“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
--Robert Frost
The path of least resistance entails little work and no
significant transformation to be undertaken by the members, but it leads to
death by default. The path of completion
involves grieving and gradual letting go and leads to accepting death with
dignity. There are three other paths.
1. Refounding involves returning to the vision of the
founder, with an attempt to liberate new energy and generate new life by making
the mission and life of the community more relevant to current needs. This is what most communities did after Vatican II. It is not what we are being called to today.
2. Restructuring includes downsizing, as well as
reorganizing governance structures, administrative offices, and ministers. Many communities have taken this step already but now recognize it is only an interim
solution. It is simply not enough.
3. Reconfiguring is what most congregations are undergoing today. It comes in seven divergent formats:
a. Merger (a smaller congregation is suppressed and accepted into a larger, more viable one)
b. Union (two or more congregations give up their juridic identity and form a new institute)
c. Unification (congregations with a shared founder or charism unite into one institute)
d. Reunification (formerly united congregations reunite to form one institute)
e.Federation or alliance (congregations retain juridic identify and form a loose association)
f. Covenant (agreements made between two entities whereby one derives assistance from the other)
g. Commissary (someone is appointed by ecclesial authority to act as the canonical superior of an institute that is no longer able to carry out its own governance functions)
Which of these would you choose if we put it to a vote today?
Dunn, Ted, Graced Crossroads: Pathways to Deep Change & Transformation, CSS Publications, 2020, pp. 144-160
