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The Oxford Movement in the 1830s prompted some formidable theological scholarship which profoundly affected the lives and personalities of many Oxford-educated Church of England clergymen, not a few of whom combined deeply scholarly lives with successful parish ministries. This essay examines the lives of two such men, Canon T.F. Simmons, a parish priest in Yorkshire for some thirty years, and Bishop Mandell Creighton, much of whose scholarly writing was produced in a remote Northumberland parish before his return to Cambridge and London. By the end of the century such learned clergymen were becoming a rarity in the Church of England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commune and the parish are units of two divisions: government and church administration. Both were created for the better functioning of structures and the implementation of central activities: government and the mission of the Church. Their functioning is based on meeting the needs of the local community. In turn, their goals, although seemingly divergent, often overlap, because the main mission of both types of units is the good of community members. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to address in this article the issue of methods of cooperation at the lowest level between local government authorities and parish priests operating in the commune. This article presents a theoretical introduction, analyzing the ways in which both spheres operate, with an emphasis on places of cooperation in order to create a unified community, which is defined as both a commune and a parish. The aim of this article is to outline a framework for future empirical research that could clearly indicate the factors shaping the methods and forms of cooperation between these two entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Church construction was one of the most challenging, and most political, tasks undertaken by medieval cities. Comparing examples from across Europe reveals profound differences, however, in both the architecture of politics and the politics of architecture; that is, how building projects were administered and how their administration shaped their socio-political significance. Although ranging across the continent, this article is centered on construction in two representative cities: Vienna and London. While the former had a small number of churches, all under the direct control of the mayor and council, the latter had over a hundred, each overseen by locally appointed officers. In Vienna, church construction was, thus, an important field of activity for the city government, which oversaw the work and celebrated its own leadership of the project; in London, it lay outside civic control and offered local opportunities for domination by wealthy families. This difference can be found across the continent, separating the large, old cities of England, northern France, Spain, and the Low Countries, which could have numerous churches, from smaller towns and cities both in these places and across the rest of central, northern, and southern Europe, which typically had a single, major parish church and only a few subordinate ones. This article considers the implications of these two contrasting models—centralized and decentralized, civic and parochial, high government and local politics—on how architectural production functioned as a field of political activity and how church building shaped local distributions and articulations of power in medieval Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Willie James Jennings contends that the goal of whiteness is the creation and preservation of segregated space. For Jennings, whiteness, as well as upholding perceived notions of white normativity, is a way of being in the world, an imagined reality made real by our movement in physical space which destroys the identity-forming connections between communities and land. In this article I bring together Pope Francis's reflections on the globalised economy in Laudato Si' with the critiques of James H. Cone and Jennings to demonstrate the horrific harm of whiteness on marginalised people groups and the land itself. To resist the building project of whiteness, therefore, requires attention to our relationship with land. At this point I turn more readily to the land of England, offering the beginnings of a theology of place given the substantial land holdings of the Church of England. I close by asking whether the Church of England can be trusted to use its land to dismantle whiteness given its troubling colonial history in relation to land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aspects of Anglican theology have in the recent past emphasized the importance of place. Indigenous knowledge and worldviews speak of the centrality of land. Tessayshis places place-based thinking alongside land-based thinking to argue that these distinct ways of thinking can be mutually enriching and challenging. The essay limits itself primarily to Anglican-related authors while also contextualizing this theology within a broader scope of thinking about place. The paper concludes with suggestions for ways in which place- and land-based thinking can enrich Anglican approaches to ministry and mission, particularly in relation to the Doctrine of Discovery and ownership of property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Corpus Christi procession in the City was a highlight of London's annual spiritual calendar before the Reformation. Extraordinarily, the procession was organised not by the civic authorities, as it was in both York and Coventry, but by one Company, the Skinners' of London, whose fraternity was dedicated to the cult. The event was a source of pride for the brethren who remembered the fraternity in their wills and who contributed to the torch-lit parade with significant bequests to highlight their status and wealth. The London parish celebrations for Corpus Christi were of a different order, focused on the coming together of a community within a neighbourhood and not on rank. A study of the Skinners' London procession has, hitherto, not been undertaken. Set in the context of the cult's first appearance in England in the