Can laypeople lead a parish? Look to Louisville for a thriving example

This article, from NCR Online and dating from July 2019, was submitted following recent discussion in these pages on Synodality…

LOUISVILLE, KY. — In his recent book Worship as Community Drama, sociologist Pierre Hegy described an unusual Catholic parish whose identity he hid under the name Church of the Resurrection. When the book was published earlier this year and we read the chapter titled “A Lay-Run Parish: Consensus Without a Central Authority,” we could tell that it was about us.

I asked Hegy about possibly revealing the facts behind the chapter. He replied that sociological protocols had to be followed in the book, but these would not apply to an article in a newspaper. OK, here goes.

For almost 30 years, the St. William Catholic Community in Louisville, Kentucky, has had a lay parochial administrator but, even before that, all-important decisions were made by the people of the parish.

Link to article:

https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/can-laypeople-lead-parish-look-louisville-thriving-example

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