The title of Cardinal Wuerl's Keynote address was Pope Francis, Renewal and Parish Evangelisation
His Archdiocese of Washington bio.
His Wikipedia page.
He can be found online at Twitter using @Cardinal_Wuerl and on his regular blog http://cardinalsblog.adw.org/

Thank you for your kind introduction. It is pleasant to be a part of Proclaim 2016. So much of the renewal and evangelisation is in the lived experience in our parishes. That's where every kind of action takes place. Our Pope speaks of his experience of parish in Evangelii Gaudium 28:
'The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters”. This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of a chosen few. The parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an environment for hearing God’s word, for growth in the Christian life, for dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration. In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers. It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach.'

Amoris Laetitia 202: 'The main contribution to the pastoral care of families is offered by the parish, which is the family of families, where small communities, ecclesial movements and associations live in harmony'.

How do we see that each parish carries out these many missions?

There is a new spirit of welcome evident today. Pope Francis is reaching people. We can see the development of his thought through Evangelii Gaudium, the Synod, Laudato Si and Amoris Laetitia. He writes from the perspective of a pastor of souls, so they are not theological treatises but words from a pastor of souls.

So what does the Church/Christ offer us today? What do we bring to the world of today? A while back I was giving a keynote address at Harvard University on the topic of the Role of religion and faith in a pluralistic society. Following the address there was time for questions. A lawyer, in full garb, named Albert had his hand up. 'What do you people, and religion in general, think you bring to our society?' My answer was a return question, 'What do you think the world would be like without the voices of the religious traditions in our world – reminding us You Shall Not Kill, You Shall Not Steal etc, - reminding us that someday we must answer to God for our actions. How much more harsh would this culture be? 'His answer, 'It would be a mess.'

The Christian Gospel teaching us about right and wrong and about God's love may seem to being eclipsed by secular voices. At the Synod for the New Evangelisation one of the speakers described secularism as a cultural tsunami that has washed across our world, taking with it so many cultural markers and frames of reference: on marriage and family, on right and wrong.

The present energy and focus in the Church is towards openness and outreach. That level of energy has increased with Pope Francis' smiling face of welcome to the world. What is the New Evangelisation? St John Paul II spoke of the need for a New Evangelisation, new in ardour, new in method and new in expression. Pope Benedict renewed this call for a new evangelisation, seeing it as a prophetic task of love to evangelise the whole world. Pope Francis calls us all to the work of the new evangelisation. It is a hallmark of his ministry and preaching. 'Go Out, Go Out', he says, 'Go Out and share the beauty of the Gospel and the amazement of the encounter with Jesus.'

Outreach is especially involved in parish ministry. Blessed Paul VI taught us that we have to do more than just speak the words, we have to be modern examples of them: we only listen to teachers if they are witnesses.

How do we invite people? Sometimes it is just a matter of actually doing it. As I went down the street yesterday a Church of Scientology brochure was offered to me. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have run into a Catholic lady handing out parish bulletins? On a plane recently I had an aisle seat, and the person sitting next to me asked,
'Have you been born again?'
'Yes'
'When?'
'At Baptism.'
'Oh, you're a Catholic'.
She had a lot of bags, so I asked her whether she had a bible. She didn't, but she did have some 3"x5" cards with scriptural texts on them. One had the passage from Matthew 16 where Jesus tells Peter that he is the rock on which He will build His Church. She asked me, 'Tell me about this church thing'. So I did. But I was struck by how much we take for granted. So many people have no idea about anything about the Church, the sacraments and the Eucharist. Afterward the man across the aisle leaned over and said, 'Hey Father, I'm a Catholic, and I didn't know that.'

Renewal requires these elements:
•Renewal of personal faith. Not just the assent of the mind, but prayer asking the Holy Spirit to fill us.
•To stand confident in the truth. We don't have to apologise for our Risen Lord.
•The desire to share it.

The evangelising disciple has to know and be confident in the message.

In 1962 Vatican II began with the goal of preparing the Catholic faith and mission to shine forth to bring people to receive the Church's love. The purpose was to present better the precious deposit of Christian doctrine, and to make it more accessible to Christian people and people of goodwill and to show the strength and beauty of the doctrine of the faith.

Looking back over the time from the mid-1960s until now, we can see the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Pathways of renewal began, some consistent with the Gospel, some not and they introduced confusion into the liturgy and catechesis. Even before becoming Benedict XVI, Cardinal Ratzinger began to work on the hermeneutic of renewal and against the hermeneutic of discontinuity. This need for a deeper appreciation of our faith - so that we can be prepared to speak it - has been verified by a whole line of pontiffs.

Paul VI stood up for the truth despite the times of turmoil around him. John Paul II's task was to implement Vatican II and he spent 27 years doing that. Benedict XVI's writings renewed our appreciation of scripture and patristics – the profound roots going back to the revelation of Jesus Christ. With Pope Francis we are the beneficiaries of 50 years of preparation for this time of fresh perspective. Pope Francis brings his own emphasis to this renewal – that the role of the laity in the renewal is absolutely essential. 'Go out, encounter people, accompany them on the journey so that more people may experience Jesus Christ.'

