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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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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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Proclaim 2014: Second half of 23 August Keynote Speech

10/11/2014

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Saturday Keynote Speech Part 2: Moving Members from Consumers to Contributors

Fr Michael White and Tom Corcoran, the writers of 'Rebuilt' and 'Tools for Rebuilding' continue their keynote speech on Saturday of the Proclaim 2014 Conference:

To work out how to move members from consumers to contributors you have to 1) work out how you want them to move and 2) work out whether you are communicating that properly.

We ask our people to take these 5 steps:

Pray. Have a regular daily personal prayer time.

Join a small group. To be spiritually encouraged by each other's faith.

Serve. Serve in a ministry towards insiders (weekends at church) and in a ministry towards outsiders (nursing homes, homeless, poor, schools).

Give. Give financial support to the work of kingdom building in the parish.

Invest and invite. Evangelise by investing time in relationships on the fringe of the parish and then inviting them to come to church.

Take stock of what you are communicating to the people in the pews about what you want them to do. Do they know what you want them to do?

How do get people to move?

Pray. You need the power of God. The bigger the project, the bigger the ask, the more prayer you need. Often we will do a 40 hours of prayer before launching anything new.

By example. We have to move ourselves and do these 5 things too. How are you doing on these 5 things? We cannot ask anyone to do things that we are not willing to do ourselves.

You have to ask them to move. This is a huge deal if you haven't done it before. Often the way we ask is very important. Asking out of neediness ('please, please help') just doesn't work. But people will respond if you give them a vision. Show them the purpose. Tell them if you do this (x,y,z) then you will make an impact like this (a,b,c). Every opportunity you get, share all the good letters of appreciation with your members and remind them that if they join in they can make this kind of difference in people's lives too. There are seasons for asking. Some times of the year are better for asking than others. Work out what they are and use them. There are also seasons for theme asking, eg a series of weeks dedicated to asking people to join small groups, give more generously etc. Work out when they should be, eg not during grand final season when people want to get home and watch the game. When it comes to asking, preaching is air cover to the ground war.

Make movement accessible. Put rungs on the ladder and make it easy for people to try out new ministries. Be consistent. Point out how easy the minimum requirements are eg. To be part of the parking helper ministry – can you wave your arm? Yes, that's mostly all it takes. Ask for what is achievable, eg asking for a 10% tithe would be baulked at, but asking 'can you give at 1% to start with, and work on increasing it a bit at your next pay rise?' is far more likely to get a response. Invite people to try out new ministries as a helper for a single session. Then if they find something that interests them, invite them to give it a go for a 4-6 week period as a helper.

Set people up for success. Don't get them to serve alone, but as part of a team. Give them the training and the equipment they need. Reward them for stepping out of their comfort zone.

Celebrate movement. Make a fuss of those who give it a go. Every breathing person needs encouragement. Send them a note of appreciation. Thank them personally for giving it a go.

Persevere. Change takes time; Time that is measured not in days but in years.

Do beta testing. Roll out new things to only part of the parish (eg Sunday night Mass) and see how it goes. Then iron out any problems, and fine tune things, before extending the new thing to the whole parish. If it flops then you have minimised failure, if it works then you have set things up to succeed parish wide.

Question and Answer session

Changing the music. We started trying new things out at the Sunday night youth Mass. It was an easy place to start. However it may not always be the best place to start. Go to where no one else cares, where no one else is invested, and start there.

We use the 'one church one message' method throughout the year. But in summer time only there is a brief homily with a longer message after Mass. Since it is after Mass the usual regulations don't apply, and lay people can give that message. Yes, the bishop knows and his response has been 'let's see how it goes'. It gives the parish priest a bit of a break.

Any advice for those who have a resistant parish priest? Build a relationship with him. Start serving first, 'How can I help?'. Do anything he asks, and do it humbly. Don't think 'he'll never get there'. Take the opportunities to talk to him when God provides them. Win yourself a hearing.

'One church one message' has to be totally consistent across all preaching and parish ministries. For example if the message this week is daily prayer, then it would be preached on in the homily, be an influence on the music chosen, be the theme for children's ministry and youth ministry that week, be the subject of that week's small group discussions, and all those in the host team (car park helpers, greeters, those on the information desk etc) would be encouraged to talk about that topic should a conversation get beyond a greeting. Normally the problem is that a parish has scattered vision. Having too many choices paralyses people into non action.

What is your future plan for your podcasts? Currently we are only doing the groundwork now, and using the podcasts to introduce staff members. You should get Fr Michael on there too. We'll think about that.

Do you have a parish pastoral plan? When you started did you have a plan? No. We’ve been in the parish for 15 years. The first 5 years we had no idea what we were doing; only that it wasn't working. The next 5 years we spend learning and seeking help and trying stuff out. It has only been the last 5 years that we have started getting into momentum. Planning is important, but we often plan and then don’t do.

The fallout from the changes you made was clearly painful. How did you cope with that personally?  It is very difficult to not take it personally. Yes, they will criticize and complain – expect it. Sometimes we will react badly to that. But it is all part of the deal. We want to make people happy. You want to make everyone happy – and you are not making people happy right now – but these people aren't in your face, they are at home doing other stuff and watching TV.

