Blog Archives

Elder Technology

27/12/2014

Thoughts and ideas have been coming to me, and at the present time I do not see the way clear to bring them into being. Maybe you can, if I tell you about them.

The first one, for want of a better name, I have dubbed 'elder technology'. The rest of them will be in later blog-posts.

This is the situation:

My parish has the most extraordinary cohort of parishioners well into their retirement years in their late 70s, 80s and 90s. They are faithful, they are holy, they are truly inspirational, and they all fret about the spiritual health of their descendants and pray for them. However the vast majority of them are not connected to any form of social media, and because of this they are feeling disconnected to the lives of their children and especially their grandchildren who are using social media.

I bet that your parish is not dissimilar to mine.

Now who are the most likely people to use social media for what I call 'soft evangelisation' – 'liking' or 'sharing' an image, article or video-clip that reminds people of the goodness of God? The holy grandparent or holy great grandparent, of course! But only if they learn how to use social media.

Obviously the families of these elder parishioners are frustrated silly that they can't send them a text or post a family picture that they will get to see. So many of them have thought, 'Aha I'll get them a smart phone / iPad for Christmas!'

So holy granny and wise grandpa open these Christmas gifts and say, 'Thank you, that's very nice dear' and promptly put them away in a cupboard because the family lives too far away to help them learn how to use these devices.

Wouldn't it be wonderful – as a parish - if each January we could set aside some time for our holy elder folk to meet with our tech-savvy younger folk and learn how to use these devices? In particular I am thinking about the youngsters who will be the right age to attend the next World Youth Day.

What a great way for our holy elder folk to get to know our young people and vice versa. Because they are part of the same parish, the young people are not far away if something goes wrong with the technology. And let's face it, it is so easy to press the wrong button and get ourselves in a technological mess.

Even better if after each learning session it is expected that the holy elder will pray out loud for the needs of the young person, and the young person will pray out loud for the needs of the holy elder – even if it is only a sentence long.

Can you see that this would be a win-win solution? The different generations would get to know each other better and appreciate each other more. Our holy elder folk can start sending gentle reminders of God through social media to family and friends. And when it comes time for our young people to ask for financial help to get them off to World Youth Day, the response of the holy elder folk will be extraordinary.

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First Line Welcomers

18/12/2014

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The welcomers at our church are wonderful halfway down the passageway to the gathering area, handing out the parish bulletins and greeting people, and they are certainly needed there and they do a great job.

But following on from the Proclaim 2014 Conference I decided to have a look at the entry to our church from the perspective of a newcomer.

Determining how to get into the church isn't easy, and the average newcomer needs someone outside the main doors of the church so that they don’t make gooses of themselves trying to get through the funerary doors.

It is also a rather barren and stark place between the main big metal doors and where the welcomers are, and it would take quite a bit of courage for a newcomer to go that distance.

Other parish churches will be constructed differently, of course, but the place where the final decision is made by a newcomer to cross the threshold or not is made outside and not inside.

Talking to friends who are converts and those who have returned to faith after a lengthy absence, the most essential thing is a friendly smile, and as soon as possible. People need to be reassured that if they have visible tattoos they will still be welcome and if they have lived complicated and messy moral lives that they will still be welcome, too. And if they have brought children with them, to make their going back to church justifiable, then they need to know that their children are welcome as well.

That's why I think it is time that we had a first line of welcomers on the outside of the church, in addition to the wonderful welcomers inside. The authors of 'Rebuilt' say that you need at least two positive experiences on your way into church for the heart to begin to open to what God wants to do and say to you in the Mass.

I have spent quite a lot of time in the piety stall prior to Saturday evening Masses, and due to its location just outside the main doors of the church it often performs a welcoming function in addition to selling religious items. So I have seen plenty of people arrive at the church and can recognise the regulars enough to be able to start to recognise the non-regulars. That's something that only comes with experience – but it is a valuable thing to be able to say, 'Hi, I haven't seen you for a few weeks, have you been OK?'

