Thursday Session A

Before we were let loose to have morning tea and chat about the information in the Keynote speech, a representative of Roland (one of the conference sponsors) spoke to us. http://www.rolandcorp.com.au/

They provided the sound, the livestreaming and sound equipment for those on stage.

He told us that these days via video you can share any event (weddings, funerals, conferences) with those not able to physically attend. The technology is simple, easy to use, and has now become affordable and within reach of most people. With this technology you can make Sunday Mass available as a livestream for the housebound in your parish.

(Ed. Having looked at the website, this kind of service must be something new they are moving into. So if you are interested in finding out more – head straight for their 'Contact Us' page.)

Down in the Civic Pavilion we were supposed to grab a coffee and something cake-like and find a small group of people to chat with about the following questions:

'What is the reality of my own parish?'

'How would I describe the parish community I would like to be a part of?'

However the queues for coffee looked unmanageable, and the conversation noise was a bit overwhelming, so since the timetable was running a bit late anyway, we cut our losses and headed for the quiet sanctuary of Our Lady of Dolours Church, Chatswood, to wait for Mass to begin.

Thursday Mass, Memorial of St Pius X

The principal celebrant for this Mass was Bishop Peter Comensoli, who is the acting administrator of the Sydney Archdiocese until a new archbishop of Sydney is appointed.

The readings were taken from Thursday Week 20 Ordinary Time Year II.

The first reading was from Ezekiel 36:23-28, a passage where God through Ezekiel complains about how His great Name has been profaned among the peoples by the very people He had chosen to display Its holiness. God then promises to cleanse His people of all defilement and give them a new heart and a new spirit, and to renew His covenant with them.

The responsorial psalm was part of Psalm 50(51) the great penitential psalm of King David 'A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me….'

The Gospel reading was from Matthew 22: 1-14 about the parable of the wedding feast for the king's son. Those initially invited make excuses, this angers the king and he destroys them. The king then says to his servants to go out to the crossroads of town and invite everyone you can find and get them to come. The place gets filled. But there is one bloke without a wedding garment and no excuse for why he hasn't got one, who gets thrown out of the wedding celebrations.

God's voice was definitely booming in these readings, and directed squarely at us, people and hierarchy of the church in Australasia. Before the homily even started we had the message that we should be cut to the heart and deeply ashamed of how we had been squandering our time and resources on so many useless things that didn't proclaim God's greatness and infinite love to the whole world. Then there was reassurance from Him that He wanted us to change in this direction and that He would put fresh vigour and energy in us to do so. Then if we still hadn't got it perfectly clear – go out, invite everybody, make disciples- do that, it's My priority and don't you forget it.

Bishop Comensoli: "Today we see God's great Name profaned especially in the atrocities and conflicts that are going on between believers in the one true God (Christians, Jews, Muslims) in parts of the middle East and Africa. God wants to make His Name great even among all of this conflict. So how do I, as a believer in the one true God, proclaim His great Name in the context of all these atrocities?

 'Which you have profaned among them', this means that we, too, are contributors to the problem. We are all sinners – in smaller ways than those atrocities displayed in the newspapers. How can we make the glory of God's name known in our own circumstances? How will God do this? He will gather us together, and bring us home. Our parishes are a family, a home. Think first about how you are witnessing to God in the home, the domestic church. Start there, in your parish, with the person sleeping next to you, or near you, with whom you take your meals. It is our great privilege to proclaim the glory of God in our home and household, in our parish and in our community.

 'I will give you a fresh heart, a heart of flesh, with a new spirit'. Even though we have failed, we are invited to come home, in order to be given a new heart. We will find God in our normal circumstances – not outside them – in the good and the bad, in the joys and the struggles of everyday life. God comes to home of our heart that we may have a new heart and a new spirit in Him."

The motto of St Pius X, 'To restore all things in Christ', was also exceedingly apt for us.

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In the next blog-post will be about the workshop on Disability and Inclusion.  

