The Diocese of New Westminster faces what some wags have called "the hockey stick problem." Most Anglican dioceses in Canada have the same problem. It has to do with the shape that appears when one plots the size of the diocese's parishes, small to large. The dots line up (for the imaginatively minded) in the shape of a hockey stick.
The long, straight handle of the stick represents many, many small parishes. The blade of the stick shows our relatively few large parishes. By "large" we mean parishes with over 200 attending services on an average Sunday. Those are hardly megachurches!
With 200 faithful, envelope-taking Anglicans, a parish can support itself, paying for the priest, the building, the diocesan assessment. With 100 such members, it's a constant struggle. With only 50, it's nearly impossible-and 17 of our parishes have an average Sunday attendance of under 50 people.
These statistics would necessitate change in any case, but with world-wide recession happening, the finances of many parishes have become quite dire. Income from endowments has been sharply reduced, with the crisis in financial markets. Anglican incomes (like everyone's) are under great pressure. Even the most faithful givers just can't give as much.
Does this mean that the Bishop and Diocesan Council should immediately close all our struggling, small parishes? Of course not. We need small as well as large parishes (as a hockey stick needs both handle and blade). But only so many can be small and struggling. And some small parishes will close, by economic necessity. That's a fact. The real decision before the diocese is how they are closed.
Will the desire in struggling parishes be to simply "hang-on" for as long as they can? Will the attitude in larger parishes and from diocesan leaders be "good riddance"? Or will everyone work on a question larger than how long can we keep the doors open.
The important-the crucial-question is, given economic and demographic facts we cannot change, how do we do Christ's mission within our communities, in the places in which we are given responsibility?
Do we close? Do we merge? Do we engage in regional ministry? Do we change our whole structure and become something else, even something other than a parish?
These are challenging times. But they can be exciting times, if we remember what the Church is all about: God's mission.