{"id":2852,"date":"2008-09-12T00:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-12T00:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/two-flocks-one-shepherd.html"},"modified":"2008-09-12T00:42:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-12T00:42:00","slug":"two-flocks-one-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/two-flocks-one-shepherd.html","title":{"rendered":"Two flocks, one shepherd"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are part of one of the dwindling number of parishes that has its very own pastor, count your blessings — and read this report<\/a> for a glimpse at the future. <\/p>\n

From the Catholic Sentinel in Oregon: <\/p>\n

In the future, your parish could resemble St. Mark\u2019s and St. Peter\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Since 2006, the two faith communities on Eugene\u2019s northwest side have shared a pastor.<\/p>\n

Led by Father Dick Rossman, a plain-dealing veteran priest, both parishes are intent on evangelization \u2014 inviting neighbors in the growing district to consider the gospel of Jesus. Each congregations is devoted to its parish.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the laity are adjusting to limited Mass schedules, increasing their own leadership and praying for vocations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s working well,\u201d says Tom Shea, a member of the administrative council at St. Mark\u2019s. As one sign, he says that St. Mark has turned a financial corner, helped by energy-saving measures and job mergers. Mostly, people are getting used to the arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it hasn\u2019t happened without a lot of pain,\u201d explains Shea. \u201cPeople want their own priest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dee Perkins, chair of the pastoral council at St. Peter\u2019s, has fielded protests. People wanted their Mass time to remain and they wanted the pastor to be able to stick around after Mass, chatting with them over coffee and doughnuts. Perkins told them, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to go with what Father can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The councils have discussed the issue. Lay leaders like Perkins feel a personal duty to help more to relieve Father Rossman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to take the burden off him,\u201d Perkins says.<\/p>\n

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate estimates that 30 to 40 percent of U.S. Catholic parishes are sharing a priest.<\/p>\n

The national Catholic directory shows more than 3,000 parishes nationwide without a resident pastor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an increasing trend,\u201d says Mary Gautier, senior research associate for the Washington D.C.-based center. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Visit the Sentinel link<\/a> for much more on how this works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are part of one of the dwindling number of parishes that has its very own pastor, count your blessings — and read this report for a glimpse at the future. From the Catholic Sentinel in Oregon: In the future, your parish could resemble St. Mark\u2019s and St. Peter\u2019s. Since 2006, the two faith…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo flocks, one shepherd - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/two-flocks-one-shepherd.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Two flocks, one shepherd - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you are part of one of the dwindling number of parishes that has its very own pastor, count your blessings — and read this report for a glimpse at the future. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}