Because of the piety stall training I know that the number one question is ‘Where are the toilets?’ With more than one first line welcomer, instead of trying to describe in words how to get there, one of the first line welcomers could escort them there and then come back to the outside of the church – hopefully having engaged in conversation with the person seeking the toilets.

The number two question is ‘Can you change my $20 or $50 so I have smaller stuff to put on the plate?’. The piety stall answer is no, because we run a minimum float, but if you talk nicely to one of the wardens before Mass they might be able to help you with that at the collection time. With a first line welcomer, instead of trying to describe the appearance of one or other of the other wardens, they could be taken directly to have a chat with them. Another help would be having mobile phones with photographs of the wardens, sacristans, priests, acolytes/senior servers etc to be able to show people, 'Look for this person'.

With a bit of co-ordination, if someone arrives who isn’t an overly familiar face and has mobility issues, a first line welcomer could take them to both the wardens and the senior servers, and then show them where to sit so that at communion time Holy Communion could be brought to them.

Sometimes the question is, ‘Where is the Reconciliation Room? , again someone escorted by a first line welcomer to that place is going to find it easier than listening to my description of how to get there.

With new RCIC families, (Rite of Christian Initiation for Children) whenever they start up again, a first line welcomer could show them where the room they will be meeting is (because it isn't readily visible) and could also direct them to where the wonderful couple conducting the programme are sitting / waiting for them to arrive.

Another thing I have learned is that we get a number of taxis dropping off parishioners to Mass and families dropping off elderly members before trying to find a park elsewhere. Being able to help the less mobile get out of those vehicles would make a positive difference to many people. Likewise we have a lot of people arriving on walkers or with walking sticks. The cobbled pathway is not easy for them, and they have a choice of going a long way to go up a small ramp or a shorter way to get themselves up the concrete step. Having someone to help them negotiate those obstacles safely would also make a difference.

It would be great to have enough first line welcomers for one of them to be able to go and assist a driver, eg if they see someone having difficulty backing into a car park. Little things like that can make a big difference to the openness with which someone participates in the Mass.

The story one of the bishops told at the Conference about a man who decided to wear a big floppy hat to Mass, because no one had spoken to him for 3 years, was a desperate tale indeed. He did get lots of negative feedback, but as far as he was concerned any verbal response at all had to beat his previous experience of parish. Having regular first line welcomers saying a friendly hello week by week would definitely preventing someone else getting as desperate as the floppy hat wearer.

And all it takes is a friendly nature and a genuine interest in people, and the ability to stand for 20-30 minutes without bodily muscles complaining.

I have also become aware that first line welcomers are also needed at funerals, where the early birds arriving tend to have travelled from a distance and need to find a toilet or are family members of the deceased who are not familiar with the layout of the church and who don't know the sacristans, musicians, priests, acoltyes/senior servers etc who will be helping them get things ready.

First line welcomers are like the father of the prodigal son, on the lookout to greet him and welcome him home, and willing and able to go towards the prodigal and meet them halfway.

May the Heavenly Father who wants His children to come home draw those parishioners He wants to become first line welcomers into this ministry of love, and ever increase their numbers and vitality.

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Proclaim 2014: Diocesan group sessions and Commissioning 23 August

16/12/2014

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Saturday Diocesan Group Sessions and Commissioning

Lists of Conference attendees according to Diocesan membership were placed up in the dining hall area, and we were asked to find our name and group location and find the others in our group list in the main hall. The lists covered everyone who attended the Conference over the three days, and quite a number were only able to attend one day of the Conference. In hindsight it would have been far better to have only had Saturday attendees on those lists, so that at least you would have a sizeable group to work with.

When we finally got ourselves settled, we were asked as diocesan groups to talk together about 4 questions. These are the answers our group came up with:

Q1. How can Parish live the joy of the Gospel and mission joyfully?

Identify the natural evangelists and train them up.

Form a quorum team to drive change and to invite parish members to mission.

