I’m excited about the idea of churches taking responsbility for the people in their immediate area during Connect09 - but I’ve hit a bit of a snag. It seems to me that the idea of parishes (which is, of course, desperately uncool and like, totally pre-Driscoll) is a really helpful one when it comes to spelling out to church members which people in our local area we are responsible for praying for and loving with the gospel. However, I can’t find any information on exactly what our church’s parish is.
I am hoping that someone can help me out - does anyone know where I can find the details on parish boundaries? Is there a map or a description of some kind that spells out exactly where the parish boundaries lie inside the Sydney Diocese?
Peter, talk to your rector, bishop or archdeacon. Your parish should have been recently sent a NCLS community social profile that has a parish map in it with lots of helpful statistical information.
Hi Peter
If you can’t get the info you need locally contact the Diocesan Registry (9265 1526) and they will be able to supply it—probably in verbal description, so you’ll then need to get a map and mark it out. And let me add my welcome to that of Kevin’s.
Bob
I’ve even heard of ministers using photocopied street directories and putting the boundary on their wall in their study…
Not sure how many do though.
Last week I cut and pasted over 100 Google satellite maps together into one very large parish map based on the NCLS parish boundaries. (I’d post a link to it here but I’d probably be breaching Google’s copyright.)
Last week I cut and pasted over 100 Google satellite maps together into one very large parish map based on the NCLS parish boundaries. (I’d post a link to it here but I’d probably be breaching Google’s copyright.)
That seems like a lot of time and effort - well done for sticking with it. I think you should be able to get a map of your area from your local council for a small payment. Also, some of the “Local Phone Books” have maps of the local suburbs in them. Just grab two copies and sticky-tape the pages together.
That seems like a lot of time and effort - well done for sticking with it. I think you should be able to get a map of your area from your local council for a small payment.
I had the time (it took a couple of hours) and now I have a very high resolution digital copy. I’ve found it very helpful in better understanding the various demographic groups within the parish as indicated in the NCLS report.
I’ve even heard of ministers using photocopied street directories and putting the boundary on their wall in their study…
Well, I actually drew the boundaries on the map I’d scanned, rather than putting the boundary on my study wall (that would make a very small parish) - but basically did this.
I’ve even heard of ministers using photocopied street directories and putting the boundary on their wall in their study…
Well, I actually drew the boundaries on the map I’d scanned, rather than putting the boundary on my study wall (that would make a very small parish) - but basically did this.
And it was a fine looking map too Mark. As a result of this map we have discovered that that no-one in the Bible Study group I’m a part of actually lives within our parish’s boundaries. The same applies to a substantial proportion of our congregation. Given where I live I thought that I would have been within the parish boundaries but the map told me that I wasn’t.
This is the second church that I’ve been a part of which had a high proportion of members who live outside the parish boundaries. I wonder if this is common in other places.
I wonder about the whole concept of ‘parish’ in this age of ubiquitous mobility. Does not the parish system of church government come from pre-middle ages England; a creature of civil as much as church authorities? [ Testing my history here].
I understand that the parish unit is still useful in a statistical , and governmental/diocesan sort of way, but when you introduce trans-urban evangelical programmes- such as Connect 09 - how effective is the old form across a city the size of Sydney?
I attend a large church which draws its congregation from probably half a dozen smaller parishes. This model will only become more common. As freeways and constant travel blur old geographical boundaries, the concept of a ‘parish’ becames....well, a quaint anachronism in the lives of many.
It had enormous importance when folk hardly travelled outside their village to be born, wed , work and die, but today?
