The Roman Catholic Church on P.E.I. is preparing to close churches as congregations shrink, but participants at a public forum Thursday night were ready to fight for them.

Sheldon McNevin wonders how far people will travel to go to church.
(CBC)

About 200 people packed into the gymnasium at Central Queens Elementary School in Hunter River for the forum, which was sponsored by the CBC. The gathering had some serious questions for a panel, made up of church leaders and a historian.

Sheldon McNevin questioned the wisdom of making it more difficult for people to go to church, in the wake of slipping attendance.

"If you were a farmer, and had sheep all over a 20-mile area, would you put all the hay up at one end of the farm and expect the sheep to come and get it?" McNevin asked.

"This is serious business you're talking about."

The Catholic Church is planning to close two-thirds of its P.E.I. parishes, cutting the number from 50 to 17. One of the problems is a shortage of priests. Elizabeth Rankin of St. Mary's of the People Parish had an answer for that problem.

Panelists

Father John Lacey Vicar General of Charlottetown Diocese

Kerry Moore Chair, Diocesan Pastoral Initiative Council

Rev. Dr. Arthur Davies Trinity United Church in Summerside

Catherine Hennessey Historian

"To even belong to an institution that does not allow a woman as a priest is becoming more and more difficult," Rankin said.

The Roman Catholic Church is not the only denomination facing shrinking congregations. The United Church has already been through amalgamation. Rev. Arthur Davies from Trinity United in Summerside said all churches have the same basic problem. Congregations are getting older and that will, over time, inevitably make them smaller.

The average age of people at the forum reflected aging congregations.
(CBC)

"The younger people aren't being attracted to the church nowadays for a number of reasons. I think one is because church in many places is a boring place to be," Davies said.

"Every time when amalgamation happens, and the new church decides to carry on exactly the way they were before, then that's just failure."

The setting of an elementary school gym helped focus the challenge the churches face. There were few heads at the meeting that weren't grey. Participants were mainly the grandparents of the children who attend there every school day. For any church to have a future on P.E.I., some of those children will have to start filling pews on Sundays.