PARISHIONERS'
CALL
ABOUT US
OUR VISION
The old model of priesthood needs re-envisioning. It is up to us as Catholics, working with our priests and bishops wherever possible, to find new ways of ministering, serving our communities, and reaching out to others. It is parishioners who fund, maintain, and support the Church - it is time for us to speak.
OUR COMMUNITY
We are lifelong and committed Roman Catholics who have not left the Church we love. Our first meeting was held in Salisbury in January 2018, and we have been growing ever since.
WHAT WE DO
We will listen to your story of your parish, and work with you to help you use our respectful and constructive Parishioners’ Call blueprint in your community in order to call for change in the Church. Our mission is to help each other to find a voice in our own parishes.
WHAT IS PARISHIONERS’ CALL?
Pamela Perry explains:
Parishioners’ Call is a movement of lay Catholics calling for the Church to test the vocations of all who feel themselves called to ordained ministry, whether female or male, married, single, or celibate.
We call for, and offer guidance on, creating safe spaces where ordinary lay Catholics, who form 99% of the Church’s people, can openly discuss new and enriching ways of sharing God’s Word.
As majority shareholders in the Roman Catholic institution, we lay people are co-responsible for its credibility and effectiveness in sharing this Word. God’s love now gently shows us that we must step forwards and take up our duty to call for change and growth.
We Catholic parishioners have to ask ourselves:
1. Why priestly vocations are in steep decline?
2. What enabled the scandals of clerical abuse?
3. Why does the Church persist in denying the gifts of women and married ministers?
4. How we should properly value the gift of celibacy for those who are truly able to embrace it, ceasing its automatic imposition on priestly candidates?
5. What riches shared ministry could bring to our people, as we increasingly see in so many other Christian traditions?
6. What steps we ourselves can take to bring about this new spirit in our congregations?
“The most common one-liner in the Bible is, "Do not be afraid." Someone counted, and it occurs 365 times.”
- Richard Rohr
Pamela Perry
Founder
Pam is passionate about our need for women in the Church; women and men ministering together, according to the needs of their parishioners. It was thanks to Pam's foresight and perseverance that Parishioners' Call was founded, to give the people in the pews our rightful voice.