The principal celebrant for this Mass at Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood, was Bishop Nicholas Hudson, auxiliary bishop of Westminster.
 
The readings were taken from Friday Week 22 Ordinary Time Year II
 
The first Friday of September and the first Friday of March are celebrated as Ember Days, a time to reflect upon creation, and the change of seasons, with penitential overtones.
 
Opening hymn: All Creatures of our God and King
 
Bishop Hudson : Ember Days mark the transition from one season to the next. They remind us that God is making all of His creation new. Let us ask Him to renew our hearts.
​
The first reading was from 1 Corinthians 4: 1-5, a passage where we are reminded that we are Christ's servants, His stewards, entrusted with the mysteries of God. The Lord alone is my judge. When He comes to judge, any praise that is deserved will be given by God.
 
The responsorial psalm was part of Psalm 36(37), which includes 'If you trust in the Lord and do good, you will live in the land and be secure. If you delight in the Lord, He will grant your heart's desire.' with the sung response 'The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.'
 
The Gospel reading was from Luke 5: 33-39 about Jesus being questioned why John's disciples fast and pray and His disciples do not. When the bridegroom is taken away, then they will fast. If a new piece of cloth is used to mend an old piece of cloth, both get ruined. New wine does not go into old wineskins, because both will be lost.
 
Bishop Hudson
Jesus is preparing His friends for His departure. Can you imagine St Gabriel whispering to Jesus, 'Lord, it that it? Or do You have a contingency plan?' And Jesus replying, 'These motley apostles – they are My plan.' With Jesus the disciples were forever praying the psalms, and this one speaks of trust. 'If you trust in the Lord He will grant your heart's desire. Trust in Him and He will act.' St Paul reminds his readers that they are Christ's servants. It is expected that we be found worthy of this trust. Pope Francis, he challenges us, 'Don't close your heart to the surprise of the Holy Spirit.' We invite the Holy Spirit to renew our way of being church, to help us find new ways to bring others to Christ. Other ways are time honoured, and truly precious in the eyes of the Lord. They may not need changing, but they may need developing. Let it be vivified and magnified by the Holy Spirit. Patching up will NOT do. Half-hearted will not do. Being open to Jesus means that some of the things we do need a complete overhaul. Fr James Mallon points out in his book that 80% of our people we only ever see at weekend Mass, and we spend 20% of the week planning for that moment. What a difference it would make if we spent closer to 80%! If only we had the time to prepare them properly, how good our Eucharists could be. There is a sad trend in theology students today, they want the Church but not the Mass. The Eucharist makes the Church. We are distressed at so many not returning to the Sacraments. These days together are for thinking big, in order to help people meet Christ more readily in our parishes. See. Judge. Act. Reflect. Plan.  Be open to new things should your assessments suggest it.  Imagine Him looking at St Gabriel, 'There is no contingency plan. They are My plan. I trust them. I trust them to rebuild my church.' 'As He trusts us, so we need to trust in Him.

Offertory Hymn: Song of Cosmic Praise (Sing a new song, sing a new song and wait upon the promise of the Lord…)
 
Communion Hymns: 1.Bread of Life :2. Ubi Caritas (Taize)
 
Recessional Hymn: Jesus Christ You are my life.
 
……………………………………………………………………..
My response
 
Bishop Nicholas Hudson has almost no digital footprint, so I had no idea what to expect. If you consider this homily an 'appetizer' then his keynote talk on Saturday should be very impressive.

The Hymn, 'Jesus Christ, You are my life' was very popular during World Youth Day Krakow, and I was so looking forward to seeing the words on screen for all the parts that get mumbled. Would you believe that the hymn projector decided to conk out just as the opening chorus got underway? Bitterly disappointed I was!
Here is the sheet music: (Sadly I didn't find anything with the verses translated into English).
http://www.k-l-j.de/download/pdf/lieder/wjt/jesus_christ_you_are_my_life.pdf
And a selection of YouTube clips of various groups and choirs singing it:
http://www.sixmaddens.org/?p=5758

Of all the input that happened during the Proclaim Conference, only a few bits have instant recall for me: many of the one liners from the Discerning Charisms workshop on Thursday and this image of Jesus looking at both the motley crew of Apostles on Ascension Day and the motley crew gathered at Chatswood and saying, 'They are My Plan. There is no contingency plan.'

