Link: 21 Parishes Face Shutdown in New York – New York Times.

The reshuffling was driven by new demographic realities and immigration patterns that have left some once-booming churches in mostly urban settings nearly empty; others, many in the suburbs, have overflowed. Roman Catholic officials said they were trying to reposition themselves to better serve their people for the 21st century.

I saw this article on the Times website this morning and was struck by this paragraph in particular…

I’ve often wondered how much of the “decline” of the Episcopal Church is due to the fact that a large number of our parishes are in places where the demographic reality has changed – and the Episcopal Church has not? The parishes in the suburbs have grown dramatically (no matter what denomination) and the inner-city parishes have not. More critically, as the inner city parish demographics have changed to lower income and urban poor – the city parishes no longer have the financial strength to maintain old and now decaying buildings.

Given that observation though, I think the tide is starting to turn back to the urban parishes. All the real estate developers I talk with lately mention the accelerating re-urbanization trend across the country. We’re certainly seeing it here in Phoenix. We have approximately 5,000 housing units within a 2 block walking distance of the Cathedral here and expect another 5-7,000 to be built in the next five years. Quite a change from what it used to look like around here 10 years ago. (And those new folks are coming to church here too!)

I keep telling all the bishops I meet not to give up too quickly on their inner-city parishes – in fact rather than giving up they ought to be renovating them and helping them to prepare for an influx of new parishioners… But sadly very few seem to be hearing me.