| abstract |
The United Methodist Church has experienced a sharp decrease in membership in the last two decades. Additionally, a wave of disaffiliations in 2023 has resulted in a membership drop of 40% in 2024. This has led to concerns in the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church regarding the ability of local churches to survive in the current environment. To address this issue, the Conference has developed a new model of ministry called the Cooperative Parish Ministry. This model encourages congregations and pastors in a defined geographic area to work together, develop trust and mutuality relationships, and coordinate church programs and ministry. Ideally, this model breaks down racial and ethnic barriers and facilitates effective ministries across Annual Conferences.
The Central Nassau Cooperative Parish is an example of a model in which churches are clustered together in Nassau County, Long Island. These churches have unique ethnic and cultural differences, reflecting their cultural heritage and experiences in their areas of ministry and leadership. Each church is strong in worship, prayer, and community engagement, with good reputations for spiritual influence and community development. To survive and thrive, these churches need to keep their distinctive cultural identities. However, in this era of increasing multicultural awareness, these churches need to operate in a multicultural environment. Through the Cooperative Parish, these homogeneous churches with unique cultural strengths and identities have united to form cooperative multicultural parishes.
This study draws on the multicultural experiences of the six ethnically different homogeneous churches in Nassau County, with a particular focus on working together to become a multicultural Cooperative Parish. This project highlights the key principles, possibilities, and challenges of multicultural ministry and cooperative parish ministry. This study seeks to understand how homogeneous churches with unique cultural strengths and identities can maximize their capacity to reach and integrate different cultures into their faith communities to create a transformative multicultural cooperative parish.
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