Our Lady of the Lakes in Collings Lakes, formerly part of the St. Mary's Malaga, St. Rose of Lima Newfield, and Queen of Angels Parish (St. Michael's Minotola & Our Lady of Victories Landisville) merger/closure group was just permitted to remain stand-alone. Why? We have received no answer to this question. From their Nov. 15th bulletin:
I have received word from the diocesan Vicar GeneralWhat a slap in the face to the "process" and to all of the other churches in this diocese that would also like to remain stand-alone. "Core team" arm twisting is, apparently, part of the open and honest "process," but how such decisions are made remains a mystery to all of us. Political expedience, string-pulling, and personality conflict at high levels seem to be the order of the day. In truth, we the Catholic faithful have no real input at all, though we are required to speak the Truth by virtue of our baptism and confirmation.
that the bishop has approved the Core Team proposal that
our parish would remain a stand alone parish. But we are
encouraged to share resources and programs with the
merging parishes of Buena, Newfield, and Malaga.
This is great news for our Parish because we can continue
as usual serving the needs of the Collings Lakes area.
This is a good news 'short term' situation considering the
underlying problem of a priest shortage in our Diocese.
As more priests retire the present active priests will be
called on to do more. All of us must be ready for the future
when there may not be a priest in residence here. In the
meantime lets be a vibrant sustainable community.
To celebrate this good news we will have a wine and
cheese, coffee and cake celebration in our hall after the
Saturday evening Mass next week. Invite your friends and
family to the 5pm Mass which will have our new
'Lures of the Lakes' choir singing. Then socialize,
celebrate, and relax with your friends and neighbors.
For the record, we at St. Mary's in Malaga would like to, once again, formally register our request to remain a stand-alone parish. We, too, are vibrant, want to serve the needs of the Malaga area, and like wine and cheese and coffee and cake parties. We really do.
Also for the record, our three core team members resisted the arm-twisting and brow beating and voted against releasing Our Lady of the Lakes from the "merger group." After all, why should they stand alone? Every church has dignity and as such deserves the respect it is due by canon law, church tradition, and the teaching of the Holy Catholic Church, not to mention plain old justice. But so far as we know, no one from Collings Lakes even registered an iota of complaint against merging. So...why?
(As a side-note, the somewhat closer Hammonton area churches did not accept the proposal of including Collings Lakes in their merger group. Must've been lots going on behind the scenes that we, the mere laity, have no right to the knowledge of.)