Final message

It is hard to be encouraged when day to day difficulties arise – but you have to have heart and enthusiasm.

We read in the Book of Esther about the heart break of the Jews in exile. But worse was coming, someone was plotting genocide. To combat this God raises up a simple Jewish girl as Queen and gives her a vision through the advice of a trusted friend. 'If you remain silent at this time and do nothing, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another place, but both you and your family line (parish) will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to the throne for just such a time as this.'

You are where you are today, prominent or obscure; you are in a position of influence, able to contribute. He has placed you exactly where you are for such a time as this.

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The next blog-post will be about a panel response to all of the conference input, informed by the conference feedback slips.

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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Proclaim 2014: First half of 23 August Keynote Speech

8/11/2014

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Saturday Keynote Speech Part 1 : Moving Members from Consumers to Contributors  

Fr Michael White and Tom Corcoran, the writers of 'Rebuilt' and 'Tools for Rebuilding' gave the keynote speech on Saturday of the Conference with the title 'Moving Members from Consumers to Contributors'.  

Not everything that has worked in our parish will work or be transferable to your own situation and setting. There are still many questions for which we do not have the answers yet. Our parish in North Baltimore is a work in progress.  

Many of you have read our book, 'Rebuilt'. Publishing a successful book has been a very interesting experience. That book has opened up the doors to many speaking engagements, even in Las Vegas. Let us tell you that travel gets old very quickly.  

Recently we were in Chicago and very much looking forward to going home. While we were waiting in the airport lounge we noticed a big buzz and lots of agitation going on. Our flight had been delayed. First by 2 hours, then by 4 hours and then indefinitely delayed. So many flights had been delayed and cancelled that quite a lot of panic developed in the airport. Our options were limited, we could stay and wait until the next flight to Baltimore became possible, or we could try to get to Baltimore via Cleveland. The lady in front of us at the airline counter was quite frantic about getting the Cleveland option. Eventually we did get home by the direct route. But the lesson we learned was this – it is very, very easy to lose direction and purpose over temporary setbacks.

So let's have a brief refresher on the basics. Acts 2:42 'These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.' This is what the first Christian community did, and they were extraordinarily fruitful in introducing people to Christ and in helping develop them in discipleship. The mission hasn't changed. This too is our task, our work, fuelled by the new evangelisation (we don't know what that term means, but we are learning).  

The difficulty comes with the details. In any project, the devil is in the details. So here we can get mixed up. To build you need to start somewhere, and the building site is your parish; your neighbourhood. Parish is where you join the kingdom building effort. And as you know, any building site looks messy and awkward.  

Your parish consists of those not just in your congregation, not just those in the pews. It consists of it of everyone who lives within your parish boundaries. So we need to learn about them, the people in the parish who are not in relationship with the parish. What is their culture? What they think about God, faith, religion? - If they think about any of these things at all.

We decided to learn about them. What we learnt surprised us. The majority of those in our parish do not go to church, were baptised Catholic and are not interested in the things of God at all. Learning why they left, and about what might them back, is critical to building the kingdom.

We read in the Gospels that Jesus took His 12 disciples on a road trip. They went to Caesarea Philippi, an ancient town that was like Las Vegas on steroids. It had a temple with a deep grotto that was dedicated to the Greek god 'Pan'. It was a wildly hedonistic place. The locals called this temple with its grotto the Gates of Hades. It is actually the source of the River Jordan. The interesting thing is that Jesus brought His disciples here not to preach or to teach but to ask them two questions:

'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' The disciples had many answers for this question because there was plenty of confusion about who Jesus is.

'But who do you say I am?' Peter gets this question right, and that's the first time that happens. He says 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'  

What happens then is that Jesus makes a very big announcement. As big as the giving of the Law to Moses, as big as the promise that a descendant of David would be the Messiah, as big as the angel's news to Mary that she would become the Mother of God. That big. 'You are Peter and upon this rock I will build My church.'

Jesus could have used 'temple' or 'synagogue', but He didn't. He used a word previously not found in the New Testament – 'church'. This is the biggest news ever. This is God's plan for the rest of human history. 'And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven'. Matt 16:18-20.  

The Greek word for church is ecclesia. It was a word used to describe assemblies, gatherings of people in a neighbourhood coming together for a purpose. A bit like a town hall meeting with a deliberate purpose which impacts upon everyone in the neighbourhood. Jesus Christ promised to build an ecclesia, not a kirk, not a building. He wasn't interested in buildings. An ecclesia is a movement. And a movement has gotta move – it has to grow, too. The ecclesia of Jesus is a dynamic gathering, a powerful movement, with world changing consequences.  

The problem is that church people get in the way. We like to control and contain this movement. We like things neat and orderly. Ecclesia is messy. Building projects are messy. Building projects are unpredictable. They are works in progress. Church people want things neat, predictable and finished. Tension between the movement of the kingdom and the inertia of church people is not ancient history – it happens everywhere.  

Building the kingdom is not easy and no one will thank you for it initially – do it anyway.  

