Five Catholic parishes merge
Five Catholic churches across the Tasman District have amalgamated into one ‘‘Our Lady of the Bays’’ parish.
As of April 1, the Richmond, Takaka, Motueka, Wakefield and Waimea West parishes will join as one.
While there will still be distinct church communities in each area, the come under centralised leadership.
Father Seph Pijfers is overseeing the amalgamated parish and will be assisted by priests and lay-pastoral leaders based in each community.
‘‘At the moment we’ve got a priest in each of the main areas, Richmond, Motueka and Takaka, but this year one of the priests, in Motueka, will be retiring,’’ Pijfers said.
‘‘At the moment I travel over to Takaka each week, and we have mass there, so [the new role] does involve a lot more travel ...’’
Pijfers said one of the main reasons for the amalgamation was a diminishing number of priests available.
‘‘There are not so many priests anymore so we’re not able to serve the communities in the same way that we’ve been used to,’’ he said.
‘‘Priests have had to share themselves a bit thinner so it makes more sense to amalgamate and collaborate more closely around those sorts of things.’’
He said part of the process, which had been underway for several years, had been strengthening local leadership in the communities.
Pijfers said part of that had been employing a lay-pastoral leader to take care of the day-to-day needs of each area.
He said while some community members were still adjusting to someone other than a priest taking responsibility for roles in the church, each community was quite strong.
‘‘I get to see all of the churches in the whole area so that’s always really nice. Each community is distinct and unique in its own way and I think that reflects our region as a whole,’’ Pijfers said.
‘‘It’s a bit of a pain travelling but you get to meet unique people, full of character, and they reflect their own local communities.’’
Pijfers said the Wakefield and Takaka churches had congregations of between 40 or 50 people, while Motueka had around 130 regular parishioners, and Richmond was the largest with more than 200 people.