There is widespread concern in the Church about the decline in the number of priests, and lack of vocations. This concern is felt in the diocese as well as other parts of the country. What can we do about the situation? Is the Holy Spirit challenging us to find new solutions to the needs of the Church? Are we to see new roles and activities for the 'lay' people in the church?
Already in the diocese there are a number of places where one priest is looking after two parishes. This can be a stressful situation, especially as priests grow older and find it more difficult to cope. The situation can only get worse if we think of three, four or even more parishes becoming the responsibility of one priest. The tentative solution proposed by Bishop Ambrose for the diocese is to form 'clusters' of parishes in which the people and priests will work together as teams.
The success or at least the working out of this scheme will depend on two things; one the willingness of the priests to work together and equally the willingness of the people of the 'cluster' parishes to work together. Then, priests and people will have to work together for the good of the whole church in the broader neighbourhood. This will demand a considerable change of attitude by all concerned. There will be the need to share in all sorts of ways. Parish boundaries will become very flexible, if not eventually redundant. Needless to say there will have to be consultation, discussion and training for all involved in the project

In Hartlepool, at least for the present, the Bishop wants us to consider two 'clusters' in the town. In the south end of the town, the three parishes of St. Teresa, St. Patrick, and St. Cuthbert will join together as one 'cluster'. And the north end of the town the 'cluster' will consist of parishes of St Joseph, St Thomas More, St John Vianney and St Mary's on the Headland.
There has been an exploratory meeting at each of the 'clusters' towards the end of June 2002. At both meetings there was an equally good attendance, between 75-100. The purpose of the meetings was to get those who were present to think about the issues facing the Church as a whole and in particular our parishes in the months and years to come. The people spoke as they felt, openly and honestly with a variety of views and naturally some misgivings about the idea of 'clustering'. The matter of 'clustering' is far from clear for all of us. It will take time and patience to see how things work out. We will need to have a lot of faith and trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
This is as far as we have got at this time, towards the end of summer 2002. The Bishop has appointed and delegated the two priests to lead each 'cluster', namely the P.P of St. Joseph's and the P.P. of St. Cuthbert's. There will be a short commissioning service early in September. Overarching the whole town, there will still be the Pastoral Area Council and the Deanery Council.