Welcome. Focus on that. Especially welcoming visitors to our Sunday Eucharist.

Get parishioners to read the Rebuilt book.

Gather a team to take hold of the vision, train people up, plan and implement those plans – and present all that via PowerPoint in the few minute prior to weekend Mass.

Introduce people to quotes from Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation, Joy of the Gospel / Evangelii Gaudium.

Ask the St Vincent de Paul members to listen more effectively to their clients.

Q2. Pick one idea to take forward and develop.

Welcome!

Have a welcome message before Mass starts, and soft and gentle music, eg Gregorian Chant.

Have a concierge desk.

Produce a Welcome pack to make it easier for people to register as parishioners.

Have a welcoming committee / team and give them training and formation.

Provide a sash for those in the ministry of welcome to wear.

Provide online options for parish registration, eg via iPad.

Provide special welcome packs for Families, and detailed information online.

Have some publicity produced at both parish and diocesan levels.

Gain the support of the parish pastoral council (PPC).

Q3. What support/framework do you need to make it happen? Blue sky thinking.

Online resources via diocesan website.

The Parish Support Unit is available to assist you, but it has to have a clearly articulated vision from you first before it can work with you.

Q4. What is your own personal commitment?

Engage in more conversations with people, and encourage them.

For a PDF document summary of the answers the other diocesan groups had, visit http://www.proclaimconference.com.au/pdf/Feedback_from_PROCLAIM.pdf , but remember a) that the meaning people had when they wrote on their pink post-it notes may not be the meaning those who collated those notes received and transmitted and b) many of those groups may have had less than 5 people in them of the 10-13 people on the group list.

The Australian bishops at the Conference then gave us their feedback, their personal reflections on the three days, their encouragement, and a few challenges to go home with.

Bishop Comensoli (then auxiliary bishop of Sydney, now bishop of Broken Bay)

I have taken these three things away from the Conference : a) Growth is always a step outside our comfort zone b) Parish is where the Church lives and c) Parish is a neighbourhood not just a congregation. I ask everyone to question themselves, 'Where will I be in 2 years?', and I make a request of you to make sure Aussie Alex (M or F) is at the Conference in 2 years' time. As I look out over you, I notice that we are still very Anglo-looking, and we need to make an effort to engage with the non-Anglo people in our parishes and make sure that there are more of them here next time.

Bishop Bird (bishop of Ballarat)

I have been inspired by your dedication and commitment to spreading the Gospel. The key message for me has been 'Tweet others as you would like them to Tweet you'. It is a message about respect. It is a call to proclaim the good news of Jesus with respect to the hearer, and through the use of technology – but we must communicate the love of God to them. Any planning at the parish level needs to take into account the good of the individuals and the community, and be done respecting where they are at. The aim is to try not to respond to aggression with aggression and to find the positive values that they are about and to connect with them that way. So in summary : Proclaim with respect to the hearers, and tweet others but tweet them gently.

Monsignor Entwistle (Protonotory Apostolic of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross)

(Earlier in the Conference, on Friday morning, Mons Entwistle challenged us to learn what a personal ordinariate is. The answer is most dioceses are geographical ecclesiastical administrative structures, however an ordinariate is a non-geographic ecclesiastical administrative structure. Read http://www.ordinariate.org.au/About%20Us/aboutus_ordinariates.htm to find out more.)

I trust that you had fruitful discussions in your diocesan groups. That was a bit hard for me, since I was the sole representative here of my diocese which is scattered from Perth to Cairns. St Paul tells us that Jesus Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God. Jesus makes God accessible to people and to the world, enabling us to have a relationship with Him. Jesus got Himself among the outsiders and made Himself available to them. He was also approachable. We are the Body of Christ, the visible presence of God to the people of this time. How approachable is the parish you are in to the world? If someone actually steps in the door – how approachable are you? Battle the indifference, opposition and apathy and persevere and work around the difficulties. Keep in mind the words of the prophet Micah, 'Without vision, the people perish'.

