Another perspective......

Occasionally communication comes in our direction that advocates for the closing of churches, or at least for the bishop’s authority to do so. I understand this position…many of us did when we made the difficult decision to oppose the closing of St. James.

On the post about the
5 Stages Of Liberation,
this comment was posted in response to my statement that the community has demonstrated the will to have church.


Anonymous said...
Churches are actually built by the will of the local bishop, and not of the community. In the history page for St James, you will find that there was a petition sent to Bishop Gilmour for a church in Kansas. Had the bishop denied this request, St James would not have been built. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that the bishop should be able to close parishes without any trouble. After all the bishop is the owner/operator of every parish.

Barring the fact that the petition did not write itself, the logic demonstrated here is sound. Unfortunately, it advocates for bad policy. Either you want the Church to be successful or you don’t. If you have parishes that are successful, than closing them diminishes the overall success of the Church. If a driver does not realize that he is directing his vehicle toward a cliff without showing signs of slowing down, than who is the better friend? The one who says that it is his right to do so, or the one who yells “STOP, YOU’RE HEADING TOWARD A CLIFF!”