Some of the workshops have been made available as podcasts via www.xt3.com

To access them visit http://www.xt3.com/library/view.php?id=17454  

Before we get to the rest of Fr Michael White's and Tom Corcoran's keynote speech, it is important that I pass on to you what Bishop Peter Ingham said as part of his preamble to Morning Prayer – and which made such an impact that it was repeated by many other speakers and presenters at the conference.

It went like this: Bishop Ingham said, 'That if Jesus were with us today, I think the message He would give us is this, 'Tweet others as you would like to be Tweeted'.

Fr Michael and Tom's quest to learn from healthy churches began at Saddleback, California. This was just prior to Rick Warren, the pastor of that mega church publishing 'The Purpose Driven Life' which quickly rose to the top of the Christian best seller list and stayed there. (Ed. It is a good book, but it does contain a few ignorant digs at liturgically based churches, so if you read it do so with discernment.)

Not surprisingly Fr Michael and Tom were concerned at the reception they might receive at such a place if they were outed as Catholics. When they arrived the first building they came to was a big one, but it wasn't the church, it was the nursery. Eventually they found the church, and were very surprised to see how very plain it was on the inside, think Walmart with chairs. There was nothing fancy here at all. But the people, there was something different about them. They were SO friendly, and SO happy. And they were SO happy to see me. Anxious to find out whether this kind of welcome was the same for everyone, Fr Michael ducked out a side door, and came in through the front door, and received the same kind of enthusiastic greeting. The experience begged the question, 'What are they so happy about?'

Following this, Fr Michael and Tom visited and studied several other mega-churches and went well outside their comfort zones. 'Growth is always on the outside of our comfort zone'.

From these studies they learned three big (huge) lessons:

1. Focus must shift from the churched to the unchurched
   
   
2. Prioritise the weekend experience, 'It's about the weekend, stupid!'
   
   
3. Move the churched people to action
   
   

Change came at The Nativity parish when our focus came off those in the pews and on to those not there.

The non-attendees are your growth market. So who are they?

We didn't actually know, nor did we know how to reach them.

So we worked on a description, and called him Timonium Tim.

Tim is a great guy. He grew up Catholic, but stopped going to church soon after Confirmation. Everything he thinks he knows about Catholicism is a muddled mess. He has a stressful life. He has a long commute to work, and has three kids, who go to three different schools. Tim has a lot of debt and is living beyond his means. The financial stress is having an impact on his marriage. Tim has a crazy life, and on the weekends Tim wants some Tim-time, time to relax and do his own thing. Mostly that means going to the football game or playing golf. Tim does not ever consider going to church. If he ever thinks about church, the words boring, bad and irrelevant come to mind.

The old paradigm, 'Open the doors and they'll come' – doesn't work anymore at all.

You will never get as many people in your doors on weekdays than on weekends. Even with our Family Friendly Fridays we were getting 600 people, compared to the 1800 showing up for weekend Masses.

If someone has a bad weekend experience at church, they will assume

• That the rest of what you have to offer is equally bad
  
  
• That there is nothing there for them
  
  
• And this will lead to thinking , or confirm their thinking, that God is irrelevant in their lives
  
  

For someone like Tim, the Eucharist is not yet enough to attract him and keep him coming back.

THE most important pillars of your weekend experience are MUSIC, MESSAGE and MINISTERS.

Music has the power to transport a person on an emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey. God has bestowed on His people the gift of song. God is present whenever His people sing. Music leads us to the higher realm of things. Music can do what words alone cannot do. More than anything else music can change hearts and minds for the better.

Historically at The Nativity, the music was very bad. We had a choir Mass, a folk Mass and a quiet – no music Mass. The folk Mass was the most popular choice, but the music group struggled. Our choir was convinced that they had musical skills beyond where reality lay, and had a few prima donnas. And no one sang. No one. If you sang, we knew you were a visitor, and we would probably stare at you until you shut up. Most people were apathetic about their involvement in singing.