His Plan is to use ordinary folk like you and me. Just because His means are simple and ordinary doesn't make them ineffective. Here are two local stories to underline this. The first is a parishioner being friendly to those who passed by as she gardened. That opened the way for conversations, and conversations with one gent enabled him to be reconciled with Jesus through the sacraments prior to his death. Another parishioner has been to hell and back with health issues over the past few years. But her friends have been taking notice at how well she has coped, and are being inspired to ask her about the things of God and how to return to church. Powerful stuff, one person at a time mostly, but gentle and effective nonetheless.

'Patching up will not do. Half-hearted will not do.' Both are ways of doing similar things to the things we have always done – and expecting better results. 'Similar' is far too close to 'same' for any hope of better results. In the world of nature baby animals grow slowly until they go through the massive changes that transform them into adult animals capable of reproducing new baby animals. Is this what God is inviting us to do in our parishes?
​
Let us be open to the surprises He places in our paths, and ready to give it our best shot at the beginning. No more feeble pilot attempts, thinking about maybe backing something if a few people put in the hard yards and show that it is viable first. If we are talking about transformation of this magnitude, then it has to be done by the whole parish and whole parish leadership from the get-go. A caterpillar doesn't change into a butterfly one wing and thorax at a time. All of it changes at the same time.
……………………………………………………………………
 
In the next issue will be notes from the workshop on renewing sacramental preparation.

P.S. Sophy Morley of Sale, VIC, tells me that the music with English texts for "Jesus Christ You Are My Life" can be found in Catholic Worship Book 2 available from Morning Star Publishing.

Let's dream for a minute about what a diocese would look like if each of its priests was in a place of ministry that played to their strengths. Less burnout. More joy. More effectiveness.
 
This is possible.

It no longer has to be a 'seat of the pants, gut feel, let's hope the Holy Spirit is inspiring our choices' set of decisions. It will still require prayer, and pondering, and skill, but the chances of getting the right match of priest to place of ministry are dramatically higher with the following tools.
 
…However you will still have to take into account musical and artistic ability, relevant hobbies, and attempt to match priests to socio-economic areas that they can relate to.
 
First Tool: Clifton StrengthsFinder – Catholic Edition. If you know the top 5 signature themes of your priests you will make better decisions. Think of them as transferable skill sets. 
 
Second Tool: Strengths based Leadership. The 34 possible signature themes can be split into 4 domains, Executing, Influencing, Relationship building and Strategic thinking. If all 4 areas are covered by a leadership team, then the place is going to hum. If one or more domain area is missing, the blind-spot areas will reduce effectiveness and cause troubles. For example, if you have two priests in a parish and neither of them has people skills (relationship building skills) attendance at Sunday Mass will fall and complaints to the bishop will increase.
 
Third Tool: Knowing how parish size impacts on the gifts the pastor in leadership needs to be effective. This gem was highly recommended by Fr Mallon in Divine Renovation. It is 14.5 pages long, but its implications are huge. A small parish will thrive with a pastor in leadership who is high in relationship building skills. A medium size parish needs a pastor in leadership with administration skills, who can do a bit of everything domain-wise. A large church needs a pastor in leadership with a drive for vision and mission, who will focus on preaching and strategy and do very little individual pastoral ministry. A very large church requires more of the same, with an emphasis on articulating vision.
 
This will make sense if we look at some mythical examples.

I grabbed a random number generator and found 5 numbers between 1 and 34, and then matched the numbers to the 34 signature themes in alphabetical order. This produced mythical priests A, B, C and D.
 
Mythical Priest A:
Harmony/R, Analytical/S, Empathy/R, Individualization/R, Developer/R
That's 4 themes in Relationship building. If this priest had to take charge of a parish, for both to thrive it would need to be a small one.
Empathy is the number one skill needed to be effective in pastoral care.
​Empathy plus Harmony means you would shine in hospital based pastoral care.
But this person has even more than that. He'd be absolutely in his element in prison ministry, and ministering to those with addictions or dealing with domestic abuse victims.
If you trained him up to spot the 34 themes, he would be brilliant at getting parishioners into the ministries that God made them for.
 
