A pastoral plan three years in the making which resulted in a two-thirds reduction of parishes in the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth has put the archdiocese in a position to succeed amid the realities of the modern Church, said John Stevens.

It was just a regular conversation between a bishop and a pastoral intern, sharing coffee and small talk between Masses. But when it was finished, the Halifax-Yarmouth archdiocese had set in motion its own unique project to pray for the renewal of the local Church.

Remember the good old days.

It’s difficult to equate dynamic evangelization with the reality of shrinking numbers of parishes, priests, parishioners and active churches. But evangelization is exactly what the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth hopes to achieve through a strategy called New Parishes: Stronger Together.

Nobody goes there anymore … it’s too crowded.

Even as he faces another sex abuse case in his own diocese, Archbishop Anthony Mancini is not afraid of going bankrupt.