Thursday, June 29, 2006
CLUSTERING
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ USA does it.
In June 2005, the US National Conference took action to radically restructure how the churches in the United States are organized. The geographic-based conferences which have existed for 200 years are being phased out. In their place is arising a structure based on "clusters." Every church, and every active minister, will be required to participate in a cluster, which will consist of the ministers from 5-10 churches.
"Radically restructure how churches...are organized." At least they are honest about it. They don't claim it is a result of a shortage of priests. Of course they don't have priests, they have "ministers".
Here in the Catholic Church we are being told that "clustering" is necessary because of the priest shortage.
Something interesting can be noted at "Holy Family Catholic Community" in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin--a six parish cluster. The ostensible reason for clustering of six parishes is that there are four priests, all of whom are called "pastor", and all of whom serve this cluster. With six parishes and four priests, the argument can be made that it is better to cluster churches than to close them, and that is the argument given for this six-parish cluster in the Winter 2004 Newsletter of the Wisconsin Directors of Religious Education Federation. The article, "Effective Ministry in the Mega Church" by Bill Thimm, states:
Their parish web site (www.hffdl.org) made me aware that this parish of sixteen thousand was dealing with the same struggles many of our parishes are facing—where to put new buildings, closing churches, eliminating Masses as priest numbers decrease, just wages, and possible staff cuts.
But this is an interim arrangement that has been used to convince members of these six parishes to merge into one large parish. The plans for the megachurch are already in the works. On January 15, 2005 the "Building with Living Stones" Campaign was announced. The goal is to raise $8 million over five years so that a 1250-seat church, parish center and staff offices can be built. These parishioners are being hoodwinked. They have been told the sort of lie that the church wreckovators told to congregations to persuade them that the new layout was an improvement over the old.
Clustering is not about a priest shortage. Clustering is about a new church structure. I wonder what the interior of their new church is going to look like? Will it have a circular altar surrounded by three or more steps, forming the safety circle in the center that is essential to Wiccan ceremonies, and will it be located at the intersection of crossed aisles, so that the four directions can easily be acknowledged when the corners are cast in some future liturgy? That has been the layout of far too many wreckovated Catholic churches in the past thanks to the "ministering" of Fr. Richard Vosko. Will the new design be a sterile community meeting space with morable chairs and a marked absence of symbolic decoration ala the wreckovator Edward Sovik?
There is also a discussion of salary structure taking place in this cluster parish. The new church priests want to be well paid.
The picture of the new Holy Family cluster's megachurch can be seen on the website, along with the typical hype that goes with any sort of deception.
The justice and peace ministry is in full swing in this parish cluster. Notice something else there. The Spanish ministry. Could that have anything to do with the fact that Spanish-speaking immigrants have a loyalty to the hierarchy that we in America have abandoned because of the sexual abuse scandal? Are these Latino Catholics ignorant of the types of manipulation we have endured in the Church in America since Vatican II? Or could it have anything to do with the fact that Pentecostalism/Charismania looms large in Spanish-speaking countries? At the start of the megachurch/cluster parish there will be room for everyone, perhaps even including the Tridentine community. Will it remain that way? Or will the most progressive element in Roman Catholicism eventually dominate, forcing all other opinions out of the only Catholic church that remains in the area?
How can there be anything of Jesus Christ contained in a deception or a lie? How many of these priests in this parish cluster belong to the Lavendar Mafia?
Fond du Lac is a very interesting place for this clustering to be so far advanced. Fond du Lac was the diocesan home of the Vilatte succession--the succession that brought us the Gnostic Catholic Church. With the Gnostic Catholic Church you get the Ordo Templi Orientis, the Masonic system of Aleister Crowley, with homosexual degrees at the top.
With Fond du Lac you also get the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac which discusses the Vilatte succession on its website.
Do you also get the Lavendar Mafia?
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
