Banksia Grove is some 27km north of Perth city and is one of the newest and fastest growing parishes of the Archdiocese. Inaugural priest Fr Vinh Dong unveiled two foundational stones personally blessed by Pope Francis on 1 February 2015.
By Matthew Lau
The areas of Hammond Park and Piara Waters have emerged as the major suburbs of interest in the topic of Archdiocesan Growth and Development.
Renay Grech, Manager of Strategy Implementation and Support for the Perth Archdiocese, said Growth and Development is a priority area that is progressing at a slow pace.
When data for the Archdiocesan Plan was collated and released in 2016, the four identified areas of highly progressive population were: Alkimos, Hammond Park, Piara Waters, and Byford.
While Alkimos and Byford have grown steadily in population, crucial decisions for both are “not on the near horizon, but will be as the population moves out there”.
Renay Grech, Archdiocese Manager of Strategy Implementation and Support, spoke about strengthening and revitalising of parishes at a Joint Parish Retreat Day held at Mount Lawley Parish on 10 March. Photo: Josh Low.
Hammond Park and Piara Waters remain the two major areas of potential, and directional decisions will be made on both by mid-2019.
“There is no other evidence to strongly suggest that we should be looking at other parishes right now,” Mr Grech stated.
The methodology around the strategic planning of Growth and Development is primarily focused on mapping of populations and demographics.
“In the old days the rule of thumb was, if it was more than a mile to walk in the inner city, they usually built another church. People didn’t have vehicles in those days, so walking was usually how people got to church.
“What we’re trying to do is bring in a more contemporary, if not more scientific, approach to looking at planning and how we do that,” Mr Grech added.
The Parish Renewal Implementation Group – a body of lay leaders and clergy – has recently joined with Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) to utilise their planning services for its scrutinising of schools and population.
“Because there’s a close nexus between where a school is, often a parish will be created around that. Not that that’s the right theological position, it should be a parish and then a school – but in practice that’s how it’s actually happened.”
He said they have also begun a decision-framework strategy that looks at all the criteria for “what, where and when” a parish or a church could be established.
An issue brought into consideration is the lack of vocations to priesthood in recent times, and whether an increase in parishes in Perth can be handled by the amount of priests the Archdiocese will have in the future.
“We need to get an understanding of population growth, where the higher density of living is, where the populations are going to be, and then we probably need to map against our priests, how many priests we have, and how many we’ll need to bring in from various places,” Mr Grech elaborated.
Another idea suggested is to realign parish boundaries to suit populations.
“Putting a church on land is a huge investment, and if you can’t have your base figures right in terms of at least a minimum number of people that we can build from, we’re probably not going to build a church until we’re really sure,” he added.
Data from the 2016 National Count of Attendance reveals that 62 per cent of Perth parishes have experienced a drop in Mass attendance since the count was last taken in 2011.
Overall, Catholic average weekly Mass attendance dropped from 55,238 to 53,686 between 2011 and 2016, at the same time as the general population of Perth grew by 10 per cent.
“There are going to be some realities where if parishes are getting smaller and there are fewer people participating, and there is no evidence to say that population is going to grow any further, and if we don’t have a lot of priests, then we’ve got to make some decisions about that,” Mr Grech acknowledged.
“That’s happened historically around Perth anyway, there have been some parishes that have been either closed down or amalgamated. But it’s not the preferred way of doing it.”
On the positive side, the number of people identifying as Catholic increased from 426,609 to 429,715.
From pages 30 to 31 of Issue 15: ‘Archdiocesan Plan 2016 – 2021: Halfway mark filled with determination to commit to bring Church in Perth closer to Christ’ of The Record Magazine