The 136 parishes of the Archdiocese of Seattle officially become 60 parish families – Detroit Catholic

SEATTLE (OSV News) — The 136 parishes of the Archdiocese of Seattle have officially consolidated into 60 parish families as part of Partners in the Gospel, the archdiocese’s strategic pastoral planning initiative.

The July 1 move follows two years of planning and consultation with clergy, parish and school staff, and laypeople, the archdiocese said. Each parish family will be led by a pastor or pastoral coordinator, and many will have at least one parish vicar.

“Over the next three years, the parish family will work together to form one new canonical parish, while creatively reimagining how they serve their community,” the archdiocese said in a press release.

In a July 1 letter to Catholics in the archdiocese, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne explained that the goal of Partners in the Gospel is to revitalize parish life and help people draw closer to Jesus.

“Imagine that there is Mass on Sunday, that people participate in the sacraments, that there are more and more young people and young adults, and that people are enthusiastic about their Catholic faith,” Archbishop Etienne wrote.

“One way we hope to do this is by changing our structure so that we can deploy our resources more effectively – our people, our structures and our finances – so that we can refocus on achieving this mission,” he added.

The archdiocese encompasses all of western Washington, from the Canadian border to the Oregon border and from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. In addition to the 60 parish families, there are 73 Catholic schools, four associated cemeteries, a retreat center and two camps.

Now that the parish families have formed, the archdiocese said, a new phase of Partners in the Gospel will begin. Within each parish family, teams of staff and parishioners will come together to work on the process of coming together over the next three years.

“The parish family will be working on a pastoral plan called the One Parish Plan, which will outline how the parish family will become one parish,” the archdiocese said. “The plan will specifically address how the parish family will be structured, its pastoral offerings, its liturgical life, its outreach to the margins, and how the parish family will use its campuses and much more.”

An initial draft of the families was released in September 2023, and a three-week comment period was opened for the public to provide input on the proposed groupings. More than 3,000 pages of feedback from 700 input sessions and 800 online comments were reviewed by archdiocesan staff, and in November the archbishop proposed changes based on that feedback. His new recommendations affected 78 parishes and missions in 25 parish families. A second round of consultation was opened for the affected parishes.

On February 3, the archbishop published the final list of families in the parish. In a note accompanying the list, the archdiocese said: “This final list of families comes after a year of consultation with the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese, the Partners in the Gospel Oversight Committee, priests, deacons, parish and school staff, lay leaders and the public.”

These families “were formed based on parish size, geography, cultural and ethnic makeup, financial health and the presence of schools,” the archdiocese said. Some parishes are not being merged because they are governed by a religious order or serve a specific cultural community.

“While we have established the process and vision for Partners in the Gospel, the future of the parish family is in the hands of the parish leadership and the people of God, who, with the help of the Holy Spirit, will determine how to breathe new life into parish life,” Archbishop Etienne said in his July 1 letter.