fourteenth century, and the development of fraternities, the research is based on a study of the Skinners' Corpus Christi Fraternity register, a selection of Skinners' wills, and the Skinners' Company accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diaspora parish has significantly different characteristics than the traditional parishes in rural or urban areas in Romania. The process of establishing these parishes takes place gradually, deriving from the desire to experience a deep spiritual life and from the need for religious assistance for the Romanian community abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparing young people for confirmation is becoming one of the most difficult challenges for pastoral care in Poland today. The traditional and somewhat clerical model of formation which has been used for years can be dismissed today as outdated. Representatives of the young generation who prepare themselves for the sacrament of confirmation are giving the community of the Church the last chance. The Church community can use it for effective evangelization or, while trusting in classical, outdated methods and assumptions of formation, might be indifferent towards the concept of pastoral conversion promoted by Pope Francis, thus losing contact with young people. The perspective of effectively proclaiming the Good News to the candidates for confirmation as well as enhancing their foundations of faith is a pastoral challenge which demands a change in current mentality. Young people in parish communities can experience the activity of the Holy Spirit and the beauty of the living Church. In order for this to happen, formalistic thinking needs to be abandoned, as it is focused on building the structures rather than on spiritual development of a person. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to present materials related to the history of the parish church in Kokanin, located near Kalisz. The materials are located in the Diocesan Archives in Włocławek and have never been published before. The presented documents come from 1790 and 1801 and present the financial condition of the parish at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authoress presents a photo album of Archimandrite Fr. Herman Kariakin (1872-1958) - a hitherto unknown iconographic source depicting the life of the Orthodox parish in Kalisz in the interwar period from the collection of the District Museum of Kalisz Land in Kalisz. The fate of the parish in the 1920s was linked to the Kalisz Ukrainian State House. Father Kariakin held pastoral ministry there as well. Against the background of the images from the pages of the album, the author discusses the situation of Orthodox believers in Kalisz during the Second Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of no little significance in Wuthering Heights (1847) is the prominent part played by Gimmerton for various aesthetic purposes both serious and humorous. Thus, for example, whereas the village is referred to here and there for its geographical features and for its usefulness as a centre of commercial, professional and travel facilities, it is also noted for the extent to which its inhabitants are given to malicious gossip and mindless credulity. Especially striking for its structural and poetic functions, on the other hand, is the occasional mention of Gimmerton Kirk, chiefly as pertinent to the presentation of Catherine, Heathcliff and Edgar in their childhood and adulthood. Perhaps the most remarkable thing, however, is the fact that it is only on hearing the word 'Gimmerton' mentioned while on his way to a quite different destination in the North that Lockwood is prompted to pay his final visit to Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, thereby ensuring not only the completion of his diary but the very existence of Emily Brontë's masterpiece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sheds new light on social relations in early eighteenth-century Britain through a case study of three parish elections held in Chelsea between 1708 and 1723. The results of these elections were disputed in the ecclesiastical courts, generating over 400 folio pages of witness depositions. These depositions reveal a sustained conflict between the local gentry and the middling sort over control of parish offices. At the heart of this conflict was a contest over who could be considered an independent voter. Independence was the central quality required for participation in parish politics and was thought to belong exclusively to heads of household who contributed to local taxes. In election disputes, each side claimed that their opponents' supporters failed to meet these criteria and that they had benefited from the votes of people who were too poor to make independent political choices. By arguing over voter independence, Chelsea residents contested the boundary between 'parishioners' with a right to participate in local government and the poor who were excluded by their dependence on others. Parish elections were both manifestations of social hierarchy and key sites of social conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parish is acknowledged by historians to be the political unit of fundamental importance to the people of early modern England, with the manor, which had been central to medieval life, traditionally viewed as in decline. Recent work has countered this view of the manor, identifying its continuing vitality in local affairs until well into the early modern period. Using the case study of the Blounts, who were a prominent West Midlands gentry family in the sixteenth century, this article will consider the evidence for the continuing economic, social and political role of the manor, alongside that of the parish, providing further evidence for the continuing importance of the manor in early modern life and as a political and economic unit of some significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is researching the life events of the Lithuanian man of letters, clergyman, ethnographer, folklorist, writer, publicist, historian and translator Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius (Ludwik Adam Jucewicz, 1813-1846) while focusing on the years 1838-1840 when he was serving