Collegiality – working together collaboratively and co-operatively- is also for parish, reinforcing the message of the college of bishops. Amoris Laetitia gives us a perspective on renewal and its content shows us how to do what Pope Francis invites us to do – to listen. The Synod on the Family, in its two parts, was a time to listen, to talk, to dialogue. Out of that experience, and consensus, came the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. In it is a focus on the human person as the object of an invitation to faith, speaking more about grace and less about law and obligation. The shallow happiness with which many are content falls short of the joy that should be the sustenance of every believer.

We can now actually hear, understand and be willing to share our faith, as a result of these post Vatican II years. We need to hear that God is a loving forgiving God. While we might get tired of asking for forgiveness, He never gets tired of granting it. At the same time we have to be aware of these words of Jesus, and do them: 'You will be My witnesses; go out, and make them disciples'. God's mercy and our conscience leads us to focus on living our lives as an expression of mercy and love.

The principle attributes of a missionary disciples are:
•Listening
•Accompanying
•Discerning
•Evangelising

The Synod on the Family was preceded by extensive consultation. Pope Francis understands this process of listening to the faithful. This synodality, this journeying together is essential for the Church today. Not just listening, but accompanying. We are going at this together. This involves a change of style and intensity which has implications for parish life and personal outreach. Pastors need to do more than just teach Church doctrine, they must take on the smell of the sheep and realise that we are here to serve. Our liturgy does not have to be so complex that it is off-putting.

Not too long ago I was in a cab in Rome. The traffic was chaotic and the cabbie was the type to drive while looking at you. 'Have you met this Pope?' 'Yes!' 'You can understand him when he speaks, not like you people.'

We need to present the faith, the kerygma, in all its clarity. In Pope Francis' morning homilies at Mass we see a continuous renewal of the kerygma of faith made simple.

We have to help our people discern what does it mean to say Christ is Risen.

Amoris Laetitia 37: 'We have long thought that simply by stressing doctrinal, bioethical and moral issues, without encouraging openness to grace, we were providing sufficient support to families, strengthening the marriage bond and giving meaning to marital life. We find it difficult to present marriage more as a dynamic path to personal development and fulfilment than as a lifelong burden. We also find it hard to make room for the consciences of the faithful, who very often respond as best they can to the Gospel amid their limitations, and are capable of carrying out their own discernment in complex situations. We have been called to form consciences, not to replace them.'

People respond as best they can to God's call within their limitations. We are called to help form their consciences. We need to do this so that we can all grow closer together to Christ. As we do this, we all draw closer to Christ.

What kind of qualities do our new evangelisers need to have?
It is a moment of grace. Calling parish a neighbourhood of grace is a beautiful description. We are living in a new moment – given the history of the Church and the special emphasis that Pope Francis brings.

Courage & Boldness
In the Acts of the Apostles, before Pentecost we see the apostles timid. Afterwards we see them bold. Peter and Paul both boldly preached Jesus, and this boldness was born of the confidence in the truth of the message.

Connectedness to the Church
We are not individuals, we are members of the Church. Renew this revelation, recognise it. Our membership of the community that passes on the good news of Jesus is our authentication. Children get to the heart of things much better than we do. For 30 years I have kept a letter I received from a child called Dominic who was then in Year 4: 'Dear Bishop, I find it amazing that you knew somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody, who knew somebody…..who knew Jesus.' It is our living continuity with the disciples who knew Jesus that matters.

Sense of Urgency
We are not passive bystanders. We have to be involved, and play our part in the New Evangelisation. It is our turn now. Others will take it up later. When we look at the visit of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth we see what urgency looks like in action – she went in haste on a long and difficult journey.

Joy
It is alright to smile. The Gospel is a glorious announcement. Christ is risen, truly risen. He is with us. 'You should see Me in the faces of the people you care for.'

We are called to reinvigorate our faith every day, to share it, and to be open to the movement and outpouring of the Holy Spirit as we try to bring the Good News to others: as we share the simple announcement: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
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We were then given a discussion question: What is one thing that struck you about Pope Francis' vision of evangelisation for your parish?
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My response

Cardinal Wuerl is even more impressive in person than on paper. He went out of his way (just like Pope Francis) to greet and chat to as many non-dignitaries as possible. Even sitting still he still exuded the presence of the Holy Spirit.

There is a lot to unpack from this talk, and it bears reading and re-reading several times. However the part that stayed with me the longest was that we are living in a privileged time of grace, prepared by God during the last half-century and that we need to respond to God's call for us Now. When I think about all this the picture of a big wave of grace comes to mind, building and building - a bit like a tsunami-, and that we need to ride that wave as it begins to move. But the time is short, and if we are too slow to respond, then we will miss that wave of grace.

The call to 'Go Out' is one we need to hear and work out how to respond to. Frequently we put on programs and expect people to come to us, and to come to the parish buildings. As was recalled to me recently, Jesus did not sit in a synagogue and wait for people to come to Him. He went to every town and village He could get to. Somehow we need to get out of our parish building mindset and set up outreach in the community, where people go and gather. Granted, there is a significant amount of red tape (paperwork) and money that local Councils want these days for setting up a street stall – or to get a pop-up stall in a shopping centre – but our commitment to mission has to find ways through these obstacles.

On the good news side, it isn't necessary 'to reinvent the wheel'. St Paul Street Evangelisation is doing great work, and training people too. Their Twitter feed is worth following @spstreetevan . Faith on Tap @FaithOnTap, Theology on Tap and Spirituality in the Pub are all doing their outreach in venues where schooners and middies available. The very good work 40 Days For Life does as a public witness against the evils of abortion cannot be underestimated from an evangelical perspective either.

