The Shared Parish: Latinos, Anglos, and the Future of U.S. Catholicism, an intriguing and much-needed addition to the growing body of literature on a theology of parish, is both ambitious and prophetic. Brett Hoover, after experiencing an eighteen-month immersion in a culturally diverse parish, offers an in-depth look at the inexorably growing reality of culturally diverse parishes. We know that throughout the United States parishes are working to include arriving communities in existing parish structures. This often takes the shape of a “shared parish,” a term coined by Hoover, in which distinct cultural groups coexist as independent communities, only occasionally overlapping as they share buildings, pastor, staff, and resources. This model provides the Catholic parish with an initial and accessible means of engaging rapidly growing diversity—that is, until it doesn't.

Using interviews, oral histories, and parish archives, Hoover unearths strategies that Latino and Anglo parishioners of the pseudonymous All Saints Parish have developed to adapt to their changing environment. He offers vignettes of how parishioners navigate space, share resources, and deal with the power dynamics inherent in the organic development of shared communities. Collectively, these stories begin to lead us away from a simplistic misconception that diverse parish life is only about different languages, food, and celebrations. We also see Latino religiosity come to life in these stories, with the attendant challenge to parish life as Anglos had known it. Educators and practitioners will find much food for thought in these rich stories of the search for unity in diversity, and the shape that concept takes as it moves from what Hoover calls the “Euro-American bias for uniformity in beliefs and practices” (219).

The real gem in this book is the theological discussion of the US parish. In a welcome exploration, Hoover argues that if we are to understand the parish experience of today, we need to be aware of how context shapes theology and practice. Beginning with the Greek word for “parish,” paroika, Hoover reminds us that from its earliest beginnings the parish has been seen as a community for the “sojourner.” He then traces the evolving nature of the parish as it moves to hierarchically organized institutions offering sacraments and salvation. Hoover then looks at the development of the parish in the US context, taking the necessary step of looking at the emergence of American congregationalism. With its model of volunteerism and lay leadership, which is so prevalent in the United States, Hoover suggests there is a “de facto” congregationalism operative in Catholic parishes that rests in tension with the reality of sacramental power and governance residing in the ordained. This brings one of the innate tensions of ecclesiology and parish life to the foreground. As I have discussed elsewhere, the idea that parishioners are “volunteers,” a reality Hoover rightly names, rather than disciples, must be studied and addressed by theologians and practitioners alike.

Hoover's sociological exploration of change and power adds an essential layer as he invites us to understand how complex and nuanced diverse parish communities can be. Readers will be challenged by Hoover's suggestion that the long-held assumptions about assimilation, unity, power, and diversity that continue to dominate much of our thinking and planning are out of sync with the current reality of a largely Latino immigrant population. Those with pastoral hearts will recognize the struggles of both the receiving and the arriving communities. Those who would venture more deeply into an ecclesiology of parish will notice a challenge to all pastoral leaders. The Shared Parish is a must-read for students and educators alike if they are to recognize and serve amid the paradigm changes we are facing in American parish life. This study is ambitious in providing equal parts of practice and theory. It is prophetic because it challenges us to once again take up the Pauline invitation to be “strangers and aliens no more” (Eph 2:19).