Mythical Priest B:
Belief/E, Responsibility/E, Strategic/S, Communication/I, Command/I
That's no people skills, but a powerful leader who could take on a large complex parish.
Sadly without the people skills he's not likely to ever get a pointy hat.
He would be a very good preacher. However dissuading him from erroneous beliefs would not be easy, so it would be important to give him good formation from people he can respect.
Belief, Command and Strategic are the building blocks for a good exorcist, so it would be worthwhile sending him to exorcist school in Rome to test whether he is called to that ministry.

Putting Priest A together with Priest B as an assistant would cover all 4 domains, and they could bond over analysis and strategy. They could make a very effective team, as long as it was explained to both of them that they were chosen to complement each other, and how they could best connect with each other.
 
Mythical Priest C:
Discipline/E, Connectedness/R, Learner/S, Communication/I, Maximiser/I
If this person wasn't a priest he would have the raw material to be a best-selling author.
Having a foot in all 4 domains he could lead a medium parish.
However he would shine as a faculty member of a seminary, and could write a book a year. The rhythm of seminary life would suit him, students would enjoy listening to him, he'd be the one to keep the Old Boys union going and maintain contact with past students, he'd be very good at social media, and his desire to learn would fuel the next book while the maximiser will ensure it will be full of excellence.
He has the raw material to become the next Fr James Martin SJ.
 
Mythical Priest D:
Includer/R, Maximiser/I, Analytical/S, Activator/I, Restorative/E
Having a foot in all 4 domains, he could lead a medium parish too.
But if you really wanted him to shine, you would send him into broken parishes to get them on their feet again. He'd analyze the root causes, delight in the hard work needed to make the healing happen, get parishioners involved in the process, get started quickly and enthuse people to aim for excellence and show how possible it was to achieve. It is possible that he would be frustrated in any assistant priest role, because he needs to make things happen
 
Do you agree that if these priests were given places of ministry like these, that the mythical diocese they belong to would be a couple of steps down the road from maintenance to mission?
 
Conversely, can you imagine the disaster if you sent mythical priest B as parish priest of a small parish?

​For a print friendly version....

The second keynote address of the day was given by Daniel Ang, the Director of the Office of Evangelisation for the diocese of Broken Bay. You can find more of his thoughts on his blog, 'The Time of the Church', and via Twitter, and can learn more about his background on LinkedIn.

The keynote address was titled, 'The Evangelising Parish in the Australian Church: Strategies for Prophetic Witness'.

The full address is available on his blog: https://timeofthechurch.com/tag/proclaim/. With footnotes, and 12 point Calibri font, and without pictures it runs to 11 A4 pages.

(My notes will not be that extensive, and hopefully will act as a 'short version' that might encourage people to read the long version.)

Good morning. I dedicate this keynote to my late sister-in-law. At the age of 20 I was baptised and confirmed, having come from a Buddhist-Taoist heritage. To the small community that witnessed, nurtured and supported my conversion I will be forever very grateful. To others the day of my entry into the Catholic Church that November may have seemed ordinary, but it was a vital spiritual breakthrough for me. In my life, and in the lives of others, the grace of Christ continues to be powerful, and the parish remains the privileged location for it to happen.

Our parishes face many challenges: among them declining Mass attendance, increasing age profiles, the impact of the Royal Commission, decreasing religious literacy, increasing bureaucracy, and the need for structural change. History and cultural momentum will no longer carry us forward, as it did in times past.

There is a need for greater openness and responsiveness for what God wants to do in our parishes. While the call and the desire for renewal are present, they have to battle against the weight of church culture and maintenance of the status quo. Against change we have lots of pastoral antibodies. Taking the first step requires a conversion of the whole parish community.

For this to happen we need to reclaim the 'why', the rationale, of our parishes. We want that 'why' to be Jesus, and not entry in to Catholic schools. Additionally we must communicate the 'why' and the vision for how to achieve it.

Matthew 28:19 is our great commission:
Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.

We do lots of sacraments and catechesis, but making disciples is our weakness.

Having a vision for our parishes supplies the energy to get the goals done. While we do not have a road map or certainty for our future, we do have a story of the kind of disciples and community we want to be. Such a vision becomes the heart-beat and pulse of a parish-engine of change. What is the alternative? Choosing to stand in the silence of unquestioned routine, and accepting the consequential pace of survival rather than the pace of growth.

