Glory be to Jesus Christ!
We now have a Decommissioning Policy. It’s called: Caring for People and God’s Gifts – Decommissioning a Parish, Caring for Assets & Suppressing a Parish, First Edition Ratified 12 February 2019.
It is found on our Eparchial website under the Eparchy tab → Policies & Procedures→
Let me tell a brief story of its creation.
First of all, know that our Eparchy has erected 234 churches in its history. We have 124 churches now, so do the math, and you will know that 110 churches have been closed/decommissioned to date. Closing churches is not a new thing. Each Bishop had his policies and procedures, some were in writing and others were not. When I was a baby priest, 20 plus years ago, there was a policy and procedure dated July 12, 1999. For the last couple of decades, we have been lax in the way we dealt with closing churches. What to do with church buildings? What happens to sacred and secular items? In select cases, we did a great job and in other cases we failed. There is a backlog of 35 churches that have 0 services per year. Add to that many parishes that are currently considering closing. There is a lot of work to be done and we needed a new decommissioning policy.
Stage one was to gather Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Our committee consists of Bishop Bryan, myself as the chair, realtor, museum curator, insurance agent, structural engineer, fire fighter, police officer, lawyer, funeral director, project manager, geography professor and two people from AGEMI. As you can see the knowledge base and experience is very diverse. We did a lot of work and when we were finished we passed it on to the clergy.
During the “clergy” stage of development, this secular document was studied from the perspective of Canon Law. Many changes were required and deficiencies were corrected. Some parts were completely rewritten and new parts were added. On February 12, 2019 the new and improved document, as you have it, was ratified.
This is the First Edition. I like to think of it as a living document. It will be amended when corrections and appropriate changes come to our attention.
It’s never easy to decommission a church. There are a lot of questions and a lot of emotions. We need to approach this work practically, but also pastorally.
Just me, Fr. Ivan
PS. It is 42 pages long, but don’t get freaked out by that. If you only want an initial taste of it, then I suggest you start with Page 5 and 6. The preamble and definitions are also very good. The procedures in the appendices are meant as reference information. The Ukrainian Catholic Parishes Act, 1992, is an interesting read, but most of you won’t. Please take a look and ask questions. Your priest is your most important source of information. If you are facing these kinds of big questions and your priest wishes to invite me then I would be happy to come and help – inahachewsky@skeparchy.org or 306-961-1390.
PDF copy of Decommissioning Policy: Caring for Peope & God’s Gifts»»