Tribune reporting of the Chicago Archdiocese’s move toward parish reorganization for the purpose of strengthening ministry in the greater Chicago area plus Patrick Reardon’s follow-up Perspective article Tuesday are welcome, though perhaps unplanned, positive contributions to the overall efforts of many Christian groups to define their ministries in our changing urban landscape.
As a Lutheran, inner-city pastor and theological professor, I have had the opportunity to observe and teach urban pastoral ministry in most of our large U.S. cities over many years. In many respects, our congregations share so many characteristics on a microscale that our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters experience in broader, more massive terms; many of our congregations have strong ethnic origins in historic European immigrant communities. Where our Roman brothers and sisters built dozens of architectural masterpieces to give spiritual homes to thousands, our forefathers built small, artistic gems throughout the region to serve hundreds as spiritual homes to worship God and at the same time to celebrate cultural identity. Together we struggle with the questions of ministry into the future and high costs of maintaining ministry, while at the same time recognizing the investment of the prayers, sweat and blood of many generations before us.
The archdiocese’s bold initiative in publicly recognizing that it must celebrate change through a painful process could be a liberating message for all of us.
Now would be a good time for archdiocesan leaders to invite denominational presidents, bishops and administrators of many groups to come together, not to debate the impossible, but rather to share data, analytic processes, and demographic projections that could aid men and women of good will to better devise ministries to serve all of God’s children.
— Douglas R. Groll, Chicago, professor emeritus, Concordia Seminary
