Parish Clustering

Parish Clustering

In recent years most Irish dioceses have begun to think about how best to plan and manage their pastoral activities as the country experiences a profound change in it’s social and religious landscape.

A parish cluster is a group of parishes committed to a long term relationship of collaboration to plan and provide for the spiritual, sacramental and pastoral needs of their respective communities. It involves the sharing of personnel, resources, programmes and facilities so that the needs of the constituent parishes or communities can be addressed without straining the resources of individual parishes.

A parish is not primarily a territorial entity nor is it simply a canonical structure. It is a living community of people, more akin to a family than an administrative structure. The focus in a cluster must be on how the needs of the people that comprise it can be met.  (Above text taken from “Parishes in Transition”, 2010, Columba Press, Eugene Duffy).

In Clontarf, three parishes have clustered together. These are St. Anthony’s (this parish), St. John the Baptist (Clontarf Road), and St. Gabriel’s (St. Gabriel’s Road, Clontarf).