as the vicar in Švenčionys Parish. It was during these years that such famous works as literary legends as Baltijos jūros karalienė (en. The Queen of the Baltic Sea) and Džiugo kalnas (en. Džiugas Hill) were created. Simultaneously, Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius created the works Lietuvių liaudies priežodžiai (en. Lithuanian Folk Proverbs) and Žemaitijos bruožai (en. The Features of Samogitia) which are still of high relevance to the Lithuanian academic community. The article reveals the starting point of the academic-publicist activity of this prominent personality at Vilnius Roman Catholic Spiritual academy which encouraged his academic pursuits in Švenčionys. The article also explores his deeds for the benefit of Švenčionys Parish. Finally, the academic, publicist and creative activity of Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius during this period is researched. The focus is laid on the creative path of the personality in the context of the contemporary political and cultural developments in the society. Thereby, the emphasis of the article is not on the investigation of the content of the texts by Liudvikas Adomas Jucevičius, but rather on their spread and transfer to other publications thus highlighting the popularity of his writings at the time with the objective to trace the causes of the success of the texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mission of laity in the Church is particularly important. In diaspora, the role of laity in parish settlement and development is overwhelming, especially since most parishes have been established at the believers' request. The parish priest in diaspora, as hard as he would work, he cannot cover alone, satisfactorily, and constantly, all the levels of parish life and all the geographical areas. Therefore, the concept of „team" in the priest's missionary-pastoral work must not be unfamiliar to him. The believers' involvement in parish activities and in the ecclesial cult provides to diaspora additional maturity and consistency, making a decisive contribution to cultivating and shaping the parish conscience. In search of salvation, Christians do not take into account only themselves or strictly those of their family, but they must be in communion with the parish/liturgical synaxis members and accept each one of them as peer and brethren in Christ. Moreover, they must avoid in any possible way harming the parish, synaxis, peace, communion and Church life in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of the article "The Pedagogical and Religious Dimensions of the Rites of the Sacrament of Baptism for Children" deals with the sacraments in the Catholic Church, particularly baptism as the first of the seven sacraments. As signs, sacraments are also meant to instruct, and indeed they do, for the meaning and grace of baptism are made clear in the rites of its celebration Union with Christ leads to confession of faith in the One God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The profession of faith, closely related to baptism, is eminently Trinitarian. The Church baptises: "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28,19), the Triune God to whom the Christian entrusts his life.The basis for analyzing the rites of baptism will be the Order of Baptism for Children during mass, which contains very important instructions that can be grouped into three points: (1) instructions about God the Father, (2) instructions about the essence of baptism and its importance for the parish and the baptized, (3) instructions about the duties of the baptized and their parents and godparents. In the sacraments God occupies the central place, and the sacrament of baptism, by instructing about God the Father, the first issue, brings closer three fundamental truths about God: (a) God's initiative in the salvation for man, (b) God's omnipotence (universal, loving and mysterious), and (c) God's goodness. The second issue deals with: (a) the essence of baptism based on the terms given in the Rite of Receiving the Children (baptism, faith, the grace of Christ, admission to the Church, and eternal life); (b) the meaning of infant baptism for the parish community; and (c) the meaning of baptism for the child. Likewise, the third issue is also divided into two parts, with an instruction (a) on the duties of the baptized and (b) the duties of baptized children, parents and godparents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks how Covid-19 should affect historical research, especially into local and parish history. It does so by addressing a number of key themes, such as the conduct of welfare history, and how Covid might influence historical medical research and ideas of locality. The effects of Covid on religion and the parish are examined, with an eye to historical precedent. The pandemic raises salient issues about the history of community and loneliness, discussed here. Covid, it is argued, has accentuated personal isolation and loneliness in society, highlighting many points and sources of historical comparison. It prompts important questions about historical sociability and human isolation. It has raised issues of local xenophobia and related emotions that have many echoes in our past. One needs to ask how far its restrictions on movement and issues of vaccine documentation were historically precedented. The article outlines these and related matters as an re-directive agenda for Covid-influenced research into parish and community history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the renewal of the parish has always been the subject of reflection and discussion in every historical-ecclesial season, under the pontificate of Francis it is being asked for a particular reconfiguration according to current styles of urban life. The author illustrates three steps to be taken: rethinking the role of the parish priest, giving a synodal style to the parish and its missionary conversion. He concludes these three steps by proposing a model of urban parish that is placed in the territory articulated in "community of communities", in order to the invitations of Evangelii gaudium and the Documento de Aparecida of CELAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population