From The Editor: Membership Drive or Driven?

My mother belongs to a women’s club in her hometown in Indiana. Not too long ago the club had 83 members, but because a few members have moved away, others have passed away, and some are too infirm to attend, the membership has dropped to 19.

Now the problem is that the club meets on Thursday mornings at 10:30 in the meeting room of the Presbyterian church in town. This has always been a good meeting time for the members; that is, until lately. One member, who returned to the 9-to-5 working world, requested that the club change its meeting time to evenings. And they’ve had inquiries from younger women who would like to join the club but the meeting time in the middle of the working day doesn’t work for them. When proposals are made to meet in the evenings to accommodate possible newer members, the current members respond that 1) they cannot drive at night any more or 2) that’s too close to bedtime.

The members, noting their membership has fallen from 83 to 19, know they have to do something but they don’t seem to able to come up with a solution. Yet, they also recognize that not to do anything is itself a decision.

The PCM (Chicago) Province of Carmelites will have their Chapter Meeting this summer in mid-June. A Chapter is a gathering of the membership of the Province that happens every three years. At this meeting policies and procedures are set for the next three years, and leadership is elected.

In many ways the situation faced by my mother’s women’s club has parallels to what the Province currently faces. As active membership declines in the Province (mostly due to retirements and some deaths) there are those who propose that all our ministerial commitments (parishes, retreat centers, schools, etc.) have no less than four Carmelites to form a stronger community-life and share the work. And there are those who remark that the Carmelites have staffed some of these sites for over a hundred years, and we should try to maintain our presence at these sites. There are those who note that we are called to “respond to the sign of the times” and with the ever-increasing clergy shortage in the U.S. church that means we make ourselves available. There are those, though, who note that if we are to “respond to the sign of the times,” then we should keep foremost in mind that newer vocations are joining religious life looking for “community life.”

It makes the problem faced by my mother’s club look easy in comparison. Yet, solutions are called for, and we know that to not do anything is itself a decision.