Bishop Ingham (Bishop of Wollongong, formerly auxiliary bishop of Sydney)

Some weeks ago the Catholic Weekly reported me saying, 'Come to Proclaim and have a Faith lift'. And that's really what we have experienced over these last three days. The way to bring people back is through hospitality, preaching and music. In recent times I heard the story of a man who chose to wear a big red floppy hat to Mass. Before, during and after Mass several people, including the parish priest, came up to him and said, 'You can't wear that hat here, you are blocking other people's view'. To which the man replied, 'I have been coming here for three years and no one has ever spoken to me until today, although it was only to ask me to remove the hat'. In our parishes, we have to do better than that. Not so long ago I was in front of the mirror shaving while thinking about the sermon I was to give when I cut my face. And the thought came to me that I would do better to think about my face and to cut down the length of my sermon. If you have been given a good voice, use that gift. If not, then use it anyway and relish the opportunity to get even with God for not giving you a good voice.

As the Conference participants were commissioned to go out and put what they had received into practice, a final scripture passage was read out from Luke 5:1-11 about the disciples getting into 2 boats close to the shore and Jesus getting into one of them to preach. When He had finished preaching He asked the fishermen to go into deep water and pay out their nets for a catch. They replied that they had fished all night and had caught nothing, but that they were willing to give it a go on His say-so. This time they filled both boats to almost sinking point. At this Simon Peter fell at the knees of Jesus and said, 'Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man', and Jesus replied to him, 'Do not be afraid, from now on it is men you will catch.'

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That is the official end of the Conference notes, although during 2015 I hope to listen to the podcasts of some of the workshops I was unable to attend and make the notes I take available via these blog-posts. Should the good Lord provide both the time and the impetus I will also work on getting all these Notes into some kind of downloadable print format and Kindle format.

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

Some of the talks and workshops are now available from http://www.proclaimconference.com.au/resources.

Several video clips, transcripts, handouts and slide presentations are downloadable.

These Notes are only one person's version of what they heard, and they are not a literal transcript.

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First homily of the new bishop of Broken Bay : Peter A Comensoli

13/12/2014

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A version of the homily of Bishop Peter A Comensoli at his installation Mass as Bishop of Broken Bay Diocese, Waitara Cathedral, Friday 12 December 2014.

This is not a literal transcript. At times it is sketchy because the audio visuals in the overflow seating in the Light of Christ Centre conked out at regular intervals.

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Greetings to all

One early December day back in 1531, near Mexico City, a man called Juan Diego met a most beautiful young woman at a place called Guadalupe. To him the Virgin Mary revealed her compassionate and motherly presence and care for the peoples of the Americas. As proof of her coming she left a miraculous image upon Juan Diego's apron (called a tilma), the same image as is on my prayer cards today. Juan Diego was a local family man, of the culture and people of the region, and yet chosen as part of Our Lady's evangelising strategy. She herself was an insignificant girl from an unremarkable town at the time she was called to be the mother of Jesus.

Mary said 'Yes' to God' s call, as did Juan Diego. Jesus is still calling people, He still says, 'I am standing at your door knocking, will you open the door and welcome me in?'

Evangelisation is a big complicated word, but it basically means 'tell someone something good'. The something good we have to share is the value we find in our relationship with Jesus, and our experience of His mercy, forgiveness and trust to those who are seeking faith, hope and love in their lives.

True evangelisation is domestic not institutionalised. Families always personalise our humanity. Whatever I have done or not done, I am always someone in my family, even though the world will frequently treat me as a something.

Join with me in sharing with our neighbours the reason for the hope that we have in Christ. The deepest truths are found in actual situations. Our incarnate God likes to do things personally.

A parish is a family of families. Often we refer to parish by the uninspiring name of 'congregation'. A far better description of parish would be a neighbourhood of grace. In these neighbourhoods of grace, streams of grace are constantly flowing through the sacraments, mutual service, and prayer. Parish life can be messy and frustrating at times, but parishes are still our homes.

