Shared churches in rural areas

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I was away from home last night with my husband, and so I wanted to attend Mass this morning in the country village where we were staying. I found the (very grand and beautiful) local church nearby, but it was a Church of England church. However, the sign outside told me that the CofE Holy Communion was at 8.15, followed by a Catholic Mass at 9am!

I went along just before 9am and saw a small number of elderly ladies leaving who had presumably attended the CofE service. There were about 30 people there for Mass, the priest had no altar servers but did have two EMs. The Mass was concluded in under 40 minutes, with 3 hymns lead by the priest (no organist or other musician there).

It made me wonder how many parishes have this kind of arrangement in place, and whether or not it’s difficult for the priest in that situation. I presume he has other congregations that he’s responsible for, as it’s a very rural locality. He might feel that he has no “home”!

Is this common in the USA, for instance?
 
Isca said:
I was away from home last night with my husband, and so I wanted to attend Mass this morning in the country village where we were staying. I found the (very grand and beautiful) local church nearby, but it was a Church of England church. However, the sign outside told me that the CofE Holy Communion was at 8.15, followed by a Catholic Mass at 9am!

I went along just before 9am and saw a small number of elderly ladies leaving who had presumably attended the CofE service. There were about 30 people there for Mass, the priest had no altar servers but did have two EMs. The Mass was concluded in under 40 minutes, with 3 hymns lead by the priest (no organist or other musician there).

It made me wonder how many parishes have this kind of arrangement in place, and whether or not it’s difficult for the priest in that situation. I presume he has other congregations that he’s responsible for, as it’s a very rural locality. He might feel that he has no “home”!

Is this common in the USA, for instance?
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This is not particularly uncommon in the south. For instance Augusta Georgia they used to have Mass for Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church at the Methodist Church near by because there was no Catholic church very close to them. Of course this was long before I was born but the reason I know this is because I know the history of that particular church
 
Every chapel on every military base I have ever been to is used for Mass, and every type of religious service from Jewish to Islamic, non-denominational, and mainstream high church Protestantism.

It works fine. The Church is not a building, the Church is the body of Christ.
 
It would certainly make it difficult for him to warn his parishioners against the heresies of Anglicanism and against religious indifference. It would also make it difficult for him to proclaim the Gospel to the Anglicans in his parish.
 
Aside from the hospital chapel, I’m not aware of anything like this in my area (though I do live in a town, i’;m not aware of anything like this in the neighboring rural areas either). I do know that the Torbay Ordinariate Group used to meet in a Methodist church. the Methodists wanted to close the church, there was a national appeal and now its an Ordinariate church! 👍 Apparently, some of the Methodists still like to attend services there. 😉
 
A Catholic Church burned down in my NE Ohio diocese and has to be rebuilt. Meanwhile, Masses are held at the local Lutheran church which they graciously offered the use of while the new church was built.

So it does happen in the US.
 
Interesting, thanks for the replies. I was brought up in the CofE, so it was strange to be at Mass in a familiar style of building but without any statues, Stations of the Cross or crucifixes.

I realised that I am very lucky to live in a town with 6 Catholic churches which each hold several Masses on a Saturday evening and Sunday. However, it’s all about numbers I suppose - the Catholic community must be pretty small where I was today.
 
Isca said:
I was away from home last night with my husband, and so I wanted to attend Mass this morning in the country village where we were staying. I found the (very grand and beautiful) local church nearby, but it was a Church of England church. However, the sign outside told me that the CofE Holy Communion was at 8.15, followed by a Catholic Mass at 9am!

I went along just before 9am and saw a small number of elderly ladies leaving who had presumably attended the CofE service. There were about 30 people there for Mass, the priest had no altar servers but did have two EMs. The Mass was concluded in under 40 minutes, with 3 hymns lead by the priest (no organist or other musician there).

It made me wonder how many parishes have this kind of arrangement in place, and whether or not it’s difficult for the priest in that situation. I presume he has other congregations that he’s responsible for, as it’s a very rural locality. He might feel that he has no “home”!

Is this common in the USA, for instance?
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Well, there are some older mission-type Churches in rural areas that are open and share priests with a church or two (or three) in surrounding towns.

I would say the big challenge here are North American winters.

Sharing priests is more common that it was 20 years ago.

Think of it as being more consolidated. I actually think it’s a good solution given the times.

There is a documentary called “Delafield”. It tells the tale of a small Lutheran Church in MN.
 
Isca said:
Interesting, thanks for the replies. I was brought up in the CofE, so it was strange to be at Mass in a familiar style of building but without any statues, Stations of the Cross or crucifixes.

