24/09/23

I have just returned from a wonderful two weeks in the south of France. Amongst the many things to do and see, Jane I took the chance to visit churches.  The local parish church where we were staying, not surprisingly, did not have a mass every Sunday. However, I was a little taken aback on visiting it in the first week of September to find the next mass wasn’t until 4 November. There was no evidence of lay-led services in the church before then either.  Even in towns, large parish churches would not have a service every Sunday.  One parish described itself as forming the majority of a former diocese; there was a parish of 75 churches served by a single priest.

We complain – and about most things as we get older!  Change is rarely seen as being for the better, and past was always better.  Not true.  However, we in this diocese, are facing an acute cash crisis which affects us all.  We are also faced with the reduction of paid clergy posts, partly due to cost, but also ordinations are not matching those leaving paid ministry. I do not believe God is calling less people as ministers, lay or ordained, but maybe fewer are aware or willing to consider any call.  Often I hear people complaining that ‘they’ have closed their church.  That’s never true.  They themselves have closed their church by not using it, and not serving God through it.