Do you prefer a bigger parish or a smaller one? Why do you feel so?

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Small. Been to both, and our last parish was over 3000 people, this one is about 600. Much friendlier here, easier to get involved, you know everyone.
At the big one, we hardly knew anyone after going there for 4 years. There is an extreme to too small though, our mission parish only has about 40 people…that’s just way too little!
 
I prefer bigger parishes, especially if they have multiple priests. I like having multiple opportunities to go to Mass (especially daily Mass) and to Confession. Also, meeting new people all the time as you get involved in different parish activities, or attend different events, is fun.

My parish is a moderate size, not very small or very big. We are at the upper end of what a single priest can handle, but that’s what we have. So, we only have one Mass a day during the week (none on his day off), and three on the weekend. Also, only one scheduled time for confession, although our pastor is very open to being approached any other time for confession, such as after daily Mass.
 
I prefer bigger parishes- they usually have more opportunities to get involved.
 
I prefer a smaller parish because for me, it provides more of a sense of family. My parish has about 300 families and we’re small enough that new people stand out. I met more people my first Sunday there than I did in the 8 months I spent in a larger parish with 2000 families. I’m an introvert and I have always preferred smaller groups of people.

My parish has two Sunday Masses in English normally. We also have a Vietnamese Mass every Sunday. Once month we have the Novus Ordo in Latin and once a month we have an Igbo Mass for our Nigerian parishioners. We also occasionally have a Polish Mass. To be so small, we have quite an ethnically diverse group of people. A priest from Opus Dei visits once a month for a day of recollection for women, and we have several opportunities for adult formation classes.

We do not have a Saturday vigil Mass. Instead, confession begins at 3pm and our priest will stay in the confessional as long as people are there. Sometimes for 3 hours. He also hears confessions on Weds evenings during Adoration, which we have every Weds. evening. There are no Masses on Mon. or Tues. All of the homeschool kids are invited to Mass on Thursday morning and afterwards they have breakfast in the community room with our priest.
 
Anne1964 said:
. All of the homeschool kids are invited to Mass on Thursday morning and afterwards they have breakfast in the community room with our priest.
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What a wonderful thing for the kids… and the Priest! 👍
 
I prefer smaller, although knowing that many people well is like living in a small town. Pretty soon, your business is known. But the advantages of smaller group, knowing everybody, help when you need it, and a smaller school setting, are worth it.
 
Anne1964 said:
I prefer a smaller parish because for me, it provides more of a sense of family. My parish has about 300 families and we’re small enough that new people stand out. I met more people my first Sunday there than I did in the 8 months I spent in a larger parish with 2000 families. I’m an introvert and I have always preferred smaller groups of people.

My parish has two Sunday Masses in English normally. We also have a Vietnamese Mass every Sunday. Once month we have the Novus Ordo in Latin and once a month we have an Igbo Mass for our Nigerian parishioners. We also occasionally have a Polish Mass. To be so small, we have quite an ethnically diverse group of people. A priest from Opus Dei visits once a month for a day of recollection for women, and we have several opportunities for adult formation classes.

We do not have a Saturday vigil Mass. Instead, confession begins at 3pm and our priest will stay in the confessional as long as people are there. Sometimes for 3 hours. He also hears confessions on Weds evenings during Adoration, which we have every Weds. evening. There are no Masses on Mon. or Tues. All of the homeschool kids are invited to Mass on Thursday morning and afterwards they have breakfast in the community room with our priest.
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I wish I had a close relationship with the priests when I was going to school. I went to a parochial school, and the pastor at the time wasn’t particularly involved. It’s sad, I know one guy I went to school with who became an atheist. I feel it would have been far more beneficial for us if we were closer to the priests and if our school Masses weren’t something that we felt like we had to go to, and just participated like zombies. One teacher was an Evangelical and openly criticised our Catholic customs, and a bunch of students (myself included) got interested in going to his Evangelical church. I’m behind that now, thank God, after I got the chance to really appreciate Catholicism better, but I know a lot of students who became lukewarm or went protestant. Sad, sad, sad.

Though, we can’t really blame the priest. It was a school of 2000 students, plus since it was the school attached to the Co-Cathedral here (a big parish) it wouldn’t have been easy to tend to all of them. He had only one assistant parish priest who retired some years in, so the burden was much heavier.

Anyway, might I ask, are you from a small town where all the Catholics go to one parish, or from a large city with lots of parishes? The demographics are interesting to study. I thought you might be in a large city because of the ethnic diversity you folks have, but then again you might be from a small town since they don’t do Masses on Saturdays, Mondays and Tuesdays.
 
I’m not sure of the size of my parish. It covers a large area and has a main church and two missions. My church is one of the missions, with probably and upper limit of 20 families who attend more than just Christmas and Easter. (I understand that there used to be many more active families.) Our average Sunday attendance is around 20 people. We are extremely fortunate in having two families who alternate in providing wonderful music for our little congregation. We also often have visitors who like the feel of our small church.

I like the family feel very much, but it’s difficult to keep activities going. One mother has started a CCD program with five or six students–that is bringing in a few more families. We are so shorthanded that I am often a server–hopefully that will change as more young people join us and can become servers.

Our main church is still small enough that most people know each other. A friend of mine who attends our mission church goes to the main church for RCIA. There are five people in his class.
 
I chose I had no preference.
I’ve been to small parish when I was younger and I really liked it. I"ve been to smaller parish later in life and it wasn’t good for me. Now, I’ve been to bigger parish where I grow in faith more.

I like to be with a parish where I can be well fed and then in return I will be able to contribute to the parish with the gifts which God has granted.
 
I don’t personally care about bigger or smaller parishes, but I do prefer parishes that have schools attached to them. I like ones with a high school, but an elementary school is fine, too. Something good about a nice sense of community.
 
thistle said:
How do you define bigger or smaller?
Our parish has 14,000 parishioners but I have no clue if that is considered big or small.
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TO put things into perspective. The population of my 585 square mile COUNTY that I live in is smaller than your parish.

The town I live in is 1/2 as big.

Our parish has around 350 families. Two deacons and one priest. Resources are smaller but oh a snowy Christmas eve here in midwest america is ever so sacred.
 
May God be with you!

My current parish is a small one. I like knowing most of the families and having opportunities for involvement. We also have a school at our Parish so there is a lot going on.

Since we are small, sometimes we can’t do everything we want because of lack of funds or volunteers.

But for the most part, I like the smaller size because it seems more like family. I would add, that our parish is a reverent one. We are led by a faithfully strong priest who is not afraid to preach what the Church actually teaches on Life, Marriage, etc.

God bless you!
 
If all things being equal, I prefer a larger parish. More opportunities for learning, giving service, more than one daily Mass.
 
Like most people I know, I would prefer small parishes, simply because you get to know who the other parishioners are, and fellowship a little more, especially with the Priest even just for a second. I also think it makes it easier to know what is going on in a parish. Not that there is anything wrong with Big Parishes.
 
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