It sounds like the beginning of a bad religious joke, or a Lenny Bruce routine: A Jew walks into a church and says, "Don't let's close this down!", which is close to what WGNO26 got yesterday. Tip for Ms Nguyen, whose coverage presented a denial of communality in general as an overlooked aspect of the church closings yesterday: the person at the beginning of your report is Poppy Brite, not Polly.

And Poppy is agitating to keep the community that she found at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church together, along with fellow OLGC parishioners such as her godmother and Harold Baquet, who spoke extensively and eloquently at the parishioners' rally on the steps of OLGC yesterday. Excuse my shaky, low-quality video, folks.

Part 2 of the rally footage can be seen here.

Any place that is looking for solutions in concert with the Archdiocese of New Orleans' consolidation plan that will keep churches like OLGC open has gotta be pretty special:

We know the history and irony of this old church, and have not been afraid to confront the facts that 50 years ago, my own family and the families of other African-Americans would not have been welcome. Irish and German immigrants built this church, and at the time they were oppressed minorities themselves. That fact speaks volumes about how far we have come as a Christian people. All these years later, we have become a multi-ethnic parish of rich cultures and diverse people of many colors and languages. Our tight-knit community is an open and welcoming environment, gay-friendly, minority-friendly, woman-friendly, family-friendly, without ever having to try or say so. Our actions speak louder than words, everyone here accepting that we all approach the Lord broken and battered.

That's what makes our parish a great community. New Orleans history is full of places where diverse people accommodated each other. This Uptown neighborhood is no different.

Over the course of several weeks, a fragmented, disruptive and ill-timed release of information has forced some parishioners in both OLGC and St. Henry's parishes into a panic. Moderate voices are not being heard. Officials with the archdiocese have never presented us with a hopeful example of what the new situation would look like. Our two parish communities are walking in darkness, just a dozen blocks away from each other, both threatened with having our doors closed without our collective parish councils ever having met.

Clustering has been going on in many parts of the Midwest and East Coast for more than 30 years. Clustered parishioners are free to conduct church business in concert with a shared celebrant priest. The priest, headquartered at one of the parishes, travels to each of the communities to celebrate Mass on the weekends.

Clustering would have been a very workable solution for St. Henry's and Good Counsel, which have ministries that complement each other gracefully.

The "clustering" Baquet describes is a workable solution for other religious organizations as well. Synagogues that cannot afford to have a full-time rabbi can get interning rabbis in for certain worship services each month, and then the rest of the services are lay-led. There might be a shortage of priests, but there is certainly not a shortage of parishioners....not yet, anyway.

If the priest shortage were all that there was to the Archdiocese's decision, then this might truly be workable. Problem is, folks, this is post-8-29 New Orleans - and Poppy Z. highlights a comment on the nola.com site by a "sadcatholic" who feels OLGC will suffer a fate similar to what has been happening with public and private housing and public school properties all over the city:

Does anyone not notice that Our Lady of Good Counsel sits on prime real estate property in the city? It is in the "sliver by the River" that wasn't affected by Katrina in the Garden District. Several years ago, the Archdiocese was offered lots of money for the old school building but the sale couldn't go through (from what I recall) because of lack of sufficient parking associated with the building. Isn't it coincidental that now that old school building AND the church AND church parking lot may now be available since the parish is being closed?? Bottom line for the Catholic Church is MONEY - not generations of people that are devoted to their faith. The Archbishop and all his minions will have the blood on their hands of all the good people that lose their faith because of their selfish motives. This is truly a sad day in the rich history of the Catholic Church in New Orleans.

And really, there's nothing seriously wrong with the school building next door to the gorgeous church, other than the fact that the Archdiocese closed it as a school thirty-some-odd years ago and has refused to reopen it since:What's even more insane is the presence of the Louise Head Start child care center operated by Catholic Charities that is right next door to the empty school building. Uhhh, wouldn't fixing up and opening the big ol' building next door have been a better solution, especially when one considers the continuing crisis that is preschool child care in this town?

No, I guess not.

Time for the OLGC folks to take this to a higher authority. Especially since they have been left out of the process. How much more can they endure being pushed around like pieces in a perverse game dictated by administration rather than ministration? These parishioners, and this entire city, need all the social capital they can get.

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Tributes to a major contributor to this city's social capital can be found here and here. Please keep the donations coming to Ashley's family at http://rememberashleymorris.com/. A sendoff for this friend and fierce defender of this city will be happening tomorrow.