A parish is a place that trains its members to be evangelisers. To do this a parish has to also be in constant contact with the live, homes and families of its people.

Growth in the discipleship of the laity has been a feature of recent decades of the Church's history. To become mission orientated doesn't require great plans, but it does require local starts.

When Jesus sent His disciples out to proclaim the Good News, He sent them out well before anyone started thinking about who gets to do which job. Our pilgrim Church is mission orientated by its very nature. It is all about the mission.

I wish to encourage and acknowledge the channels of God's grace that are our priests, deacons and consecrated religious. I wish to also affirm that a parish family needs both priests and people working together in order to flourish.

I also declare that our vocational doors are open for business. Encourage the young people in your lives who seem to be taking God seriously to come and talk to me. Be co-responsible with me for vocations. It comes down to Be or Breed. I'm doing my part Be-ing called by God to serve in an ordained vocation. Those of you who can Breed, go for it. When it comes time for you to make vocational choices, make them with God, trusting in Him.

I promise you that I will never preach this long again.

I greet all of you in here, in parishes, schools, at home and online.

Please pray for me as I undertake the role of bishop among you.

I entrust my ministry and diocese to the intercessory protection of Our Lady, Star of the Sea.

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Bishop Comensoli's Homily at 9.15am Mass Woy Woy 14 Dec 2014

12/12/2014

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A version of the homily of Bishop Peter A Comensoli at the 9.15am Mass at St John the Baptist, Woy Woy, for the 3rd Sunday of Advent Year B, 14 December 2014.

This is not a literal transcript, but it will give you the gist of his message.

St John the Baptist would not be well received these days. He'd be too strange for polite company, and someone we'd likely side-step away from. Yet he attracted the attention of many people, and inspired them to repent and to start again in their walk with God.

His message reminds us that this time of grace we call Advent is not just a time of preparing for holidays and Christmas celebrations.

It is unusual for someone to deny something that others want to attribute to them. John the Baptist told those who came to him, 'I am not the Christ. I am not the Prophet. I am not Elijah. I am not the someone else you want me to be.' He was a voice calling us to make our lives an open road for the Lord.

He had a very healthy knowledge of himself and of God, which enabled him to become an open channel, a conduit between God and His people and nothing more. He understood that he was proclaiming the message and not the message himself.

John the Baptist teaches us how to become an open channel of God for the lives of others. John the Baptist prepared for his ministry. Preparation and practice are needed to become heralds of the Gospel.

Each of us has been invited by God in our Baptism to be His voice for others. Our voice will come to us more, the more we come to Christ. Habits of daily prayer and honest Christian living will aid us in coming closer to Christ and getting His message out and about.

We also learn from St John the Baptist how to avoid self-aggrandisement. He got down on his knees before Jesus when Jesus came to him for Baptism. St Peter, my namesake, he too often got down on his knees acknowledging his sins and weakness before Jesus.

They both show us that the way to greatness is by trust, humility and simplicity.

These days they are not popular virtues, but we can resurrect their use and value, and make them central to our lives.

Let us ask ourselves, how often do we get down on our knees before God, both literally and figuratively?

John the Baptist's preparation became a sign of hope and renewal of life for multitudes. They saw that in him, and came. Wouldn't it be wonderful if people saw us this way too?!

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Proclaim 2014 : Panel Response 23 August

11/12/2014

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Saturday Panel Response

The moderator for the Panel Response was Jude Hennessy from 'The Journey' radio show and the Diocese of Wollongong.

http://www.dow.org.au/news/catholic-radio

http://pulse941.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94:historic-partnership-church-christian-radio&catid=8&Itemid=174

http://mediablog.catholic.org.au/?p=3003

The panel's task was to help us reflect upon the Conference input and to propose ideas for how we might respond as a group. Each panellist has been asked to share their personal reflections, to engage with some of the feedback from conference attendees, and to talk about how they plan to act on the conference input in their own lives.

