Over the last three to four years, we have been discussing the future of the Diocese and our ten-year mission plan You Will Be My Witnesses. The mission plan revolves around two priorities: (1) Putting Christ at the Centre – which means renewing the prayer and spiritual life of the Diocese, renewing our parish and diocesan Liturgy, making our parishes and schools more welcoming and inclusive, creating opportunities for formation of laity and clergy, and how to engage our youth. In other words, over the next ten years, we need first, to work at deepening our faith and love. The second priority is (2) Building outward-looking Missionary Communities – that is, parishes and communities of faithful focused on mission and evangelisation, on service of the poor and needy in the neighbourhood, on collaborating ecumenically and interreligiously, on responding to Laudato Si’ and on the good stewardship of resources. To enable this to happen and to release the necessary resources, our 87 parishes (totalling 140 churches) will be united into 24 Pastoral Areas, similar to what we have now, although some are new or amended. Over the next ten years, these 24 Pastoral Areas will organically become single canonical parishes: some soon, over the next two or three years, others medium term, say in five years’ time, and the rest over the long term.
Here is the list of the new Pastoral Areas:
Recent Posts
Bournemouth Oratory Sacred Heart Church in the heart of the town centre serves a demographically diverse community with specific issues around poverty, homelessness and social isolation, which presents several distinct [...]
In last year’s Annual Report, we featured news of the creation of a Refugee Sanctuary Hub at St Peter’s Church, Winchester. The Hub was born out of parishioner response to [...]
Walking outdoors has proven long-term improvements for emotional and mental health, as well as bringing about a reduced risk of depression and higher levels of happiness and self-esteem. Coinciding with [...]
Across the Philippine archipelago, a tradition known as Flores de Mayo, a daily offering of flowers to Mary is observed throughout the month of May. Typically, the celebration culminates with [...]