At one of our town hall style 'get feedback from the people' meetings there was a riot of complaint about the music.  

People were coming to church, and leaving angry because of the music.

What did we do? Nothing... Because we didn't want to offend people.

It is very difficult to change the music. To do so you must make the commitment and wear the consequences.

There are very good musicians right now in your pews, who won't step forward and haven't stepped forward because there are other musicians (usually of lesser quality) in those spots.

God gave us the courage and the grace to make changes in the area of music.

Message. Words are powerful.

This is where the relevance comes.

This is where you can give spiritual direction to hundreds of people at a time.

This is worth dedicating time and effort to.

People feel 'fed' if the homily is good.

This is especially so for Tim who is not at the stage of feeling fed by Holy Communion.

Ministers. They create a sense of destination for those who come.

We have a Host Team, consisting of greeters, ushers and people to help with parking. These people are about creating an irresistible environment for people to worship in. They help create the sense  that 'something exciting is going to happen here.'

We have a Children's Team. Parents need support. The family is where the foundation of faith is laid in children. What we want to happen is to see what Fr Michael saw once: a dad struggling to escort his son in the direction the dad wanted to go in, with the son telling him, 'Dad you just don't get it, I want to go back in the #@&! church'.

One thank you letter The Nativity received explains why this is so important.

'Thank you. We found it hard to go to church and to keep our children happy and occupied. Your kid's programmes were such that our children wanted to come back. Everyone was so helpful, friendly – and smiling. Now we know we can come to church and sit as a couple for an hour to be refreshed and renewed, and to get what we need to get us through another crazy week.'

Question to start asking yourself

• Is there something your parish is doing that is not making disciples?
  
  
• What can you do to improve the weekend experience at your parish?
  
  
• Who is your Timonium Tim or Sydney Sid?
  
  

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The next blog-post will feature the homily from Thursday's Mass at the Conference and a few other things.

To read the first chapter of Rebuilt for free, visit http://rebuiltparish.com/book/ and fill out the details in the black box on the right hand side of the screen.

Prior to the Keynote speech starting, there were brief welcome speeches from the organisers and from Bishop Ingham, followed by a shortened form of Morning Prayer (as normal, except for only one psalm and no Benedictus). To know you are praying to the One God in the midst of representatives of the whole of Australia, New Zealand and beyond, in union with several bishops and numerous clergy and religious is something very special, powerful and rare. For that experience alone the conference was worth it.

Fr Michael White and Tom Corcoran, the writers of 'Rebuilt' were then introduced. During that introduction they were called the Paul and Barnabas of our day. After acknowledging the barriers of language and distance between us and them, they then took turns in talking.

Tom graduated from Loyola University, Baltimore in 1996, and after a brief look at a career in politics was invited to do youth ministry work at the parish of The Nativity. Since he was getting ready to propose marriage to a young lady, the mundane need for a regular pay cheque swung the deal. She is now his wife and they have 7 children, 5 boys and 2 girls.

Fr Michael insisted that they are experts only in what works in their parish at this time in history. What works in their context may not work in your context.  

Fr Michael said that the most important question we have to ask ourselves is 'Why?'. It is an uncomfortable question and one we need to ask ourselves sooner and more frequently. Why am I here? Why am I doing this task? Why does the Church / parish exist? Purpose, meaning and value come from answering these Why questions.  

When we first arrived at our parish, it was obvious that it was a sleepy one. So we said to ourselves,' let's provide more programmes and services', 'that will get it going'. Unwittingly our actions fed a consumer mentality in our parishioners, and reinforced the notion that we retail representatives of the Church sent to serve them.

We put all kinds of programmes together, social, youth, concerts etc.

Much of this work was a waste of time.  

Just like in Lewis Carroll's story, we were experiencing what the Queen told Alice, 'You have to do all the running you can do to stay in the same place'. The more we provided, the more was demanded. The net effect of our efforts was that we were creating consumers who did not change, and were increasingly demanding consumers at that.  