Anyone who has listened to Pope Francis over the past few years has heard that we need to do more to truly listen to people and accompany them where they are at. The next step, of helping them discern how best to respond to God in the concrete circumstances of their lives, hasn't had much 'air-play' up until now. But we do need to plan for it, otherwise it won't happen. Maybe we will hear more about that when we start getting the listening and accompanying going.

That Roman cab driver sure issued a challenge! It is all too easy to forget that we speak in what to the ears of others is 'unintelligible church-speak'. To get any traction with our listeners, we are going to have to learn the local patois, just like Our Lady did when she came to speak to St Bernadette at Lourdes.

I loved Cardinal Wuerl's description of the Church as a community of believers who have passed on their knowledge of Jesus from the first disciples to us today. Viewed that way, Church isn't an option extra but is the way we meet the living, breathing Jesus.

Urgency: I can't tell you how often my memory replays for me Warwick Neville saying 'The Gospel message is always urgent'. If it doesn't bother us that the things we have failed to do today may have stopped someone encountering Jesus, then it should. But for that encounter there is a chance he or she could be eternally lost. Hmmm, that parish Facebook page that I started pushing for over a year ago, just think how many people might have been reached or at least have had a thought about God cross their brains if it had happened back then.

For myself, I am making a point of trying to get into conversation with anyone who crosses my path whether it be waiting at the chemist, sitting on a train or bus, or trying to make sure that the stranger who came to church this morning was acknowledged as a person. So far the openings haven't come to speak directly of faith in Jesus, but hopefully these 'practice runs' will eventually produce that kind of fruit. On the plus side, every person has been memorable and in quieter moments prayed for afterwards.
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In the next issue will have the homily from the opening Mass of the conference with Archbishop Coleridge presiding. I often find that the conference homilies contain the true keynotes of conferences like these.

A reminder that these notes are indeed rough. Many times I may not have caught Cardinal Wuerl's thought correctly or have mis-decoded my hasty scrawls. Apologies for any errors.
 

On Monday 13 June and Tuesday 14 June 2016, the parish of St Benedict's Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, ran a 2 day conference to share their experiences of successful parish renewal. Using #DR16 will get you an overview of the conference via Twitter or Facebook.
 
I wasn't able to attend in person, but I was able to participate through the Livestream video of the plenary sessions which were uploaded to the internet. http://livestream.com/accounts/6379109
 
Here follows a rough transcript of that Plenary Part 3 and then my own response to it. Why bother? Not everyone likes getting their information via video, and going through the process of taking notes and typing them up enables the message to get internalized more and shared with others, and it also forces me to go looking for the background information and links to round things out. And there's no guarantee how long the Livestream option will be available for either.
 
This session could have been entitled 'Stewardship'
 
It was introduced by Fr Mallon with the quip; 'If you want to get Catholics to shut up, begin the Sign of the Cross. It works every time.' #DR16 was the No.1 trend on Twitter in Canada that day.
 
This was followed by some praise and worship songs with good lyrics:
'Open up the heavens, we want to see You. Lord unveil our eyes. Open up the floodgates, a mighty river, flowing from Your Heart, filling every part of our praise.'
'Our God is able. He will never fail us. He has done great things. In His Name we overcome. He defeated the grave.'
 
Rick Fersch then spoke to us, currently the Director of Evangelization and Stewardship for the Archdiocese of Seattle and formerly the CEO of Eddie Bauer (a clothing / outdoor adventure supplies store, Kathmandu would be an Australian equivalent)
 
My three aims for this talk are to
•Fan the flame of renewal
•Inspire and empower transformation in your parishes
•Give you the tools for growth/engagement
 
The Archdiocese of Seattle has 174 parishes and missions, and somewhere between 750k and 1 million Catholics. It is traditional in Seattle to begin a talk with a prayer and a joke.
 
St Thomas Merton's Prayer of Abandonment
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and that I think I am following Your will does not mean I am actually doing so.
But I believe the desire to please You does in fact please You.
And I hope I have that desire in all I am doing.
I hope I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know if I do this You will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for You will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen.
 
The joke was about how a wife knew that her husband had come home drunk. Plenty of evidence there was, but the most damning were the band-aids on the hallway mirror where he had tried to dress the broken-glass wounds on his rear end.
 
I am an intense kind of person, and I find that adding a bit of humour and laughter helps. I retired from Eddie Bauer in Jan 2012, after 16 years of Catholic education and a degree in sociology from Villanova Uni in 1971. I've been serving the church full time for the last 13 years. I'm 44 years married with 4 children and 5 grandchildren.
 
Is it just me? Peculiarities in the Church
•The concept that organizational charts, reviews and job descriptions are not inseparably linked (and not done either!)
•The concept that there is no need for timely decision making ; tomorrow, even next year, that will be fine enough
•Is the Church the earthly home for passive-aggressive individuals? (met with lots of laughing and nodding)
•Although it seems to have 'always been done this way', is it possible that another way may work better?
•Do you still get weird looks when you question something that doesn't make sense (or worse…silence?)?
•How about the concept of succession planning? All right…now I've pushed the envelope too far!
 
We all know that these are temporal issues. So don’t let them mask, overpower or sabotage the ministry to which you have been called.
 