censuses from before the second half of the 18th century are rare in Poland. Therefore, an exceptional find in the parish archives of the former Latin rite Chełm diocese is the confessional register from Bończa, dating from 1728-1750. Its publicat ion, which is the inclusion into academic circulation of valuable source material, provides an opportunity for specialists in historical demography to study the data it contains, especially with regard to household structure and the developmental cycle of domestic groups. Wider research is also made possible by the parish registers of baptisms and deaths preserved from that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article develops a theological reflection on the physiognomy of the parish as a community; in particular, it addresses its renewal, in the light of the challenges of the postmodern world. Following the documents of the Magisterium of the Church and keeping in mind the values of the Franciscan charism, some criteria are identified: mission, creativity and communion that could be useful for the pastoral commitment to be carried out in the parish entrusted to the Franciscans. Particular attention is paid to the contribution that Franciscans can make to the evangelization and pastoral care of the parish entrusted to them and to the possibility of re-proposing today the unprecedented experience of St. Francis, expressed through an apostolate that engages in dialogue with man announcing salvation in the Gospel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary Christian family is confronted with many challenges. The beginning of a marriage is blessed by the Church. Both spouses are expected to do their best in creating a happy family. The perfect marriage is possible only within Jesus Christ Who is the head of the Church. The groom and the bride are asked to constantly increase the love “capital” that they receive when they are wedded in a parish church. There are many struggles to carry in order to live your Christian faith to the full in today’s world. Parents are called to get involved in a parochial community where they can find activities appropriate for their family. Children live a different childhood nowadays because of the constant attraction that digital media exerts. Mum and dad need to be cautious and vigilant all the time. The dialogue within the family is the most important aspect. It has to be developed day by day. When children come into the world the adults must be prepared. Reading about children’s development has become mandatory. A loving parent will perceive easily the perils outside the house. A Christian family promotes a type of teaching that is not in accordance with the postmodern society. Its principles may seem rigid to the outsiders but in fact they increase the capacity of the person to love God and the others. And this represents the goal of a fulfilled existence within the Church of Jesus Christ as known within Orthodoxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to analyze and read the identity, mission, location and contribution that the parish has been making and weaving in relation to the urban context, at the same time understanding how this phenomenon has affected the way in which it is seen and it is read, as well, to show what their demands and challenges are in this context. The question about the identity and mission of the parish in the city is of great relevance, since it would seem many times to be diluted between so many proposals and dynamics that the city offers and the challenges that the human-urban being offers and the new style of congregant. For this reason, it is urgent to rediscover its deepest meaning, since if the parish does not have a clear identity in the middle of the city, it runs the risk of remaining in its self-referentiality, losing its missionary dynamism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the academic literature is consistent with what a really important influence the existence of Trnava University (1635 - 1777), as one of two universitytype educational institutions (along with the University of Košice), had in the territory of today's Slovakia on the development of science, education, culture and literature, its literary production is still not sufficiently researched or analyzed in detail either as a whole or as individual types of published genres. Also, the reception of this production in a rural, urban or church context has not yet been the subject of a deeper analysis. For this reason we chose the analysis of a production of Trnava University in a rural parish context in southwestern Slovakia as the aim of this study, based on an analysis of parish libraries, which are in themselves a historical phenomenon. Within the territory of southwestern Slovakia we selected several parishes in the Little Carpathians region (Dolné Dubové, Smolenice, Trstín, Dolná Krupá), in the region Záhorie (Borský Mikuláš, Petrova Ves) and in the region Žitný ostrov (Trhová Hradská, Kostolné Kračany). During this period this area was a part of - Bratislava county, but ecclesiastically belonged to the Esztergom archbishopric and the Trnava vicariate. Due to the growing source base from the institutionalized environment of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the canonical visitations of the parishes and summary catalogues in the individual parish offices, we can in this study analyze and reconstruct the relatively accurate state of the book and periodical production of Trnava University in parishes, along with clerical or secular themes including created lists and catalogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how eighteen rural communities in the Touraine, Blésois, and Sologne navigated the treacherous waters of religious civil war. Drawing on over a hundred parish account books, it explores how communities engaged with the threats of war by gathering information, protecting the possessions of the parish church, and dealing with the demands of troops and the royal government. In many ways their experiences were similar to those of other communities across France--both urban and rural--as they relied on their own resources and relationships to mitigate the threats of armed confessional