The crunch came for Fr Michael after 5 years of running a very labour intensive Lenten programme. It was called Family Friendly Fridays, and had a free dinner, a talk, and other stuff. This programme was in addition to the already packed parish schedule. By the time the team came to the 6th and final Family Friendly Friday of the Lenten season, which seemed like it had gone on forever, they were at total burnout point – and this just prior to facing the marathon that is Holy Week. On this last night of the Family Friendly Fridays for that year a woman approached him to complain nastily about the free food. Yes, about the FREE food. Something snapped. He realised that he could no longer do this. This programme was wasting his time, and not changing the attendees at all. There was a distinct lack of purpose and impact.  

At last he asked himself the 'Why am I doing this?' question.  

To work without purpose leads to heartache, depression and despair.  

Jesus is clear about why the Church exists. Matthew 28:16-20. He assembles the apostles, and declares to them that the devil is no longer prince over this world because all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He endured the Passion to win back this authority. Now He declares to the apostles, 'now I pass it on to you'. 'Take it' not to run Bingo, not to run pot-luck dinners, not to run youth lock-ins, but to Go and Make Disciples of All Nations. This is why the Church exists.  

A parish is a geographical area. We are responsible not just for those in the pews, but for all those who dwell within the parish boundaries.  

What is a disciple? They are students learning to follow Jesus the Master – not perfect- but trying each day to be better disciples. A disciple is someone growing to love God, growing to love others and growing in making disciples. To be a disciple involves turning everything in our lives over to Him. To be a disciple means that you are trying to love God with all you have and trying to love your neighbour as yourself. Disciples naturally make disciples. If they are truly in a relationship with Jesus, then they bring others with them.  

Take the example of the woman at the well. John 4: 1-42 She went back to the community she had been ostracised from to say, 'Come and see a man who knows everything about me, but still loves me'. They came, they saw, and many became disciples.  

Take the example of the Gerasene demoniac. Mark 5: 1-20. Jesus freed him from a legion of demons, who then went into the pigs. When the former demoniac asks to go with Jesus, the reply of Jesus is unusual. Not 'Come, follow Me' but 'Stay here and tell the people what God has done for you'. The bloke must have done a good job, because the next time Jesus returns to that region of Galilee there is a large crowd waiting for Him to preach to them.  

We have to carefully ask ourselves in each of our Church activities, 'Are we making disciples or creating religious consumers?'.  

Things only began to change in our parish when we acknowledged that what we were doing wasn't working, when we began to seek God's guidance in prayer, and when we were humble enough to start seeking healthy churches to learn from – even if this meant learning from non-Catholic Christians.

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In the next blog-post the Keynote speech continues, reflecting upon the three big lessons Fr Michael and Tom learned from these other churches about making church matter.  

To read the first chapter of Rebuilt for free, visit http://rebuiltparish.com/book/ and fill out the details in the black box on the right hand side of the screen.

Over the past few days, from Thursday 21 August to Saturday 23 August, I had the privilege of attending the Proclaim 2014 Conference at Chatswood organised by the National Office for Evangelisation on behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. This was the second conference of this nature, the first one being held in 2012.

Since I am a copious note taker, and the content of the Conference was so good, I will dedicate the next series of blog posts to sharing both those notes and the thoughts they engendered. How long that will take is in God's hands, depending on Him to provide the time. Hopefully there should be some more content every two or three days until I run out. Due to my father's generosity (who also attended) I have some of the handouts for two of the workshops that were going on at the same time as the ones I attended, and will add that in when the time comes.

But before I forget the details, I want to record some of things I learned while talking to people as we waited for the concert hall to open, for the workshops to start, with those who manned some of the stalls, with those who walked to and from the conference venue with me, during the breaks for coffee and food, with those waiting in the queue for lunch, and the queues that sometimes formed in the loos. Those times of waiting were extraordinarily fruitful and I met a great number of inspiring people.