What is my ministry?
On December 7, 2000 I had a serious stroke, which put me in Intensive Care at the hospital. I was surrounded by my wife Patti and the 4 kids, but I could not move, I could not talk, and yet I was totally aware of what was going on. Patti told me, 'You have to live, you have to hold our first grandchild.' The priest showed up to anoint me. That was the turning point, the miracle that saved me. Through it all I knew that I had to listen to God, and that He had a 'Step 2' for me. I did indeed hold our first grandchild, 2 years after the stroke.
 
God's life game plan for Richard T Fersch
1988 Eddie Bauer. What a great place to work, it was on fire, and I loved working there. We saw lots of growth, and I learned a lot about customer service and hospitality. We were ranked in the top 40 companies to work for.
1996 United Way. This was my way to give back to the community. I joined the board and learned how to ask for money – and discovered that I'm good at it.
2000 Sacrament of the Sick
2002 Archbishop Brunett of Seattle. He called me.
 
What can the Church learn from business?
Healthy things grow. Unhealthy things don't.
Between 1988 and 2002, Eddie Bauer's measures of success (sales etc) grew between 10 and 100 times.
While we measure sales, it is an outcome and not a cause. Only a cause is actionable.
The solution is to focus on the cause – usually a bad/unwanted product, maybe the weather (which usually masks the real cause, and we really shouldn't empower something we don't control.)
Identifying a cause allows you to acknowledge it, to accept responsibility, to identify a specific action plan, to execute a solution, and then to measure it again.
 
Let's look at the figures for the Church in Western Washington 2003-2016
Households 2013 131k; 2016 145k
Mass Attendance 2013 179k; 2016 145k
Income on plate 2013 72m; 2016 94.5m
 
Is it the case that we have less people giving more?
The sacraments are being received by less people.
 
These three things are the traditional ways of measuring the health of a parish.
Registered households (those who sign up)
Mass attendance (those who show up)
Ordinary income (those who cough up)
All three are outcomes, they are not causes.
Therefore they are not actionable.
 
What is the cause? Why is that the case?
Gallup's concept of engagement.
Gallup would propose the cause for a lack of healthy growth in Church is a lack of member engagement – a lack of commitment to community – a lack of a sense of belonging.
 
(Ed. Here's the link to the Gallup Member Engagement Survey : http://shop.gallup.com/faith/gallup-member-engagement-survey.html )
 
From Chris Stefanick's 'Real Life Catholic' http://reallifecatholic.com/
'The unchurched person usually doesn't feel welcome at church. It is up to us to help him or her lower their defenses so the Word of God can pierce their heart. If we provide a boring and unwelcome weekend experience, the unchurched believe the church has nothing relevant to say to them. Worst – they come to believe God is irrelevant.'
 
Engagement is how a parishioner feels about their parish.
•Engaged parishioners have a deep and strong emotional connection to their parish and are more fully involved in all aspects of the mission of the church.
•There is a direct correlation between engagement and an increase in the defined outcomes of a parish's spiritual health (inviting, serving, giving, life satisfaction).
•Research reveals that spiritual commitment is an ultimate result of active engagement – leading us to a new paradigm : Belonging leads to Believing.
 
'People will forget what you said and did – but people will never forget how you made them feel' Maya Angelou
 
The use of prayer partners at St Benedict's is building member engagement. I was very happy to hear when I asked someone 'Are we sitting in your pew?' to receive the answer 'We don't own pews at St Benedict's'. Think about how we treat people on Christmas Eve. It is more like, 'Where have you been for the last 51 weeks? I've earned the right to sit here, you haven't'. This is where we really need to be hospitable, and not just think we are.
 
In the church there is a critical need for measurement to assess our current 'status' and thus create workable and measurable action plans.
What is needed is a new approach – an approach leading to this new paradigm. An approach that is sustainable, scalable and transferable.
If you were asked how you parish is doing on hospitality, from 0 to 10, how would you know what to answer? If you can't measure it, then how can you manage it?
 
Engagement is not an end in itself. Rather it is a way to purify the 'soil', enabling a healthy church to bear fruit, the fruit of disciples ready for mission.
 
Summary
Increasing engagement is not the end – it is a means to help achieve the end.
Increasing engagement among parishioners is the KEY to increasing the spiritual health of the parish!
 
The Archdiocese of Seattle launched an initiative 8 years ago called ' Engagement – Empowering Stewardship as a Way of Life'. It has three parts: Leadership, Member Engagement and Strengths.
 
This grew out of an earlier initiative by Archbishop Murphy called 'Stewardship' which ran from 1992-2002. There were booklets, ministry fairs, etc. The take up rate was the same as similar programs you have done in your own dioceses, a lot of effort for not a lot of result.
 
In 2009 we began a new plan.
We could see that the Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI) was doing good stuff with its 'Good Leaders, Good Shepherds' and 'Tending the Talents' programs; and that Gallup was doing good stuff with the ME25, Q12, and Clifton Strengths Finder; but they weren't using the same language.
 
So we asked them to work together, and very generously they agreed, and a pilot program was prepared.
Bear in mind that our solution may not be your solution for your situation, and that we are happy to share details of what works for us in the hopes that you may find what will work for you.
 
Sower : Leadership and developing leaders
CLI provides leadership training for parish priests, and 'Tending the Talents' training for parish staff.
We noticed a lack of training for our priests in leadership. How can we get stuff done without leadership to make it happen? Good Leaders, Good Shepherds is a 2 year program. When the priest graduates we send his parish staff on the Tending the Talents program. It is practical, it works, and everyone is thrilled with the results.
 
