The new Code has presented us with legislations on the existence, composition and functioning of the parish since 1983. What is the
competence of the pastor and other pastoral agents in the parish?
How are the organs of parish administration and temporalities established and organized? Thus one would want to ask how far has
our local Church responded in establishing and administering the parishes according to the mind of the legislator of the 1983 new Code of Canon Law?
Our attempt is to use the 1983 Code of Canon Law as our launching pad in exposing the nature and composition of the Parish and to see how this is administered within the local Church which has witnessed creation and increase in parishes with corresponding increase in the number of the members of the diocesan presbyterium. Consequent upon this growth is the creation of many parishes in the same town with its attendant problems of unity and healthy relationships. Many activities face the parish at various levels.
This work, therefore, is entirely expository and pastoral. It will serve as an aid to better governance of
the parish according to the dispositions of the new Code. It exposed the various dimensions of the acts that face the Parish Priest and other collaborators; establishing their various competences and necessary materials that will aid the full functioning of parish administration. A very important sector of parish patrimony, the laity and the relationship of the parish to the diocesan family are also exposed in this project. It is intended ultimately to serve as a handbook or
better vade me cum to parish administration.
This work is limited to the parishes within the Latin rite governed by the 1983 Code of canon Law. It
is also limited by the Awka diocesan environment from where many examples are used within the light of canonical legislation. It is simply a work in three Chapters with General Introduction and Conclusion.
The first Chapter addressed the issue of administrative composition of the parish. It discussed issues on the necessity and nature of parish, the figure of the parish priest and the demand of administrative imperative of cooperation in the parish. We discussed also issues related to nature of Church administration and some administrative principles for better operation in parish governance.
Chapter two talks about the pastoral functioning of the parish in the light of the principal duties of the pastor as prophet priest and king i.e. ministry of the word, ministry of sanctification and pastoral governance. We exposed also the issue of documentation in parish administration as sine qua non for the stability of parish as an organization.
Chapter three finally discussed the parish within the diocesan Church bringing out the unique operations in both the deanery and the towns with multi parishes which is a peculiar phenomenon in the diocese.
