Unmarried are invisible, forgotten

[Lydia Leftcoast]

85. My own personal experience with singles' ministries

is that they bring together a bunch of people whose only common trait is that they're single. They're an attempt to broaden the focus of a church that is already compartmentalized: couples' group, youth group, stay-at-home mothers' group, children's group, seniors' group.

Still, having a singles' group is better than organizing one's church so that everyone except singles has a group.

However, my preferred approach is churches that are organized along interest groups rather than status groups and making it clear that everyone is welcome to participate, or age groups irrespective of marital status. I've been in two churches that had highly successful groups for people in their 20's and 30's, both single and married.

I think that not having age- or marital-status specific groups other than for children and teens in itself sends a message that singles are welcome.

Maybe a singles' group will work in your church, but I'd suggest figuring out how many singles are already in your parish and what their ages and interests are. If they're too diverse, it won't work very well.