Seed : Strengths and Talents
How well do we understand our hearts? How well do we know our gifts?
Once you accept the gifts you have, the gifts that only you have, a whole new responsibility t own, embrace and use those gifts emerges. Using them is the way we give our gifts back to God. Gallup has proved empirically just how unique we all are with our strengths. Some 4000-5000 people in the Archdiocese have gone through the StrengthsFinder process. What we need to do now is convert those talents and strengths into ministry, and give purpose to them. At the moment we are working on launching the Catholic Strengths Institute to help everyone connect their strengths with ministry pathways.
(Ed. The website for this still seems to be in pre-production mode : so keep an eye on it for a change in status : http://catholicstrengthsinstitute.tryradiuswebtools.com/ )
 
Seed : discovering talent
If we are to cultivate and share our unique gifts of talents we must first understand and embrace these gifts. When we do, we receive a 'personal awakening' of who we are called to be. The results are:
•Deeper understanding and respect of self
•Deeper understanding and respect of others
•Deeper relationship with God
 
A quote from St Catherine of Siena (Dialog 7)
God said to me, 'I could well have made human beings in such a way that they each had everything; but I preferred to give different gifts to different people, so that they would need each other.'
 
Soil : Member Engagement
We have been using member engagement surveys with great results. Some parishes have done the surveys multiple times. You cannot measure if you are not measuring.
 
'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations'
The ultimate goal of parishes is to develop Disciples of Christ – Catholics who are fully spiritually committed to the mission of the Church. This is the ultimate result of increasing engagement among parishioners.
 
In the hands of a leader committed to using the ME25 to its fullest extent, the ME25 becomes a powerful tool for helping to move your parish from maintenance to mission.
 
Please engrave this definition of insanity in your brain :
insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
 
So what next?
•Will it be business as usual when you go home after the conference?
•Will you grasp and embrace a part of the new paradigm you were seeking when you signed up for this conference?
Be not afraid. Be bold. There are resources to help you on this journey. Take a step. Make a difference. The choice is yours.
Don't be overwhelmed. Remember the story of the boy finding an elderly man along the beach throwing starfish back into the sea. The boy questioned the pointlessness of it all, but the elderly man replied, 'I might not fix it all, but I certainly made a difference to the life of this star fish.'
 
Fr Mallon then introduced Gemma to us, after agreeing that 'Making a difference is what it is all about'.
​
5 years ago Gemma would come to the occasional Sunday Mass, sit in the pew, and think about other stuff. At that time a relationship with God was not at the centre of her life. The same was true for her mum and dad, sister, brother and grandfather. Spiritually her dad was the least likely to go to church. Her grandfather had struggles with alcohol addiction. One Sunday Gemma got shocked out of her daydreams by seeing the priest pull out an iPhone. It awoke her curiosity. She told her family, 'you have to meet this guy, he's crazy' (it was Fr Mallon, of course). He was talking about Alpha.
 
Her Mum wanted grandfather to go and do Alpha. During the prayer session at Alpha, grandfather had an amazing encounter with Jesus, experiencing within himself the light vs dark battle. After that prayer session he felt cleansed, saved, and his desire to drink was gone. The family was stunned at the change, especially mum and dad. So we went to Friday night family Alpha, the kids had their sessions upstairs and the adults downstairs. The sense of community and belonging we experienced there kept us coming back. We all encountered God in our own way. My sister and I felt called to do church activities, like bible studies and youth groups. My mum started praying every morning. My dad is now with us in the pews every week, as is my brother. My mum and I did the trip to HTB and encountered the Holy Spirit in a real and personal way, along with 5000 other people.
 
Then we moved to Toronto. On our final weekend the parish prayed over us and commissioned us to go out and use this chance to bring what we had experienced to Toronto. In Toronto we joined a parish and started a daytime and youth Alpha, but we encountered difficulties. The priest was not strongly supporting us, and was not involved. We realized we could not take it much further. So we switched parishes and found a priest who was hungry for something to help his parish. He got on board, promoted it, became a table leader, and invited his friends.
 
Gemma, aged 17, is now the Alpha coordinator in that parish, organizing the food, tables and dealing with the emails. Her sister had her big turning point at a Steubenville conference. In many ways Alpha is being run a bit like a family business. 'Jesus has made a huge difference to our family life. He has given us purpose, and a happiness in service. It is good to know that as a teenage I can be in the world but not of it.
 
This part of the session closed with prayer for Gemma and her family.
 
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My own response
 
That's a lot to take in, isn't it?! But it is the pathway forwards, and we need to tell people about it.
 
Why are Catholics so passive-aggressive? Maybe because the direct route to getting things done so often gets blocked and we've had to become experts at getting things done by back channels.
 
It is encouraging to see that if God wants you somewhere, that He has the ways and means to get you there, like he did with getting Rick out of Eddie Bauer and into service for Him with the Archdiocese of Seattle.
 
The contrast between the high rates of growth for Eddie Bauer and the stagnant/almost recessive growth for the Archdiocese was staggering. The former is the kind of growth and health God would like to see in our parishes. To keep on the same path that got us to this lack of health, that's no longer an option.
 
It is going to take a while to process the implications of belonging leading to believing. We are so used to expecting things to be the other way round. It means that we have to be consciously choosing to draw people into our community of faith. It means that we need independent assessment on how welcoming our parishes actually are, maybe something similar to the mystery shoppers that retailers use.
 