Aim for a vision that is 10 times better than what you have now, not just 10% better. The vision of the Gospel is extravagant.

Even the early part of Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium begins with a grand dream looking out and not down:

27. I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with Himself. As John Paul II once said to the Bishops of Oceania: “All renewal in the Church must have mission as its goal if it is not to fall prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion”.

We need a vision for parish life, lest those in the pews ask, 'Are we going anywhere?' The aim is to move from engaging people to build up the church to become a church that builds up people. If we are in maintenance mode then we are continually looking for people to plug up the gaps, to keep the cogs of the wheels turning. It has been said that if you build the church you rarely get disciples, but if you build disciples you get the church. When we stop focusing on seating capacity alone and start focusing on sending capacity as well then we will be on the way to mission mode.

Any vision needs strategy to achieve it. Both vision AND strategy are needed. Putting on more programs is not always the better thing to do. When there is a lot of rivalry for resources, silos of parish ministry develop. While we don't want the same routine, we don't need meaningless additions to a busy parish schedule either.

Four foundational principles of an Evangelising Parish:
Proclaiming Christ
Growing Personal Discipleship
Discipleship in the midst of the Church
Missionary Orientation

1. Proclaiming Christ
The heart of our Gospel is Jesus, and proclaiming the Good News about Him – especially the basic truths summed up in the kerygma.

What is the kerygma? Pope John Paul II gave this answer:

The subject of proclamation is Christ who was crucified, died, and is risen: through Him is accomplished our full and authentic liberation from evil, sin and death; through Him God bestows "new life" that is divine and eternal. This is the "Good News" which changes man and his history, and which all peoples have a right to hear. Redemptoris Missio 44c

Pope Paul VI challenged us in Evangelii Nuntiandi 22:

Nevertheless this always remains insufficient, because even the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it is not explained, justified - what Peter called always having "your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have" - and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus. The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed. The history of the Church, from the discourse of Peter on the morning of Pentecost onwards, has been intermingled and identified with the history of this proclamation. At every new phase of human history, the Church, constantly gripped by the desire to evangelize, has but one preoccupation: whom to send to proclaim the mystery of Jesus? In what way is this mystery to be proclaimed? How can one ensure that it will resound and reach all those who should hear it? This proclamation - kerygma, preaching or catechesis - occupies such an important place in evangelisation that it has often become synonymous with it; and yet it is only one aspect of evangelisation.

Pope Francis made it even easier to grasp in Evangelii Gaudium 164

In catechesis too, we have rediscovered the fundamental role of the first announcement or kerygma, which needs to be the centre of all evangelizing activity and all efforts at Church renewal. The kerygma is Trinitarian. The fire of the Spirit is given in the form of tongues and leads us to believe in Jesus Christ who, by His death and resurrection, reveals and communicates to us the Father’s infinite mercy. On the lips of the catechist the first proclamation must ring out over and over: “Jesus Christ loves you; He gave His life to save you; and now He is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.” This first proclamation is called “first” not because it exists at the beginning and can then be forgotten or replaced by other more important things. It is first in a qualitative sense because it is the principal proclamation, the one which we must hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment. For this reason too, “the priest – like every other member of the Church – ought to grow in awareness that he himself is continually in need of being evangelized”.

We never graduate from hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our task is to build up a parish culture where our lives are swept up into His, and not just into our parish story where Jesus is mentioned occasionally. Those who walk through the doors of our churches expect us to proclaim Jesus, each and every time, even if they don't yet know whether they want to respond to Him or not.

2. Cultivating Personal Discipleship
To follow or not to follow Jesus as His disciple is a personal choice that no one else can make for you. The essence of evangelisation is one person telling another person how the encounter he or she had with Jesus changed them. Personal witness/testimony and exchange/dialogue are needed for conversion to be made possible. Programs do not make disciples. Disciples make disciples.

The 2011 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) reported that 60% of those who attend Mass in Australia had either some or no spiritual growth through their experience of parish life. The other three possible responses were much growth a) mainly through this congregation b) mainly through other groups or congregations c) mainly though own private activity.

Everyone is at a different stage of discipleship commitment. We need to build bridges for each differing commitment group to find what they need to advance to the next stage of discipleship commitment.

When people want to stay healthy, they seek out a personal coach. When people want to stay spiritually healthy they seek out a spiritual director.

