Environmental efforts carried out by members in the two parishes participating in the Green Team offer a rather organic example of how this growth and coming together is occurring.

How does a group of parishes become a Family of Parishes? It’s a question most people would never have to consider. I never thought I would.

Another question that had never crossed my mind in the lead-up to my ordination in June of 2021 was what does it mean for priests to be in solidum? Nonetheless, these are questions that Jesuit Fathers Gary Wright, Lorn Snow and I are currently trying to live into with the Jesuit parishes in Detroit.

On July 1, 2022, without fanfare, Gesu Catholic Church and School and Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church entered into what is called a Family of Parishes. A few months later, on Sunday, October 16, our two parish communities came together for a Family Commissioning Mass and a celebration of this new union. The Archdiocese of Detroit put together what they have deemed a “playbook” to aid in this new collaborative process, but as could be expected, plans only go so far. On the ground we are working to figure out what this all may look like and mean.

The Detroit Jesuit parishes are far from unique in entering into a Family of Parishes. In the Archdiocese of the Detroit, in response to a diminished and diminishing number of priests, all local parishes are being grouped together into families. Across the Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus, many dioceses are exploring groupings. We can see this with the Cincinnati parishes increasing collaborations and with St. John’s Church in Omaha exploring what it might look like to collaborate with and expand connections to neighboring diocesan parishes.

Some elements of this process have fallen to us, the priests. While in daily practice Fr. Wright has remained focused on Saints Peter and Paul, and Fr. Snow and I on Gesu, being missioned as priests in solidum has drawn us together. To say we are priests in solidum means that our parishes are technically served by us as a team of priests working in solidarity. In practice, we gather twice a month and have focused conversations on what is happening at our parishes and how we might collaborate. These considerations have ranged from cooperative staffing to communal celebrations of liturgies. Parishoners have been collaborating, too, most notably in the environmental initiatives of the Green Team.

Environmental efforts carried out by members in the two parishes participating in the Green Team offer a rather organic example of how this growth and coming together is occurring.

Many of the details of what will come for our Family of Parishes in Detroit will emerge over time, but I can already recognize at least three foundational elements of this new project. First, like all parishes, we know we need to embrace expanded lay involvement and empowerment. For us this includes a full-time ministerial leadership position on staff—a parish life director. Saints Peter and Paul has Rebecca McMaster in this position, and earlier this year Gesu was involved in a search process for a director of their own. Second, our parishes have to do a better job of offering the people of Detroit that which makes Jesuit institutions distinctive. This includes Ignatian spirituality, strong community and radical hospitality. Third, our Family of Parishes needs to use our collaboration as an opportunity to respond to the challenges that face the Catholic Church and our world today, and tomorrow.

In 2022, Gesu celebrated 100 years since its founding, and in 2023 Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church will celebrate 175 years. Despite the unknowns about the future in general, and the Family of Parishes specifically, we do know that we have an invitation to reflect on what God has been doing in our parishes, to embrace the invitations of the present and imagine the collaborations God might be calling us to in the future.