Embracing Change

A Spiritual Approach

Background

Dr. Richard McCorry is a nationally renowned presenter and the author of “Dancing with Change, A Spiritual Response to Changes in the Church,” published in 2004. He is the founder of Embracing Change, a Church change management consulting firm. Recently featured in St. Anthony's Messenger Magazine, Dr. McCorry travels the country, working with parishes and dioceses, helping them to develop spiritual approaches to changes in the church. Prior to doing this work, he was the senior ministry associate for St. Pius Tenth Church in Chili, NY. He has also served as director of pastoral care for the Roman Catholic Community of the 19th Ward in the City of Rochester, a cluster of three inner city parishes. Richard began working in professional church ministry in 1996 after retiring from a 20 year career in law enforcement. He has served as pastoral associate for the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brockport, as campus minister for the State University of New York in Brockport, and worked in the Diocesan tribunal and pastoral planning department for several years. Richard received a bachelor of science degree in 1992 from St. John Fisher College majoring in philosophy and religious studies. In 1998, he obtained his Master of Divinity degree from St. Bernard’s Institute. He has also earned a Master of Science degree in organizational management from Roberts Wesleyan College in 1999. In 2004 he obtained a doctor of ministry degree in transformative leadership from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

Why do you do this work?

"When I was working in the Roman Catholic Community of the 19th Ward, I visited a man in the hospital.  He was on the hospital register as a parishioner but I didn't know him.  I asked if he would like a visit and he said, 'sure, but I don't go to church anymore.'  I asked him why and he replied, 'they took away my Mass.'  I asked him what he was talking about, and he said that he had always attended the 9:30 AM Mass on Sunday and that they had taken away his Mass.  I said that the Mass time had been change to 10 AM, but he insisted that his Mass had been taken away, 'and after all the things that my family has done for that church!' "

"That man is not alone.  Many people leave the church over changes, because they don't have a basic understanding of the ever changing nature of the church and because they don't have the spiritual tools necessary to deal with these changes.  We are on a journey toward perfection which will require us to constantly change.  Beyond that, it is clear that there are great changes ahead for the church, especially due to the ever increasing shortage of priests.  It is my hope and prayer that through this work, we will lose as few people as possible due to the changes ahead for the church."