Recognise that at every stage - even in those who have never heard of God - He is already present in his or her life and has been active in it. There is no life to which Jesus is alien or not present.

In proclaiming Christ to non-Christians, the missionary is convinced that, through the working of the Spirit, there already exists in individuals and peoples an expectation, even if an unconscious one, of knowing the truth about God, about man, and about how we are to be set free from sin and death. The missionary's enthusiasm in proclaiming Christ comes from the conviction that he is responding to that expectation, and so he does not become discouraged or cease his witness even when he is called to manifest his faith in an environment that is hostile or indifferent. He knows that the Spirit of the Father is speaking through him (cf. Mt 10:17-20; Lk 12:11-12) and he can say with the apostles: "We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit" (Acts 5:32). He knows that he is not proclaiming a human truth, but the "word of God," which has an intrinsic and mysterious power of its own (cf. Rom 1:16). Redemptoris Missio 45c

Both the preaching of the kerygma and personal conversion are required to sustain and grow a missionary culture.

Faith is born of preaching, and every ecclesial community draws its origin and life from the personal response of each believer to that preaching. Just as the whole economy of salvation has its centre in Christ, so too all missionary activity is directed to the proclamation of His mystery. Redemptoris Missio 44b

Parishes do not grow when the members of the parishes are not growing. Our personal spiritual growth has an impact on church growth.

3. Discipleship in the midst of the Church
Evangelising parishes create disciples in the midst of the church. A parish gives its members more possibilities for the life of faith, vocation and holiness than they could discover as 'lone ranger Christians'.

The growing cultural diversity of our parishes is a source of richer and deeper faith. Remember the diverse peoples present at Pentecost and see in that diversity the choice and preference of the Holy Spirit.

Small groups are a vital instrument of ecclesial support and differentiated unity. Most of us came to an active apostolic faith through small groups. That experience of small group discipleship and learning is what we need to offer others. Flowing from the Eucharist we share is the capacity for interrelationship, trust, unity and collegiality that makes small groups successful.

In 2020 a special opportunity for collegiality will be offered to us through the Plenary Council (National Synod), with Australian clergy and laity 'on the road together' discovering the collective vision, gifts and charisms we have, discerning how God is calling us to use them, and working out how to respond to that call. It will be a time to take hold of the faith with which Jesus Christ has already endowed the Church.

An Australian parish, and an Australian Church for that matter, that is not discerning God's call cannot hope to grow because it cannot see what God has already given and deeply invites.

4. Missionary Orientation
A parish exists for the sake of the world, not for its own sake. Our parishes are called to be a hospital or wellspring for those who are wounded and for those who thirst.

Joseph Komonchak explains:
To enter the Church is not to leave the world, but to be in the world differently, so that the world itself is different because there are individuals and communities living their lives because of, in, and for the sake of Jesus Christ.

We have to believe that there is a harvest of souls that we have been prepared by God to reach. When we believe this our parishes will move into mission mode and away from maintenance mode.

Conclusion
The four foundational principles of an evangelising parish are proclaiming Jesus, individually and collectively deepening our personal response to Him, growing in and with the church, and having a missionary orientation.

All four have to work together. Any missing principle makes us unfruitful.

We have yet to see what God can do for us, with us and through us, in our local parish - if we place our hope and trust in Him.
………………………………………………………………
My response

Daniel Ang's full keynote speech has far more detail and nuance than these notes of mine. With such densely packed ideas in it, being able to read it at your own pace and unpack the implications is a worthwhile exercise.

We have to talk more about Jesus. Compared to how much we talk about our priests, diocesan politics, sick and dying friends, our children and various parish ministries, we don't do a lot of talking about Jesus at all. Unlike other churches we don't have regular opportunities to hear testimonies of how God has worked in the lives of people like us. Generally you have to go to a weekend retreat or prayer and praise rally to hear some, unless you are involved with the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), an Alpha program or a Life in the Spirit seminar. We need something regular that is easy for people in the pews to access, for example testimonies in the half hour prior to vigil Mass and Sunday evening Mass – even if it is only once a month.