One bloke was manning the Emmanuel Community table, married with children, who grew up in the community. He spoke about how the local bishop had given them permission to function as a parish, to gather for Mass Sunday by Sunday, and to provide a full sacramental life and preparation for those sacraments – and how that was going very well.

One priest from the diocese of Bathurst was a missionary immigrant from that wonderful All Hallows seminary which during the 20th century sent out so many priests to our country. He was there out of concern for the welfare of his parish and had driven six hours to get to the conference. My own parish priest from childhood days was a graduate of All Hallows.

Sitting with Dad during the major sessions, he shared with me his vision for making parish meetings more effective. The 'let's get all our ideas on this topic out on the whiteboard' and then discuss them isn't working. Few people can come up with truly excellent ideas without a lot of thought and reflection. So why not provide a pre-prepared list of ideas to the meeting, that you can go through one by one seeking a yay or nay response, ensuring that you get to discuss the good stuff quicker? Of course, you'd ask for additions to the list on the day from those present at the meeting.

One of the priests manning Conventual Franciscan Friar's stall was named Fr Benedict, and he lived up to his well- chosen religious name by granting a blessing from the heart over a holy card of St Padre Pio which I desired for a parish friend facing a major operation on the feast day of St Padre Pio.

One woman had come all the way from Townsville, and is involved in RCIA and sacramental preparation in her parish. They now do RCIA all year round, welcoming inquirers as they come, and journeying with them until they are ready (however short or long a time that takes). Each year they would prepare about 50 school children for sacraments and about 20-30 indigenous youngsters in a separate programme. Possibly because they have a reverence for ancestors and elders, these indigenous youngsters respond wholeheartedly to the lives of the Saints and develop strong life-long bonds with the Saints they choose as confirmation patrons.

Another woman hailed from Surfers Paradise, where they have done a most interesting thing: changing the name of the Parish Pastoral Council to the Parish Mission Council. Thereby also changing the focus of the Council's activities  toward the vision of Pope Francis for our parishes.

Waitara parish decided to buy several copies of 'Rebuilt' for parishioners to read on a 'read and return' or 'read and keep for $5' basis. They are also experimenting with helping people take little steps out of their comfort zones by inviting them once in a while to sit somewhere different at Mass and see what happens.

The Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand, was at the conference for all three days. Most of the rest of the 24-strong contingent from NZ were from the North Island. When asked what he most wanted prayers for, he said not one thing but three things: vocations, evangelisation, and fiscal soundness for his diocese currently struggling with large debts. Please pray a Hail Mary for him, and for his diocese, that God may grant him the big miracle he seeks.

On the train I had a nice long chat with someone who works in the local diocesan development fund. These funds are set up as money managers in a diocese to harness the collective financial bargaining power of the whole diocese, providing a way for individuals and institutions to invest in church projects and for churches and schools to get loans at good rates of interest. The current challenge is that due to the greying of many religious orders lay people have been taking on management / board positions in Catholic institutions and thinking with secular minds when it comes to loans and investment – not knowing that there is the diocesan development fund option that will enable them to serve not only the institutions they are involved with but the wider mission of the Church as well.

Another interesting conversation was with a member of our diocesan Parish Support team. Teams like this know of so many resources that are available which most parishioners don't. Generally, as someone involved in a parish ministry if you can articulate clearly what you need, then the parish support team can help you.

Two priests younger than me had travelled to the conference from the highland regions of Papua New Guinea. There vocations seem to be steady, with annual ordinations of new candidates to the priesthood.

Don't underestimate how valuable having expats from other countries in your parish can be. What enormous courage it takes to pack up your whole family and move to a new country! They know a lot about 'moving out of your comfort zone' and have lots to teach us. One Irish expat lives in Canberra and has first-hand knowledge of conditions in the middle east and in south east Asia. One expat American is discerning how best to serve God though her Blue Mountains parish.

