we have team ministries, where there is an incumbent in one church with curates in the surrounding ones.
 
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Albion

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I know of a few Catholic or Episcopal churches in which such a format has been employed at one time or another, and it was because of a shortage of clergy. BUT it was a shortage of clergy coupled with the fact that one of the parishes that needed pastoring was itself so small or marginal that it wasn't deemed enough to warrant a full-time priest.

Incidentally, this sort of thing is common in the United Methodist churches, and again it's because of the state of the congregations more than a shortage of clergy per se. The Methodists have so many rural congregations with average Sunday attendance of a dozen or so people that won't merge with another congregation. So several of these churches are served by a single minister.
 
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mark46

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There lots of Catholic churches that share priests. This is because of a priest shortage. There are areas of Africa where a priest might come once a month or less often.

I recall discussing this issue with a TEC priest from LA a few years ago. His perception was that the TEC had the priests, and the Catholics had the parishioners. I think that this is true. I don't think that there is a TEC priest shortage in the US.

This is certainly the issue here in South Carolina. A major issue is how to serve rural parishes with a dozen or members. Obviously, they all can't financially support a full time priest.
 
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ByronArn

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Y'all could be right. I just kinda assumed it was because of a lack of priests. It could be though that our 2 churches can only afford to have a full time priest by sharing one.

The shared ministry seems to be going well so far though. Its only been since September though. We are still ironing out a couple wrinkles though.
 
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Gnarwhal

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I've only seen this in more rural areas and/or with churches that have a smaller presence. For example, the Orthodox priest in my town used to lead the Divine Liturgy at a small mission parish about two hours east of here once a month. He's since retired though and I don't know if his successor does the same.

It's not uncommon though, and I'm sure it works out fine - or at least as good as possible - for the parishes involved.
 
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Yardstick

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If only we could combine and resolve both our problems!
 
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mark46

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There is much that prevents us from combining.

I would pray that we could accept each other's priests as valid priests.

However, even this is not acceptable to many, if not most, Anglicans and Catholics.

Yardstick said:
If only we could combine and resolve both our problems!
Click to expand...
 
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Shane R

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The priest of the Continuing Anglican church I worship with services two parishes. Both are medium sized and probably self sustaining but the larger of the two abruptly lost their priest. He has taken on the extra workload for the intermediate time.

One of the wonderful things about the Anglican tradition and the BCP is the provision for lay-led services in the form of Morning and Evening prayer.
 
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