Likewise it is so easy in our homilies to just retell the Gospel story, or to get so caught up in an anecdote to help people grasp a truth in the Gospel story that we fail to make an effective logical link and bring the point home. How often have you heard a homilist approach a Gospel passage from the point of view of What did Jesus do? What else could He have done instead? Why did He choose to do that? What does this teach us about Jesus? This is the kind of stuff we need more of.

'And who is Jesus for you?' That's a question I was asked either during the conference or soon after it. I don't have a good answer for that, and yet I know that I should. While I can delve into memory and drag up a theoretically correct response, that's not what my conflicted heart would say. Sometimes it takes a long time for the heart and soul to catch up to what the mind knows to be true. Yet unless I can come up with an authentic answer to this question, my ability to evangelise is going to be severely limited.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the 'me and Jesus' part of our spiritual life that we forget that there is a greater purpose. If we knew just how many people were counting on our deeper conversion to Jesus, so that they could come into relationship with Him, maybe we would get serious about daily prayer; daily reading of scripture; joining a small group for prayer, sharing of faith and study; getting to the sacrament of Penance on a regular basis, and regularly volunteering time in service to others. Any spiritual growth in our parish has to start with us, otherwise it won't happen.

Venerable Mary Potter wrote this in 'Devotion for the Dying', Chapter 2, page 35:

We know that to all who use one grace well, another is given, and another upon that, and so on; that thus a chain, as it were, of graces is formed, one linked to the other, reaching to eternity, and that one grace lost is a chain of graces lost.

Small groups are where faith is shared and grows, and where people receive the personal pastoral care they need (a listening ear, prayer for urgent needs, practical help and encouragement).

Getting people to join small groups, now that's the hard part. Discussion/study groups during Lent are a good way to start, because people tend to be open to doing 'a bit extra' during Lent that they are not open to during the rest of the year. Having pre-prepared options for those Lenten Groups to continue with once Lent is over is crucial, otherwise the momentum is lost. It takes at least 3 small group meetings for people to get comfortable with each other enough to start opening up about what matters to them.

In our time there is a multiplicity of small group options available, for example Marriage Encounter, Couples for Christ, Teams of Our Lady, Cursillo, Legion of Mary, Antioch, Alpha, St Vincent de Paul Society…and many more. The more groups the merrier in each parish, because each group can reach people that the other groups can't.

I like what St Benedict's parish in Halifax is doing, (of Divine Renovation fame), when at the beginning of Sunday Mass people are encouraged to connect briefly with another person and to promise to pray for each other during that Mass. It is a very good gentle ice-breaker method of readying hearts for small groups, and getting people comfortable enough with each other over time so that if one of the people you've prayer-partnered with 2 or 3 times over several months invites you to a small group the chances of a 'yes' are very good.

One theme that has been very strong through Proclaim 2016 and everything else I've read over the last 12 months is the need for a paradigm shift from calling for volunteers to plug ministry holes to helping people discover the gifts and talents God has given them and finding ways to help them use those gifts and talents in His service. Even one extra person using his or her strengths in a ministry role that needs those strengths can make a world of difference. When someone is working in their strengths, and thus in a way that the anointing of the Holy Spirit can come upon them, wonderful things happen that bring people closer to Jesus. St Benedict's, Halifax, the Archdiocese of Seattle and other places are finding Clifton StrengthsFinder a useful tool in bringing about this paradigm shift.

Am I excited about the possibilities that the Australian Plenary Council (National Synod) of 2020 has? Yes! But at the same time I still carry many disappointments from the diocesan synod that happened 2010-2012 and from which I haven't seen any fruit. There may have been some, but it hasn't made any difference to my life largely because even though I wanted to be engaged in the process, it was limited (for me) to a single survey list of questions. I had far more engagement with the Synod on the Family through Archbishop Coleridge's excellent blog, and the Twitter reports. With social media having progressed in the interim, there is hope that those who don't get to the face to face components of the Plenary Council can still be engaged in it.
………………………………………………………………………
Some video and audio from the keynote speeches and workshops at Proclaim 2016 are now online. Firstly at http://www.proclaimconference.com.au/resources , and with video at http://www.xt3.com/proclaim2016/ , and audio at http://www.xt3.com/library/view.php?id=20738&categoryId=26 .
……………………………………………………………………
 
In the next issue will be notes from the homily from the second Mass of the conference with Bishop Nicholas Hudson, auxiliary bishop f Westminster presiding