Jude Hennessy kicked things off by sharing what he learned from reading 'Tools for Rebuilding':

'Don't just do something, stand there. Pause and reflect. Start somewhere, take aim at some target, and do something, in a smaller way, and then figure out what that taught you about what you want to do in a bigger way. Ask the right questions.'

PANEL:

Sr Kate Atkins - Missionary of God's Love Sisters, a new group of consecrated women. She joined them in 1996.

Fr Richard Healey - Assistant Priest, St Paul's Camden. It is a large parish, and this is his third appointment. Otherwise he is known as a geek, a go-to IT guy and the vocations director for the Diocese of Wollongong.

http://www.dow.org.au/parishes/clergy/item/fr-richard-healey

http://frrick.org/

https://twitter.com/richardmhealey

Tony Farley - Parish Council Member, Lower North Shore. Has been part of the parish council for 5-6 years. Around 40 parishioners have read 'Rebuilt'. Trying to live by 'go hard, fail early, go ahead'.

Sinead Kent - Family Faith Educator, St Vincent's Ashfield. Mother of four and an expat from Ireland.

Daniel Ang - Pastoral Planner, Diocese of Parramatta

http://timeofthechurch.com/about/

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/daniel-ang/67/984/249

https://twitter.com/danielangrc

Question : What have you heard that has energised or moved you?

Sinead : Realising how much we don't know what our audience is, even though that is a known problem. At school I work with many people on the fringe of church life, as a liaison for them to help translate 'school speak' and 'church speak' for them and vice versa. This initiative begun in 2010 is proving successful enough for it to get rolled out to other schools. The challenge is to find out what the parents and carers are looking for. It is good to ask those questions, 'What are we doing?' and 'Why are we doing it?' For me focussing on the family, the domestic church, is the way forward, and then to gently invite them in.

Tony : The key things for me were perseverance, the need to challenge ourselves, and to support each other in doing something different. The other thing was to not be afraid of having the difficult conversations we have to have, if we are to move forward.

Sr Kate : I appreciated the focus back onto Jesus and onto the simple things, the basics. The 7 asks (pray, join a small group, serve on the inside, serve on the outside, give, invest in relationships, invite them to church) were good. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to move us. Often we wait for someone better to show up and tackle a task we see needs doing – they won't – so give it a go yourself.

Daniel : I have been inspired by the authors of Rebuilt to have honest discussions about the state of our parishes. On a bad day you can see for ever. We need to explore how to live discipleship more communally. We need to work out how to reach the individual unchurched, especially those around us at the dinner table. To do fewer things, but to do them better. We also need to work on making sure that our people are in the right ministries.

Fr Richard : I loved the synthesis of deep encouragement and absolute practicality. I appreciated how the authors had their feet on the ground reality and yet are so centred in Christ, and willing to share their many mistakes and failures. With some trepidation I gave a copy of Rebuilt to my parish priest, who found in it reinforcement of his own pastoral ideas but as yet no sense of the need to be doing things differently.

Sr Kate : Many thanks to Marita Winters for organising for us to hear the news from other churches.

Question : The conference has rebooted our focus on mission. So how do we start initiating the changes?

Daniel : To awaken the sense of mission, we need our leaders to present the vision to us. Often we think that growth looks linear, when in fact it is more spiral. Every time we go forward a bit, we also have to go back and bring the strays and re-present the vision to them. Do the authors of Rebuilt have a pastoral plan? I think they do, it is just that it is not written down. We also need prayer, and to create time for the things that really matter.

Tony : We need to view all parish activity through the prism of moving to discipleship. At our parish we did a survey to start engaging with the silent majority in the pews, because we need to listen to everyone. Part of the survey asked 'Would you like to be involved in parish ministry?' Of the 550 surveys that came back, 125 of them responded 'Yes, I want to be involved'. While some of those would be seeking greater involvement, many of those 125 would be saying yes to some form of parish ministry for the very first time.

