The Diocese of Newark may follow the lead of its Roman Catholic counterpart and begin a round of parish closings and amalgamations, redeploying diocesan assets in order to minister more effectively to a new generation in the face of declining membership and rising costs.

Writing in the November/December issue of The Voice, the diocesan newspaper, Bishop John Croneberger noted that while a number of suburban parishes were fiscally healthy, perhaps as many as one-third were “struggling mightily to keep the doors open, keep the deficit as low as possible, and do anything necessary to get through the year in order to turn around and begin all over again.”

In June, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark announced it would close 48 of 235 parishes which serve 1.3 million Roman Catholics in northern New Jersey.

Archdiocesan officials say church membership is shifting, with parishioners leaving once-thriving ethnic enclaves for the suburbs.

Shifting population trends have also hurt the Episcopal Church’s 114 parishes in northern New Jersey, Bishop Croneberger said. “I believe we can no longer afford the luxury or the apathy of doing business as usual … blowing smoke up 114 smokestacks and worrying about how to gather the resources to maintain 116 sets of buildings,” he wrote.

While not calling for parish closures, Bishop Croneberger observed, “we can be an even stronger diocese with more communicants and fewer plants which would enable us to be better equipped for ministry in this century.”