conflict. While these communities offer evidence of resilience and agency in the face of war, comparison with other rural communities that endured more sustained and intense warfare reminds us of the fragility of their resilience, which depended on factors outside their control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the covenants were experienced by those who subscribed them in 1638 and 1643. Building on the recent historiographical focus on the role of ordinary people in the covenanting movement, this article argues that there were a range of standpoints on the ground which resulted in large part from the ambiguous wording of these national oaths. The role of women in the early covenanting years is also examined, with covenant subscriptions and instances of female-led protest highlighted to suggest the emergence of a more assertive and radical form of female activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Second Vatican Council, the awareness of the challenges to evangelization that the Church is facing has been growing stronger. Beginning with the Third Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) in Puebla in 1979, the call to seek new forms and methods for evangelization in a rapidly changing reality started to be called "new evangelization". Thanks to St. John Paul II, this term has permanently stayed in the consciousness of the universal Church. The pontificate of Pope Francis supports Latin America in continuing its inspirational role in "new evangelization". According to the authors, an interesting pastoral initiative of new evangelization is the Integral System of New Evangelization (SINE - Sistema Integral de la Nueva Evangelización), initiated in Mexico and successfully implemented in many regions of the world, where it has become an official pastoral program for numerous dioceses and parishes. Recognizing the situation of the Church in Poland and the evangelical anxiety of many priests, this system is an interesting solution which - if creatively developed - can transform a traditionally run parish into a vibrant community of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents ideas related to the validity of the parish as the institutional place of ecclesial identification through which Christian life is developed, in Mexico City, in the contexts of modern culture. The reference taken is a parish which was founded around the 1960s, precisely when the universal Catholic Church made many changes. The reference parish is located in a colony also founded in those times, in an area of the northeast of the Mexican capital. Some characteristics experienced by the study parish throughout its history are mentioned, along with some evidence of its adaptation to urban and modern life, thus reflecting how the said ecclesial entity accommodates itself to coexist with the modern culture, which is expressed through the organization of community groups of a parochial type, made up of laity, along with the administration of the diversity of Catholic beliefs, with tendencies towards individualization. It is also indicated that, at least since the time of the Second Vatican Council, the lay person has become a highly dynamic actor attempting to make sense of his beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roman Catholic parishes in the United States are steadily becoming more diverse. This article examines St. Mary of the Angels, a small, urban, economically marginal, highly diverse Roman Catholic parish in Boston, as a case study in the question of how researchers might approach the tension between cultural dynamism and structural stability at the heart of multiethnic parish life. Attending to the ways in which parishioners articulated their decisions to belong to St. Mary's, I demonstrate how their renegotiation of the relationship between parish, place, and belonging reflects broader dynamics underway in U.S. Catholicism. I propose the metaphor of the ecclesial borderland as lens through which to interpret parishes where multiple cultural subcommunities coexist and converge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pastoral council, a fundamental consultative organ, is examined in this essay by the renowned canonist from the perspective of the synodal vision of the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medieval historians have long emphasised the social significance of the installation of fixed and owned seats in English parish churches, but its impact was affective and ideological too. Since the late thirteenth century, church authorities had decreed that all worshippers should have equal access to the nave but seating introduced an object with many of the characteristics of private property into space theoretically held in common. Judges and bishops not only rued this as a corruption of Christian egalitarianism but also feared the opportunities for sensory enrichment, privacy and conflict that came with purchased pews. A new proprietary culture developed in churches that stimulated new practices, affective bonds and ideas about how entitlements and hierarchies from parochial life should or could be transplanted into the nave space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a personal reflection on the twelve‐year experience of being a parish without a resident priest. The article offers a socio‐historical picture of St. Joseph's Parish, Bunhill Row, London EC1. It considers how some Church documents refer to 'parish', including the Code of Canon Law; the 1980 National Pastoral Congress; and Pope Francis' vision of 'parish' in 'The Joy of the Gospel' and some other addresses. It concludes with some personal reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parochial church of Tijarafe (La Palma, Canary Islands) is an example, extrapolable to other Canarian sites of worship, of architectural evolution and artistic enrichment. By drawing from the documentation within the parochial archives, this article examines said process of enhancement to the buildings and heritage of the church during the 16th and 17th centuries. Taking into account the specific characteristics of the chosen example and the generalities common to all buildings of the Modern Age in Canary Islands, this article offers