Question : The National Church Life Survey told us that some 67% of us are quite happy to talk our faith with others, but very few of us go the next step and invite them to parish life. Why is this? How can we change it?

Fr Richard : We have to confess that while we all love church speak, it is a language barrier and fosters a sense of exclusion in those outside the church and on the fringes of it. My work in the marriage tribunal has taught me how much frustration proceeds from a legal mentality, despite the need for clarity and boundaries. Viewing the Hillsong website was a revelation to me.

Sr Kate : While I was surprised at the Survey's indication about how many Catholics desire to share their faith, we need to acknowledge that there are stages in evangelisation and that it is often a long process. It takes wisdom to know when it is the right time to ask someone to come to Mass with you. It concerns me that some new parishioners haven't been talked to in their first 3 years in a parish.

Sinead : In order to be able to reach out to a wide range of people you need the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we are too educated. What we need is 100% reliance on the Holy Spirit. We also need to think seriously about those things we can do collaboratively to reach out to others. It is also undeniably important that you take time to learn the culture of the people you are reaching out to. For example if you live in an area with a high Chinese population it makes sense to take the time to learn how to serve a cup of tea to a Chinese person, with the correct ritual and respect. So things like this require long term plans, and time spent in getting to know people and building relationships. Perseverance is key.

Tony : We also need to seriously look at the disconnect between parish life and those employed in Catholic institutions. The Catholic Church in the Sydney region employs some 180,000 people in schools, hospitals, administration etc. That is a large number of skilled people working under the ethos of the Church, and yet so many of them are disconnected with parish life. Bridging the disconnection between school and parish is a good place to start.

Sinead : That is our aim with the family faith educators initiative, to connect with people and then to help them connect and reconnect with school and parish. Teacher language is different to parent language which is different again to church language, and we try to facilitate communication between these language sets by helping them decode and listen to each other.

Question : Who do you need to ask to move, and how do you do that?

Tony : We have had more failures than successes in this regard. It is true that there are great musicians everywhere. One parishioner visited Timor and came back wanting to do something that would really help. That's how the twinning of our parish with a parish in Timor began, which has connected us with a sense of witness and mission. One very helpful thing we did was to go through all the parish ministries and make a directory including job descriptions for each one of those ministries. Prior to us reading rebuilt our parish was planning to redevelop a site of land to provide an income stream for the parish. Lots of people had put a lot of time and effort into these plans. But we decided to pull the plug on the project because its outcome was an income stream and not discipleship. All those who had become invested in the project were very hurt by this decision.

Jude : Prayer is a critical part of the process. Any change will only work with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Daniel : Planning is difficult, because it is people work. Parishes and dioceses only grow when their people do. Sometimes we forget that priests are accountable only to the bishop and not to the people they serve. It is easier to let go if you know you will be caught and supported at the other end – and through the journey of implementing the changes. No one likes change, but it is easier to do if you know you will be held on the other side. If you have poor quality lectors and cantors, then if you find better ministry roles for them and invite them to give it a go, you will have given them an easier pathway to make the transition. It is always easier to ask people to move if you have somewhere for them to go. Giving people a sense of mission provides them with both the power to change and permission to change.

Jude : Dare to dream. Dream what your parish could look like in 5 or 10 years' time, and work towards it.

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The next blog-post will be about the diocesan group sessions and the concluding messages the bishops gave us.

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

Some of the talks and workshops are now available from http://www.proclaimconference.com.au/resources.

Several video clips, transcripts, handouts and slide presentations are downloadable.

These Notes are only one person's version of what they heard, and they are not a literal transcript.

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Elder Technology

First Line Welcomers

Proclaim 2014: Diocesan group sessions and Commissioning 23 August

First homily of the new bishop of Broken Bay : Peter A Comensoli

Bishop Comensoli's Homily at 9.15am Mass Woy Woy 14 Dec 2014

Proclaim 2014 : Panel Response 23 August

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