Our evangelisation plans rest on outdated assumptions

These days the amalgamation of parishes is seen as the solution to a growing shortage of priests and a demographic shift towards towns and cities away from shrinking rural communities. Our Catholic identity has been defined by the parish – its church, our own schools and our social life. The essential element of mission has often been forgotten while the parish lived within its own walls. Out of necessity we have taken good care of our own, an enduring echo from penal times. But since the Second Vatican Council, we are more aware of non-Catholic Christians and the secular society we live in. So how should we react to these changes? What is the nature of a parish? And how do we as parishioners respond to it? Such changes effectively redefine the nature of a parish, and I think, mu