I realised that I am very lucky to live in a town with 6 Catholic churches which each hold several Masses on a Saturday evening and Sunday. However, it’s all about numbers I suppose - the Catholic community must be pretty small where I was today.
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Numbers and economics. It’s an emotional situation for some when a Church closes, but it’s also hard for me to be sympathetic to that if people are not contributing enough or think that pure sentiment can keep a Church open–or if they’ve been away for decades and then suddenly come flying back trying to save it and then they get upset at the priest or the diocese for trying to make sound financial judgement.

In the USA, changes in the agricultural economy are a huge driver for movement of rural populations, so it is an issue.
 
I haven’t seen very much of shared churches, but when I lived in the San Juan Islands in Washington State in the early 1980s, there was only a Catholic Church building on the largest island, San Juan Island. So, until they were able to build another church on the second largest island, Orcas Island, the Catholics had Mass in the Episcopal Church on that island and also in another place on Lopez Island. The priest had to travel (and still does) between the islands either by plane or ferry or some other boat.
 
Its not uncommon, although its also not common, in really small rural towns. When I was first converting I lived in a tiny town that only had two churches: an Episcopalian church and a Methodist church. The Catholics of the town rented space in the Methodist church, and every Saturday the priest would come over from another town to do a Saturday night vigil mass for the parishioners. I went once, when I was trying to find a Catholic church to start RCIA, and there was maybe twenty people there and all of them were over the age of seventy. As a spry 27 year old I definitely got few looks when I walked in and they even asked me if I was lost. 🙂

While I’m no longer in that area, I’ve heard from friends in the area, that the priest no longer comes to say mass as there is no longer enough parishioners. 😦
 
Neofight said:
Every chapel on every military base I have ever been to is used for Mass, and every type of religious service from Jewish to Islamic, non-denominational, and mainstream high church Protestantism.

It works fine. The Church is not a building, the Church is the body of Christ.
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Canadian military Bases have traditionally had 2 chapels, one Catholic, one Protestant.

When we were posted to this Base, which had been American until they pulled out in 1976 and turned their assets over to the Canadians, I discovered the “old” American chapel set up: hanging curtains on the back wall of the sanctuary, a cross between the curtains. The cross is on a rail that allows it to move back and forth. When the Protestants are using the chapel, the cross is bare. When Catholics gather, a crank is turned, the bare cross moves along the rail to behind the curtain and a crucifix takes its place.
 
I have heard of both a) Catholic parishes temporarily forced to worship in non-Catholic churches due to construction or disaster, and b) non-Catholics woshiping in Catholic churches in similar situations.

I have heard of new parishes in the process of formation meeting first in someone’s house, and later renting space from a non-Catholic church if that is most convenient. Unless the location is particularly isolated, my guess is that examples of this would usually be non-geographic parishes (e.g. student communities, ethnic groups, etc.).
Interestingly, I once came upon a schismatic SSPV group (do they call themselves parishes?) celebrating mass at a Methodist church.

I’m not so sure that Catholic parishes would typically be accommodating to a new group of non-Catholic worshipers, as opposed to previously existing churches who were already neighbors and only temporarily displaced.

So while this is not especially common in the New World, it’s not rare either.

Here is an article about Simultanea, mainly in Germany:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneum
 
Brother Roger, founder f Taize, always expressed sadness that even in that wonderful ecumenical community Catholic Mass had to be separate. This thread also reminds me of a story my very first Irish landlady told. Her son was in England, visiting friends, and went of course to mass on Sunday. Lovely church etc. All familiar, and when he spoke to the priest at the door he remarked at how wonderful it was that wherever you attended mass is was always the same. The priest informed him that this was a Church of England. My very first Easter Mass here in Ireland was on a beach at dawn, and every year outside then. .
 
Phemie said:
Canadian military Bases have traditionally had 2 chapels, one Catholic, one Protestant.

When we were posted to this Base, which had been American until they pulled out in 1976 and turned their assets over to the Canadians, I discovered the “old” American chapel set up: hanging curtains on the back wall of the sanctuary, a cross between the curtains. The cross is on a rail that allows it to move back and forth. When the Protestants are using the chapel, the cross is bare. When Catholics gather, a crank is turned, the bare cross moves along the rail to behind the curtain and a crucifix takes its place.
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That’s tremendous! 🙂
 
In rural communities here in Australia they sometimes have what they call a ‘community church’ - a building shared by different flavours of Christian, including Catholic. Sometimes.they will have no tabernacle, as the Eucharist is not reserved between times, and use either a processional crucifix, set up in the sanctuary, or a crucifix on the altar itself, rather than a permanent one.
 
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