Small Church Communities... and the National Ministry Summit
June 24, 2008"The coming together of six national ministry organizations created something that no one of them could accomplish alone. Both the collaboration among the partners and the sheer number of participants are clear witness to how keen the interest is throughout the country about attending to the vitality of parish."
View this ArticleIn his newsletter for the Archiodcese of Hartford, Robert K. Moriarty, SM, looks at the findings of the National Ministry Summit to see what would be the implications for 'small church communities,' a phrase he prefers to the term 'small faith-based communities' used by the Emerging Models Project.
In his article, Moriarty notes that while the Project findings are implicating a significant role for these communities in the parish of the future, pastors have indicated (DeLambo: "What Makes Great Parishes Different?) that attention to them is one of the lower priorities in their parishes.
Moriarty concludes: Small church communities must come to be more deeply appreciated, not merely as nice little faith sharing groups for people who are into sharing, but rather as 'basic units' of parish, as the coming toghether of adults, younger and older, and families to make a mutually evangelizing difference in each others' lives and faith.