Thinking about engagement…A few months back our parish had its first episcopal visitation in its history, and there was a meeting with parishioners and the bishop. He asked those present to name what it was about the parish that draws you here. Many of the answers hinged on engagement parishioners had with the community of faith present in the parish, and named the people who drew them into involvement (often a parish priest or a switched-on parishioner who called them into some kind of service or ministry). Those present at the meeting were already engaged, otherwise they would not have given up their time to be there. The ability of some gifted individuals to notice potential talent, and to give people gentle nudges in the right direction for using that potential talent, is what is needed. If we can locate those gifted individuals and help them harness and intentionally use those gifts in God's service, that would be a big step forward to increasing engagement in the parish. People with StrengthsFinder combinations of Developer and Individualization are most likely to be those gifted individuals.
 
I went investigating Clifton StrengthsFinder after an intriguing mention or two of it in Divine Renovation. There are 2 ways to do the StrengthsFinder questionnaire. Do it online for $15 US or around $20 AUS through this link, it is supposed to give you access to an e-book, but the process is long and convoluted. A better way is to get the book with the access code in the back, the Catholic Edition of 'Living Your Strengths' Because postage costs are a nightmare, order more than one copy – you are going to want others to do it too. If you have the money, get friends together and buy a full starter kit, which comes with workbooks and a seven session discovery process.
 
My top 5 signature themes are Intellection, Input, Connectedness, Deliberative and Learner. That meshes perfectly with my top 3 transferable skills, problem solving, using my brain and research. I'm still searching for a way to leverage those strengths to serve the mission of the Church as part of a team, and suspect that until enough leaders find value in StrengthsFinder and learn to build balanced teams I'll still be a square peg in a round hole and getting lots of those weird looks and silences that Rick spoke about.
 
I'm really interested in the work Rick is doing in matching combinations of strengths to ministry opportunities. (See, it's a problem that needs solving! :) The Living Your Strengths has lists of ideas for how to use your strengths in Christian service, but they only go so far. But it should be possible to work out which combinations of strengths are suited for particular ministries. For example, someone high in empathy and harmony is the perfect fit for a hospital chaplaincy role or pastoral care work with the sick.
 
Gemma's story needs to be shared widely. It breaks my heart that so often us lowly parishioners try and get something good going, and it falls flat because there is no active support from the parish leadership. Passive support, which is basically permission to run with something and rooms to do it in, just isn't enough and frequently it is a recipe for failure. Waiting to see if something is going to be a success before getting behind it might feel like the prudent thing to do, but it sure doesn't feel like the loving thing to do from the perspective of those who are risking it all. However if people see that the parish priest is giving something his full support, they do get behind it. It feels like they all watch him to see what he thinks before joining in or not. So much stands or falls depending on the parish priest, no wonder Our Lady is so insistent in her messages that we must pray for our priests.
 
Those Catholic Leadership Institute courses look like they are worth investigating. I hope they start getting students from my side of the globe soon. I really like that it there's some for parish priests and some for parish staff.
 
The National Church Life Survey is probably the Australian equivalent to the ME25. It certainly asks the engagement questions. It would be worthwhile comparing them properly.

Workshop  2A: RCIA: Ideas for welcoming new Catholics AND ensuring they stay

This workshop was presented by Sharon brewer of Canberra Goulburn diocese.

Sharon Brewer is a wife and mother to four children. After her family her second passion is her involvement in parish life. For the last 23 years she has been involved with the parishes of St Francis of Assisi, Calwell and more recently Corpus Christi Parish, South Tuggeranong. Sharon first became involved through the Parish Social Group and then offered her help with parish administration. As the Tuggeranong Valley became one of the fastest growing areas in Australia, Sharon assisted with Baptism classes for many families. Over time she became more involved in the sacramental preparation of children. In recent years she has been developing programs for Older Child Baptisms, Teenage Sacramental Programs, adult faith formation and assisting with the RCIA program. Additionally she has collaborated in the publication of a quarterly parish magazine and the Corpus Christi Parish Prayer Book.

At the start of the workshop Sharon asked for a show of hands of cradle Catholics vs converts, and then how many of the converts had been through an RCIA process as opposed to one on one sessions with a priest. About 3 or 4 had been through an RCIA process.

Sharon then went briefly through some of RCIA handbooks and publications on offer from various Australian dioceses. Some of them are hardcopy, others are DVD sets or can be downloaded from websites. The choice of which resources to use has to be made on pastoral level and not on a practical level. To use the same handbooks year in and year out does not take account of the different mix of enquirers in each 'intake' and what would suit that intake best.

From visiting parishes in the Canberra Goulburn diocese and asking about their RCIA experiences and retention rates, it was clear that the smaller more isolated parishes had better retention rates than the bigger city parishes. This is likely to be because the smaller more isolated parishes have stronger, less fractured communities, than bigger city parishes.

One way to get greater involvement and understanding in the parish about the RCIA is to hold an Open Night rather than an Enquiry Night. If people know more about the RCIA process they are more likely to invite someone to come along, and to get involved themselves.

One trend we have noticed is that there are more children / teenagers wanting to become Catholics in the school setting. The challenge is how to run the RCIA / RCIC at the schools and still link them into the parish. The parish has to go to the young people, and cannot expect the young people to come to the parish to do the programme. Currently 'The Christ We Proclaim' is being re-written for the Australian context and is being field tested. Look for it to be available for use in the next 12 months.