information on the historical evolution of the church of Our Lady of Candelaria in Tijarafe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyze the reality of pastoral units in the light of the indications of the law and documents of the Holy See on the subject (with references to local documents) to bring out the potential fruitfulness (and conditions of it) for the good of the Church. The research opens with the identification of the essential elements of the parish, to grasp on the one hand what are the essential aspects for a community of faithful to continue to be considered a parish and on the other what are the areas that lend themselves most clearly to an inter-parish development. This is followed by a delineation of the elements to be considered essential so that we can properly speak of pastoral unity, identified starting from the directory for the pastoral ministry of the bishops «Apostolorum successores», thus distinguishing pastoral unity from other forms and ways of collaboration between parishes. Finally, it is proposed to outline the possible models of pastoral unity that can be implemented on the basis of current legislation, identified in five fundamental areas (including that of parish councils), which nevertheless lend themselves to their simultaneous application so as to envisage a remarkable variety of possible concrete models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of the clergy and the inadequacy of the parish to implement its own pastoral proposal alone make it necessary not only to resort to the different methods of pastoral care introduced by the 1983 CIC, but also the elaboration and experimentation of organizational patterns of collaboration between parishes, especially in the context of charitable, educational and cultural activities. These forms of collaboration, in the absence of a detailed regulatory provision by universal law, are governed mainly by particular canon law. The essay considers the possibilities and the limits set by the Italian law for their realization, in particular as regards the establishment of new civilly recognized bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution deals with the theme of rural parishes in mission territories. First of all are analyze the characteristics of these parishes and then move on to the description of their organization. We then move on to address the main difficulties faced by these institutions in their respective socio-cultural contexts. Finally, the text proposes some possible solutions to the described problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text proposes a course of investigation about the birth and development of the parish during the first centuries and in the high medieval period. The analysis highlights the fundamental role of this institution in the work of evangelization and in the development of Christian communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article re-evaluates the experiences of and perspectives towards religious minority communities in early modern London through a consideration of minority homes and the negotiation of private space. It considers the juxtaposition between the necessity of observing ‘private religion’ for those whose outward practice was restricted and the distrust of nonconforming acts which took place behind closed doors. It argues that the concern with regulating ‘appropriate behaviour’ in private spaces — in this instance, religious practice within the home — prompted a widespread desire to locate the streets and neighbourhoods where potentially subversive religious practices were taking place. Furthermore, the acknowledgment that certain parishes were inhabited by French, Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant Nonconformist communities — groups that were by definition dislocated from the religious and administrative functions of the parish — acted to shape the means by which public and private spaces of early modern London were experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is divided into three parts. In the introductory part the author compares/confronts two contexts of activity that are related to the mission of religious education teachers and parish priests. These refer to the school and the parish. Both of these contexts are undergoing changes that are in deep correlation with changes in the society. In the first part the author analyses the cooperation between religious education teachers and parish priests in the context of evangelisation, especially the evangelisation of culture. The author discusses this relation, starting from fundamental factors in the pastoral field: parish priest, catechist (parish catechesis), and religious education teacher (religious education in school). She is especially stressing the importance of the presence of religious education teachers in public schools. The second part analyses activity of parish priests and religious education teachers, starting from changes that are taking place in the contemporary society and culture and that are reflected on religiosity and life of faith. The traditional parish is gradually changing its face and gaining new contours. The cooperation between the school and the parish is analysed through the prism of territory they share and hold in common. Although a school and a parish share the same territory, in the pastoral perspective, one could see the school as a place at the »existential periphery« that Pope Francis talks about. The parish priest (parish) and the religious education teacher (school) are called to meet all those who are a part of such peripheries. In the third part the author concisely sketches the contribution of school religious education in the evangelisation of culture by relying on the magisterium of the last three popes (John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis). At the end of the article she presents a reflection on the cooperation between the parish priest and the religious education teacher from the perspective of a parish priest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The official status of the Trakai church (a collegiate church and, later, a provostry), its rich material endowment, and high-ranking Church officials who acted as provosts