ECC+C 'Parish' Communities
With denominations outside the mainstream CofE and RCC Church, some parishes are not territorial and can be referred to as a 'Community Parish' as opposed to a geographical Parish. A 'parish' can be a group of people who have been drawn together with a like-mind in terms of theology and social responsibility for worship, ministry and fellowship; irrespective of where they live and completely without any focus on a Church building. There are groups of people who regularly meet a few times times a week in community centres and (as one Independent Baptist group we know of) their local Fire Brigade's Social Club. The ECC+C has buildings in parts of the UK and mainly share places of worship with denominations like the United Reform Church and the Unitarian Church. Some of us focus on chaplaincies only. This proves more practical for the ECC+C as to run many buildings would not be viable at this time - but we are working on it. Every time the word 'Parish' is thought of, it is only in terms of being a local CofE or RC Church, however... and I feel this must be emphasised...
There is way more to Christianity than being Roman Catholic or Anglican!
This question is one we are asked by CofE clergy all the time. Where are you from? We meet with CofE every week and if they don't know us they ask before any introduction - "so - where are you then?" We know this means what parish are you attached to. The assumption time and time again is that we are Anglican 'vicars'.
The precise meaning of the term community 'parish' seems to present certain difficulties when you explain you are not an Anglican. In order to preserve our own faith rights as Ecumenical Catholics born out of the Old Catholic Church, we need to change the hearts and minds of mainstream bishops and their vicars/priests who can (on occasion) be rude, insensitive and uncoperative towards us. However we should be better known about in an historic sense!
Found in Lambeth Resolutions (archive 1932):
'The Conference agrees that there is nothing in the Declaration of Utrecht inconsistent with the teaching of the Church of England.'
The public on the whole see what we are striving to achieve in the Name of God and feel an affinity with us. But as you may guess, some brother and sister clerics (we get along just fine with many) do not view us as working in the same vineyard, they see us as poaching from their estate. Nothing could be further from our minds. The question of a parish and what it is to us requires no answer in some UK denominations such as Baptist, URC, Pentecostal, Old Catholic, Ecumenical Catholic, Unitarian etc etc - and of course within other countries and especially so the USA. Many refer to their faith community as their parish.
A 'parish' is widely considered to be an area with a building owned by the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church or the Methodist Church. It is also the term for ecclesiastical administration - almost within a geopolitical framework. All of us in England live in a CofE parish under its governing CofE diocese. That is the given and the accepted norm but one that leaves little room for other denominations to feel a valued part of the faith community. The closest thing I can liken it to is insisting that all our brothers and sisters from different ethnic backgrounds have to call themselves white.
More and more people are turning away from attending mainstream church buildings and the sense of feeling a integral part of their parish. Church buildings are being shut down and sold off all the time. Old Methodist chapels are being sold to property developers and are then made into dwelling places for the rich and quirky. The number of people called to ministry is terrifyingly low and one ordained mainstream priest (often in rural areas) is expected to serve many local village church buildings in an area of a few square miles - offering services on a rotation basis and expecting the local people to just wait for their once-a-month turn. (And these clergy are usually incredibly over-worked women clerics many of whom we get along with really well - but that's a different issue)!
Some rural people are desperate to keep the history and 'romance' of their parish church going by making donations for the building. Many rural churches rely on the boosted congregations of non-church goers attending a baptism, wedding or funeral and then leaving £x's in the offertory plate at the door as they leave - requested by the priest at the end of the Homily.
People try to keep their rural church doors open often out of tradition or because their loved ones are buried there - but then don't attend church on a Sunday. They attend on Remembrance Sunday, Easter or Christmas. The church accountants are being forced to sell off some of their buildings. Some get allocated to charities who preserve churches in the name of historic interest - but they are no longer used as places of worship. (Incidentally, they won't allow smaller non Anglican churches to use them either, we have asked). This is the stark reality of parish church buildings especially in smaller towns and villages. Town parishes with congregations can often be without a vicar or priest and their lay preachers are relied upon to lead services. Priests and vicars retire all the time and locals don't get a replacement immediately because there aren't enough clergy to go around.
All churches need to place to one side their 'issues' with one another and work together to keep Christianity alive.
This is not an ideal - it is an imperative.
A recent letter of support we received from an experienced Liberal Catholic Priest we are enjoying fellowship with, rightly said that if all the smaller church communities joined together completely, as more and more of us are doing, we would be larger in numbers than the Established church. There is a sobering thought!
We will continue sharing church buildings with forward thinking denominations as well as hiring community halls because we do have people who want to return to a more Godly, humble and community spirited way of worship and true fellowship. However the long and the short of it is we simply haven't the money for many buildings of our own as yet - but we definitely have the need and the motivation to get there.
Are we entitled to call our communities and churches under a parish? Absolutely we are - but we prefer to use the word community - because that is what we are and that is what we have.