Another trend is that 15 years ago new enquirers would come knowing that they would have to get their marital issues sorted out before becoming fully initiated Catholics. Now we are finding that people are getting towards the end of the RCIA programme before finding out that they need to get their marital status in the eyes of the Church sorted out, together with all the tears, disappointments and delays that situation causes. It is very important to do an interview process at the start of the RCIA journey in order to get all those things out into the open (re-marriages, de-facto relationships, blended families, any need for annulments etc) so that they can get worked on while the RCIA is going on. While the interview process cannot be an interrogation, it still needs to be both pastoral and thorough.

What are our enquirers / seekers seeking?

Enquirers have different needs and cannot be treated the same. Here are some common scenarios. At the workshop participants were broken up into groups and given a scenario each. Then they had to answer two questions:

1) Name three things your enquirer might be looking for in the RCIA process.

2) Name three things your enquirer might be looking for in the faith community

1. Mr Jones is married to Mrs Jones, who has been a Catholic all her life. They have three children who have gone through a Catholic school. After 20 years of marriage, he is thinking of becoming a Catholic.
   
   
2. Jessica Smith is in Year 11 at high school. Her parents are not Catholic but thought it might be nice to send her to a Catholic school. Because of her school experiences Jessica is thinking about becoming Catholic.
   
   
3. Mr and Mrs Green are not Catholics, but they are interested in sending their children to a Catholic school. This was picked up in the enrolment interview process and the Parish Priest has asked them to go along to the RCIA enquiry night. They probably will attend, since they realise that they might have to get their children baptised in order to increase their chances of their enrolments being accepted.
   
   
4. Patricia Brown is in her mid 60s and when she was a little girl she went to Sunday School. Now she is divorced, her children have left home, and she is feeling lonely. She is not a Catholic, but knows there is a Catholic church near where she lives and wonders if she could become a part of that community.
   
   
5. Jack is in his late 20s and has a few tattoos. He's done a few crazy things and he is struggling with relationships. Could religion help him?
   
   
6. Melanie is studying at a Catholic university and hopes to graduate as a teacher. She was baptised Catholic, but her parents didn't go to Mass and she did not complete her sacramental initiation. Her uni friends are advising her that she will have a better shot at getting a job in a Catholic school if she has completed the sacraments. She's thinking about it.
   
   
7. Frederick White was baptised and raised in another Christian tradition. He takes quite an academic approach to life. He no longer identifies with the church he grew up in and has heard some interesting things about the Catholic Church. He's making enquiries.
   
   
8. Max is engaged to Mary. She is a Catholic and would like a nuptial Mass for her wedding. Max is not a Catholic, but is prepared to do whatever it takes to please Mary. One snag, the wedding date is a few weeks before Easter.
   
   

Each of these enquirers will have different expectations of the RCIA process and it will be very rare that they are coming because they want to find God or Jesus. Some of them ….  

• Will want to know exactly what is required. How much time is involved, any costs? They almost need a spreadsheet plan with dates and times etc. Detail is what they want, including who will be involved (the priest, the team, others), and how the whole process works.
  
  
• Will want a lot of flexibility - they won't be able to get there every week - does that matter? They'll be looking for the easiest path and the minimum requirements. Do they really have to do the "Easter Thing" i.e.do they have to wait that long.
  
  
• Will need a way to discuss their personal baggage/problems etc. All of them will bring baggage. Does your parish have access to counselling services or a pastoral care person? The RCIA team need to help such people address those issues outside of the RCIA meetings and should be looking for people outside the team to assist them.
  
  
• Will want to know why the Church is interested in their previous/current marriage arrangements. Make sure you get to know the person at the diocesan marriage tribunal who does have the answers. Does your parish have the resources to help them (books, DVDs, web-links)? What assistance and advice can the marriage tribunal give?
  
  
• Will want a very academic approach versus a more conversational/storytelling approach.
  
  
• Will want to know how you live your life of faith - you need to be honest and vulnerable. Be prepared to share your struggles in detail. Be prepared to share how God has worked in your relationships. If you share at this level they will be able to begin a relationship with you, and through your experiences get the courage to start building a relationship with God.
  
  
• Won't know what to expect at all.
  
  
•  The person who comes who doesn't know what they want will be the hardest to satisfy.
  
  

The way you start small talk with your enquirers will have an impact upon how quickly you can build a relationship with them. You need to step out of your comfort zone and talk about something other than 'What do you do for a living?' For example, 'What did you think about Father's talk tonight?', 'Where do you think you are on your faith journey?'  Remember, everyone is somewhere on their faith journey, if they got as far as an enquiry night they are not at the very beginning.  You will know that the conversion process is going in the right direction when they start to discover God's love and get excited about it. Sharon knew they had nailed it when all of them when writing about their RCIA experiences talked about discovering God and how much He was now part of their lives.  

What are our enquirers / seekers looking for in a faith community?  

• They will be looking for the very same things that cradle Catholics are looking for in their faith community.
  
  
• They will be attracted by ministry (especially hospitality), music (good liturgy) and message (something to nourish the soul and to chew over) - "The Rebuilt Story". Until a parish starts doing these three tasks well, parishioners will not begin to invite newcomers to their Churches.
  
  
• They are looking for relationships, with God and with the parishioners.
  
  
• They want to feel that they belong on the journey to God together with the congregation.
  