of Trakai provide sufficient proof that this church has been exceptional since the reign of Grand Duke Vytautas. In addition, the hitherto unnoticed fact about the existence of a fraternity in Trakai in the first half of the 16th century should be mentioned. The shrine of Trakai enjoyed the height of its splendour since the early 17th century until the mid-18th century, when it was one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Jesuits of Vilnius College-University were the first to organize public processionspilgrimages from Vilnius to Trakai: the first one was mentioned in 1585, and soon it became much larger and regular. The treasury of the shrine was gradually filled with precious votive offerings of the pilgrims, and the church services were accompanied by instrumental music. The peak of this period was marked by the coronation of the miraculous image of Our Lady in 1718 with crowns conferred by the Chapter of the Vatican Basilica. On the other hand, the life of the Trakai parish community was quite an ordinary one - except for the unique prescriptions for pastoral care (Statuta pro cura animarum diligenter exercenda, divino cultu rite peragendo, bono ordine in spiritualibus et temporalibus servando) compiled in 1750 by the provost Joseph Stanislaus Sapieha. Since the late 18th century, the shrine was subject to gradual decline, which was caused by different reasons: the sober mentality of the Catholic Enlightenment, hostile to ostentatious practices, the increasing popularity of other shrines, the misfortunes which affected the Trakai church (e. g., the fire of 1794), and the negligence of the provosts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the impact of the Laudian Reformation upon the spatial organisation of early modern English parish churches, drawing upon the Somerset churchwardens’ accounts and court depositions of the 1620s and 1630s. An explosion of scholarly literature on early modern church seating plans and pew disputes has increased our understanding of how early moderns used the parish floor space to represent and reinforce social hierarchies and relationships. This paper investigates the significance of pewing practices to understanding parochial receptions of Laudianism, which required an overhaul of church interiors and which impacted seating arrangements in turn. It proposes that Laudian attempts to enforce a radical restructuring of churches, and to co-opt the churchwardens in pursuit of their policies, ran against established and hotly defended practices for the organisation of the parochial space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chronology of the activities of Ukrainian Greek Catholic pastors in the northwestern part of Hutsul region (within present-day Ivano-Frankivsk oblast) has been found out in the article. There were nine parishes on this territory. The above-mentioned parishes united about 20 churches in 17 settlements. Information on the clergy of the northwestern part of Hutsul region has been taken from schematisms, funds of the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine (Lviv), and private archives of the Klapchuk family in Deliatyn. The first information on priests dates back to the middle of the XVIIth century. It has been found out that 74 priests (7-9 in each village) were pastors in the northwestern part of Hutsul region during the century. The average time of pastoral duties in Bili Oslavy, Krasna, Lanchyn, Sadzhavka and Yablunytsia was 11.1 years, in Zarichchia - 12.5 years, and in Deliatyn, Dora and Mykulychyn - 14.3 years. Three priests had been pastors for more than 40 years: O. Hlibovytsky (Yablunytsia, 43 years), E. Gadzinsky (Bili Oslavy, 43 years), and A. Fedorovych (Lanchyn, 41 years). There were priests who had been pastors for more than 30 years - T. Blonsky (Dora, 37 years), Yu. Krasytsky (Sadzhavka, 37 years), I. Hara- symovych and T. Galaichuk (Mykulychyn, 35 years), A. Vytoshynsky (Deliatyn, 34 years), and M. Drahomyretsky (Deliatyn, 32 years). Three priests were pastors in two parishes (D. Khomyn, V. Lutsky, I. Bylynkevych). Thus, using the method of historical chronology, the authors of the article have solved a very important issue concerning the history of Hutsul region. They have found out the names of priests in nine parishes within present- day Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. The chronology of the activities of these priests has been studied as well. These pastors are important not only for the history of religion in Ivano-Frankivsk, but also for Ukrainians scattered all over the world and trying to understand their origin. The priests have been forming mental outlook and cultural wealth of local people for about a century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores ways in which the identity of the secular priesthood in England and Wales has been shaped by its particular historical experience. Five themes are proposed: the creation of the concept of mission in the post‐Reformation world; the combination of isolation and independence that became characteristic of recusant priests; the emergence of new ways of relating to church structures that priests were forced to find; the distinctive fraternal identity that was nurtured in a variety of ways throughout the penal times and the period of the Catholic Revival; the revolutions in relationships with the laity. These themes are pursued through the nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐centuries when the meaning and experience of them changed as the emphasis shifted to buildings and organisations. The twentieth century experience of priesthood in a parish context created possibilities for expansion, which masked issues and problems already rising to the surface. Both the challenges and the opportunities of the recusant way of life became stifled. A fixed model of the church made change difficult to contemplate. The loss of an historically shaped sense of priestly identity is explored as part of the explanation for the contemporary loss of confidence and direction within a shrinking presbyterate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the East Asian Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church established on the territory of China