National religious representative bodies prepare to merge

Staff Reporter

The two national representative bodies for religious in Ireland are in the final stages of merging into a new organisation after an extensive series of talks. 

The Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) and the Irish Missionary Union (IMU), which have almost a complete overlap of membership, have been taking part in discussions with the assistance of L&P Consultants – an international consultancy group that specialises in providing services to religious congregations – on how to pool staff and resources in order to make the goals of both groups easier to achieve.

New entity

The proposed title for the new entity is the Association of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland and a new chief executive will be appointed.

The IMU will hold was it expected to be its last AGM this month and CORI will hold its AGM in June, after which both groups are planning to move into a shared premises owned by the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) in the Dublin suburb of Templeogue.

It is expected that the union of the two organisations would need Vatican approval and a number of practical issues still need to addressed, such as how lay missionary groups will fit in to the new entity.