It was great to meet a young diocesan priest from the Philippines who is currently ministering in Lismore diocese. He was very aware of how he must be a missionary to all God's children, not just to other expats from his country.

Another lady encouraged me to think about the needs of those in our communities who have suffered strokes. They are unable to stand in queues for long periods and the balance required to eat while standing up with plate in one hand and fork in the other is just beyond them.

The Sisters of St Paul de Chartres was a religious order I wasn't familiar with, and who had a stall at the conference. I look forward to reading some of the material I collected about them and their founders. What I did learn is that like the Carthusians (St Bruno) they not to seek canonisation for members of their order. Since the canonisation process is a lengthy and costly one this means that they are more likely to keep focus on the mission God has given them. Obedience gets rewarded, because at least 3 of the 124 Korean martyrs beatified this month by Pope Francis were members of their order, and I guess that process would have been prepared at a national level.

Often I asked attendees where they had come from and what motivated them to make the journey. Some came from Hobart, Perth, Toowoomba, Bateman's Bay, Ballarat, Canberra, Queanbeyan, Maitland/Newcastle. Many were  sponsored by their parish or diocese (as either conscripts or volunteers), many came because they had read the Rebuilt book, some because they came 2 years ago, some because knew something has to be done at parish level and wanted to know what could be done.

While travelling on the rails, I was surprised to see so many people are watching video (movies, podcasts, YouTube), more than were flicking through texts and Facebook. Now video clips are not my cup of tea, and if I find one on a website or Facebook post I usually skip over it, but obviously to reach those not in the pews using online video content has to be part of any evangelisation strategy.

At least two people not attending the conference asked  'What's going on?' questions. All these people moving around with huge white carry bags and name tag pouches caused comment. One was a young man of the Maronite tradition who travels from somewhere like Punchbowl to Chatswood each day for work. Please pray that God provides him a good job closer to home.

Another delight was meeting a young priest from Parramatta diocese, who has resolved to emulate Fr Tom Forrest by bringing mentions of the Mother of Jesus into his preaching.

One of the Benedictine nuns from Jamberoo, who had a stall with their handmade candles, told me how pleased she had been that some of the general public had come in to look at the stalls and ask questions.  

For Proclaim 2016 I hope the organisers set up 2 or 3 demountable reconciliation alcoves beside the grassed area against the wall. Quiet areas for such ministry were hard to find amidst all the wonderful conversations going on. In such a location generous priests could be available not only to conference attendees but also to the general public who might not have the courage to step into a church to go to confession but might have enough in such a marketplace setting.

As part of preparing for this month's study group, I needed to find something devotional for the closing prayers. Choosing for previous months had been easy and obvious, but not for August. So I asked for guidance, and the good Lord led me to the private revelations He had made to Berthe Petit just on a hundred years ago.

To find out more about her and how her spiritual experiences related to WW1, visit http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/2005/07/the-sorrowful-and-immaculate-heart-of-mary-the-revelations-of-berthe-petit/

Through Berthe Petit it was made known that Jesus wanted His mother to be honoured under the title Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in due course the following short but powerful prayer was indulgenced by the Church:

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us who have recourse to you.

What is particularly interesting is the promise attached to it, 'This devotion to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of My Mother will restore faith and hope to broken hearts and ruined families; it will help to repair the destruction; it will sweeten the sorrow.'

I know plenty of families where members are estranged from each other, and what heartache such estrangement causes. Then there are the families suffering the long term effects of separation and divorce, and the long term effects of abortion. I am sure that you know plenty of families in these situations, too. So let us take hold of this heavenly remedy which has been given to us, and use this little prayer whenever you are reminded of your own family's sorrow or are told of the sorrows of another family.

If you'd like to take hold of this further, the PDF below has some prayers and an act of consecration to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary composed by Berthe Petit.

Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, we entrust ourselves, our families and our parishes to your intercession.