in 1946. The basis of the research was archival sources, documents of the State Archives of the Russian Federation. Reports, correspondence of the leadership of the Exarchate with the Moscow Patriarchate, with the Council for the affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR were used for the article. The authors highlight the existence of the Exarchate within the framework of the dioceses of the Orthodox Church on the territory of China during the change of the state policy in the relations of religions. It is noted that the period of the Exarchate‟s formation was during the difficult years of the departure of Orthodox believers from China, due to which the number of parishioners was reduced. In addition, the authors emphasize that it is necessary to further study the history of the existence and activities of the East Asian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church with the introduction of new, previously unknown documents into the scientific circulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theologians have demonstrated curious restraint in assigning theological meaning to the parish. I argue here for a renewed attention to the parish as an “ecclesial place,” that is, a geographical site situated in particular contexts where ecclesial relationships of communion unfold by the power of the Holy Spirit for the sake of God’s mission. Simply put, parishes function—or at least ought to function—as the places where “histories of communion” are manifested in the context of grace and struggle in the real world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causes and course of the Irish rebellion,which broke out on the 22 October 1641, have been the subject of extensive research by historians. The thousands of Protestant ‘refugees’ who fled to England and Scotland, in response to the rebellion, however, have received very little attention from scholars. This article will explore the identities of the refugees, the volume and direction of refugee movement and the organisation and dispensation of local relief through a case study of the parish of Upton, Nottinghamshire. Upon their arrival in England refugees were expected to return to their parish of birth or last residence, leaving the responsibility of refugee relief firmly in the hands of parish churchwardens, overseers of the poor and constables. By focusing on the charitable response of these parish officials to the Irish refugees this paper will outline the motivations for the provision of aid at a local level. Moreover, this article will show how local officials were able to negotiate relief with respect to the economic and social position of the parish, particularly during the turbulent years of the British and Irish Civil Wars [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A regional examination of representations of geographical ecclesiastical features (boundaries, churches, and land use) in northern Scandinavia during the High Middle Ages was performed, using a peripheral parish as a single case. The analysis was based on historical maps, processed using microhistory and retrogressive approaches, and guided by theories of territoriality and landscape. The results showed that some churches were built on outfields, that landownership and prehistoric burials were clustered in two different areas, and that parish boundaries were often located in uninhabited forests between settlements and were sometimes moved. These results are discussed within the context of symbols, relations, and identity, which are complementary to explanations of centrality such as minimum travel distance. The author concludes that this indicates that, based on kinship networks, farmers from the settlement areas built the churches on jointly owned or managed land, which symbolises their collective effort – their sense ofours. Furthermore, settlement desertion during the agrarian crisis is probably the reason behind later changes in parish boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Lorenzo Milani (1923-1967) lived his Christian and priestly vocation in two different parishes in the Diocese of Florence: first, in San Donato di Calenzano and then in Barbiana. In these two small parishes, he exercised his pastoral ministry, which was characterised by a daily commitment for cultural and spiritual emancipation, and also for the promotion of human and socio-cultural values through his parish's popular school for teenagers and young people. He gained nation-wide fame when he shared the fruit of his pedagogical adventure in his first book, Esperienze Pastorali (Pastoral Experiences), where he stated that the most important characteristic to be an effective educator is being a credible witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study approaches the history of Romanian education in the town of Sebeş - Alba during the first half of the 20th century. The paper considers Nicolae Lupu, a teacher of several schools in town, who contributed to the promotion of cultural and artistic values among the Romanian community in the area. The information referring to the teacher Nicolae Lupu comes mostly from documents found in the funds of the Sebeş Orthodox Parish and Astra from the Alba County Service of the Romanian National Archives. The material was organized chronologically, a process permeated with inherent difficulties due to the lack of information which would allow for the drawing of a complete professional trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguing from a biblical perspective, this article proposes that place is a crucial part of human experience and God's way with the world, that there is a three way relationship between God, people and place in which all three are crucial. Engaging with the Christian tradition, it suggests that churches can be thought to operate 'sacramentally' as fractions set apart to represent the truth that all time and space are God's. They witness just by being there but there is a pressing need for them to be used more and more in the service of the communities in which they stand as well as for worship of the Living God, and thus to symbolise the second as well as the first Great Commandment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]