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CURRENT ISSUE: June 18, 2007 • VOL. 45 NO. 12 • Oakland, CA
Two Alameda parishes to ‘cluster’ under one pastor
Two parishes
in Alameda, St. Albert the Great and St. Philip Neri, will begin working
together later this summer to discern how they can jointly provide spiritual
and pastoral care to local Catholics in their communities.
The process will begin Aug. 1 when Father Vincent Cotter, pastor at St.
Philip Neri Parish since 2001, adds St. Albert the Great Parish to his
pastoral responsibilities. Father Cotter’s appointment takes effect
when Father Fernando Cortez, pastor at St. Albert since 2001, leaves the
parish on July 30 to begin a sabbatical year.
Father Cotter emphasized that the two parishes are not merging, but rather
both parishes will work together with one pastor. This means sharing resources
and determining how to collaborate or consolidate ministries, programs
and activities. He said Bishop Allen Vigneron uses the word “cluster”
to describe the arrangement.
The parishes will likely focus on liturgy, sacramental preparation and
social activities. “There may be many more possibilities,"
Father Cotter said.
A similar arrangement occurred in Fremont in 2000 when one pastor was
assigned to St. Leonard and Santa Paula parishes. In 2004 the two parishes
merged to become Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish.
In Alameda, the island’s four parishes already work together on
a number of ministries including a Confirmation/youth ministry program
that has flourished for the past 10 years. The deanery also sponsors Evenings
for the Engaged, AIDS ministry, pulpit exchanges and regular meetings
of area priests, and an adult education program, the School for Faith,
described by Father Cotter as “very successful.”
Inter-parish collaboration is at the heart of the deanery concept, Father
Cotter said. “It is the idea of parishes working together in developing
a vision for their area,” he said. “Since Alameda is an island
unto itself,” he added, it is natural for the parishes to explore
how to share resources and ideas.
One of the deanery’s original goals was to work toward one central
administration with four sites, Father Cotter said. Recently, however,
the parishes saw a need to slow things down a bit and investigate other
models, he added.
The links between St. Philip Neri and St. Albert are both geographical
and historical. When St. Albert Parish was established in 1976, it was
created from part of St. Philip Neri Parish.
Although the two parishes will share Father Cotter as pastor, each will
continue to have separate pastoral councils, finance councils, and staff
meetings. At some point there will be joint meetings, Father Cotter said.
This arrangement will last at least until June 2008 when Father Cotter
steps down as pastor and takes a sabbatical. Then a decision will be made
about how to proceed with the two parishes, following an assessment of
the year’s cluster arrangement.
Father Cotter said that in August Father Mark Amaral, parochial vicar
at Holy Spirit Parish in Fremont, will transfer to Alameda to serve as
parochial vicar of both St. Philip Neri and St. Albert parishes. Both
priests will live at St. Philip Neri. Father George Mockel, vicar general
for the Oakland Diocese, will remain in residence at St. Albert.
The island’s other two parishes, St. Barnabas and St. Joseph, are
discussing ways to consolidate programs and ministries, a relationship
known as “twinning.” In this instance the parishes maintain
their own pastoral leadership (a pastor or administrator) while collaborating
with each other in various programs, ministries and activities.
Both “clustering” or “twinning” are parish structures
focused on the same thing, said Father Cotter: how best to minister to
everyone. Or, to put it another way: “How to do Church in a smarter
way.”
