Pastor shares help for parishes
facing merger
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published April 7, 2006
Detroit – Fr. Donald Archambault has some advice for those parishes required under the Together in Faith strategic plan to merge by July 1, 2007 – get started on it soon.
"It takes a good year for you to do it," says Fr. Archambault, pastor of St. Gerard Parish (on Evergreen at Pembroke) and administrator of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish (on Pembroke at Mansfield), in northwest Detroit.
 Already clustered for six years, they are scheduled to merge together and emerge under a new name – Corpus Christi Parish – this July 1.
Both parish councils and many active lay people have been involved in the process right along, and the new name was chosen by parish members.
Fr. Archambault attributes the success of the transition to strong support from both parish councils and the fact both parishes knew him well (he's been at St. Gerard 18 years and at IHM six years).
But that doesn't mean it has been easy. "The merger is the hardest thing I've ever done, and I've been at it 36 years – in which I've been through one parish closing and three school closings – because it's a marriage of families," Fr. Archambault says.
 TIF planTogether in Faith is the name for the process by which a five-year strategic plan has been developed for the Archdiocese of Detroit. Details of the plan, announced May 29, are available on the archdiocesan Internet site, www.aodonline.org. | People have emotional attachments to parish buildings and names, and they have customary ways of doing things. "When you twist your toothpaste and the other person pushes it, there are bound to be conflicts," he says with a laugh.
With only 125 families at IHM, the Trinity Vicariate's pastoral council decided last year it would have to merge with some other parish, but left it up to the people of IHM whether the partner would be St. Gerard or some other parish, Fr. Archambault explains.
At an October "town hall" meeting, the folks at IHM expressed a preference for remaining as they were, but made merging with St. Gerard their second choice.
"I explained to them that, when I was 55, being pastor of a cluster was not so hard, but now that I'm 61, it's a lot harder," Fr. Archambault says.
IHM parishioners wanted to continue to be able to pray together; they wanted their social services outreach programs (including a clinic run by Providence Hospital) and youth programs to continue; and they wanted to lighten their pastor's workload, he recounts.
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Fr. Donald Archambault in the reservation chapel at St. Gerard Church. | And under the merger arrangements, all of that will happen. There will continue to be one Sunday Mass at IHM Church as long as Corpus Christi parish has two priests; the IHM site will be the center for the "new" parish's social service outreach (while the St. Gerard site will house all faith formation programs); and Fr. Archambault will seldom need to run back and forth between the sites.
Corpus Christi Parish will continue to have a Saturday vigil Mass and one Sunday Mass at the St. Gerard site, plus all daily Masses will be celebrated there.
Fr. Archambault acknowledges St. Gerard parishioners had some reluctance about the merger because IHM Parish has a debt of about $1 million, but he says lease payments from the charter school that occupies the former IHM school are structured to retire the debt in 10 years.
With approvals by both parishes accomplished, they began having just one parish council and one set of parish commissions early this year.
Fr. Archambault says he hopes the archdiocese will share the story of how parishes such as his accomplished their mergers with others being required to merge.
Even more important, he continues, is to emphasize positive aspects of the TIF process and its strategic plan, as the local Church is positioned for future growth. "People need to see where this is all going," he says.
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