  
• They want to learn how to find their way to God through prayer.

 
Keeping it going

Just because an enquirer has started the journey into the church, it doesn't mean that they will finish it.

• The enquirer tells you 'I'm exhausted. I've got to have a break'. That means they are beginning to drift away. In such cases it does help to have non-team parishioners praying for the enquirers and verbally reminding them of those prayers once in a while.
  
  
• It is crucial to build the expectation that the initiation process ends at Pentecost not at the Easter Vigil, and even after Pentecost they haven't finished learning and growing – and that this is a full lifetime's work. If there is an expectation that there are some vital follow-up sessions/events/experiences, they will come.
  
  
• Keep reminding them that the time of mystagogy (the life long journey of growing closer to God) is not an "add-on" or "optional extra" but something essential. (Ed. Would you teach a youngster the road rules then give him the keys of the car and give him or her no further driving help? Of course not! Theory is one thing, practical experience is quite another). Build up some excitement for the post-Easter Vigil  learning and sharing.
  
  
• The RCIA team needs a break. The usual programme from August to March/April is a long haul. To keep things fresh and interesting it is worthwhile introducing some new team members during Holy Week who will be involved in the mystagogy process. That will lighten the load a bit.
  
  
• Some team members will need pastoral care themselves. Team members should be looking out for each other and alert for the early signs of burnout.
  
  
• Consider options that don't necessarily involve the team, eg. other parishioners or other parish groups, diocesan follow-on and adult ed. programs.
  
  

Things to look out for after the sacraments of initiation have been received :

• The downer after the high.
  
  
• The newcomers may feel that they are not special any more. Now they are just another Joe Bloe in the pew. To illustrate this, one mum had post-natal depression and had attempted RCIA three times. Prior to becoming a Catholic she would go up in the Communion procession and receive a blessing, maybe the sign of the cross on her forehead. Now she was receiving the Body of Christ, but she wasn't receiving that physical touch and she really missed it.   
  
  
• The newcomers may feel like they are on their own with no one to turn to for further help or advice (particularly if the team are busy with a new intake of enquirers).
  
  
• We should look out for tell-tale comments like "it doesn't matter if I miss Mass every now and then, because no one will miss me if I'm not there, so it doesn't matter if I come or not'.
  
  

 Ideas for keeping them coming back
 

• Consider giving them a regular task to do in parish life.
  
  
• Foster a sense of gratitude so that the transition from consumer to both consumer and contributor is smooth. We need to have answers for how they can support the local parish and for how the local parish can support them.
  
  
• The parish needs a plan at the parish council level for integrating the new Catholics into parish life. It requires both thinking and planning to make it happen.
  
  
• Get your parishioners involved along the way. Make some of your RCIA meeting nights 'open nights' for anyone to attend. However if you do, make sure that the hospitality is excellent (ie far more than tea, coffee and a biscuit). It is very important that the team regularly attracts fresh blood and doesn't become a clique.
  
  
• Get your new candidates onto e-mailing lists for both the parish and the diocese, eg Cath News, parish bulletins, diocesan e-zines.
  
  
• Get them to tell their story in person (at church, in schools) and to write it down too, and publish them in your diocesan magazines and online eg http://myfamilymyfaith.org.au/
  
  
• Help them to discern their gifts and charisms and encourage the use of them. They need to understand how the Holy Spirit has gifted them beyond what they were already good at. The Called & Gifted programme is good for this. http://bne.catholic.net.au/asp/index.asp?pgid=11362
  
  
• Consider what could they offer the next RCIA process
  
  
• Ask the bishop for some words of encouragement and send it to them in a letter from him.
  
  
• Send birthday and Christmas cards, and 'one year since the Easter Vigil – how are you going?' cards
  
  
• Personally invite them, by phone, text email, to events such as Faith formation and social events.
  
  
• Offer once in a while to come and take them to Mass so that you can go together for coffee afterwards
  
  
• Introduce them to good internet links and websites and YouTube clips.
  
  
• Give them personal encouragement.
  
  
• Don't underestimate the importance of excellent sponsors. These will be their role models, their encouragers and their listening ears. The right sponsor makes an enormous difference, since their role will last much longer than the RCIA process. Discourage if you can sponsors who are friends at a similar point in their faith journey as the candidate. If necessary, live with it and appoint a mentor for them instead.
  
  

Useful Resources  

The Catholic Enquiry Centre has brochures that can be downloaded for free. http://www.catholicenquiry.com/

Fr Robert Barron  10 one hour DVDs http://www.catholicismseries.com/study-program

Australian Catechumenate Network http://www.ozcatechumenate.org/

At Home With God's People, http://www.ahwgp.com/asp/index.asp?pgid=11988 from the Archdiocese of Brisbane

Fr Robert Barron, YouTube 'The Real Presence' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJjW3LXuHzo

The Skit Guys http://skitguys.com/ Christian video clips

Encouraging words from Pope Francis  

"All of us are called to offer others an explicit witness to the saving love of the Lord, who despite our imperfections offers us His closeness, His word and His strength, and gives meaning to our lives. In your heart you know that it is not the same to live without Him; what you have come to realise, what has helped you to live and given you hope, is what you also need to communicate to others".  (EG 121)

"So what are we waiting for?"  (EG 120)

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The next blog-post will be about the keynote talk on trends in the National Church Life Survey – which may get posted in two parts.

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
 

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.