Throw away your usual agenda, and ask…..

  1. Are we making a reasonable difference in our community or are we simply serving our members?

  2. Are we mobilised for mission or insisting on business as usual?

  3. Are we here to preserve a broken system or building where God is blessing?

  4. Are we simply meeting or are we moving and doing something with meaning?

People have one of four types of relationship with your parish

  • People committed to not coming

  • Consumers in your parish who come out of guilt, to get something, who come out of obligation, who come to feed their needs, who come for something for a family member. It is all about them. It is OK for them to come in that way.

  • Contributors. Those who are helping your parish to move and who are supporters.

  • Committed. Those sold out to build the kingdom of God.

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The next issue will give the second part of the keynote speech and some of the Q and A discussion which followed it.

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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Proclaim 2014: Mass Homily 23 August

27/10/2014

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Saturday Mass at Our Lady Of Dolours Chatswood

The principal celebrant for this Mass was Bishop Paul Bird, CSsR, the bishop of Ballarat diocese in Victoria.

He brought quite a significant contingent of over 40 people from his diocese to the Proclaim 2014 Conference.

http://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/aboutus/default.cfm?loadref=8

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1991579/catholic-bishop-paul-birds-christmas-message/

https://www.sydneycatholic.org/news/latest_news/2012/201283_1273.shtml

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbird.html

The readings were taken from Saturday Week 20 Ordinary Time Year II

The first reading was from Ezekiel 43:1-7 about how the glory of God came and filled the Temple, and how Ezekiel prostrated himself before the Lord and was told that the Temple was God's throne.  

The responsorial psalm was taken from Psalm 84(85):9-14 about the peace God wants to give His people. The response was sung, and was different to that in the lectionary, 'Lord show us Your mercy, show us Your love'.

The Gospel reading was from Matthew 23:1-12, where Jesus tells us to listen to our religious leaders and to do what they tell us but to not be guided by what they do since they often do not practice what they preach. He wants us to be different and to acknowledge that only God is our Father, Teacher and Rabbi. We are to be servants, and humble.

With so many weeks since this Mass, the initial response to these readings has faded a bit from memory. But the sense is still clear, of God saying 'I am powerfully with you. I have shown you what I want you to do, so go and put it into practice. I am depending on you to do so.  And if your leaders fail to support you don't be discouraged, look to Me. I will support you. Be good servants and be found worthy of the trust I have placed in you to accomplish these things.'

Bishop Paul Bird:  

"This morning when the deacon took the book of the Gospels over to the lectern prior to proclaiming the Gospel reading for us, he did it in a solemn and reverent way. Seeing him do this reminded me of the things that happen at an ordination of a deacon. During the ritual, the book of the Gospels is placed into the hands of the new deacon with the admonition for him to believe, to practice, and to preach this Word of God. That admonition is also very good advice for each one of us.

We make more of an impact with our words if how we live matches them. We have a problem if our actions do not match our words.  

St Charles Borromeo taught us that 'our lives should be sermons in themselves'. Speaking to those at his last diocesan synod he told them: 'Is your duty preaching and teaching? Concentrate carefully on what is essential to fulfil that office fittingly. Make sure in the first place that your life and conduct are sermons in themselves. Do not give people cause to purse their lips and shake their heads during your sermons, since they have heard you before, preaching one thing, then seen you doing the exact opposite.'

(Ed. You can find the rest of his speech in the office of readings for the feast day of St Charles Borromeo November 4 or at http://achristianpilgrim.wordpress.com/tag/sermon/)

A clear message comes across when our lives are consistent with our words.

Blessed Paul VI said much the same thing in Evangelii Nuntiandi 41 about the importance of being witnesses to Christ in our lives as well as our words. People only take notice if our lives back up our words:

"For the Church, the first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Christian life, given over to God in a communion that nothing should destroy and at the same time given to one's neighbour with limitless zeal. As we said recently to a group of lay people, "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses." St. Peter expressed this well when he held up the example of a reverent and chaste life that wins over even without a word those who refuse to obey the word. It is therefore primarily by her conduct and by her life that the Church will evangelize the world, in other words, by her living witness of fidelity to the Lord Jesus- the witness of poverty and detachment, of freedom in the face of the powers of this world, in short, the witness of sanctity."

Last Saturday Pope Francis was in Seoul to beatify 124 Korean martyrs, and he spoke about the great witness these martyrs have given us:  

"So often we today can find our faith challenged by the world, and in countless ways we are asked to compromise our faith, to water down the radical demands of the Gospel and to conform to the spirit of this age. Yet the martyrs call out to us to put Christ first and to see all else in this world in relation to him and his eternal Kingdom. They challenge us to think about what, if anything, we ourselves would be willing to die for."

(Ed. For the full text of this homily of Pope Francis visit http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2014/documents/papa-francesco_20140816_corea-omelia-beatificazione.html )

May the Lord give us the grace to give witness to Him more by our lives than by our words, so that we truly practice what we preach."

(Ed. For another version of Bishop Bird's homily, and some Ballarat feedback on the Proclaim 2014 conference, visit:
http://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/_uploads/enews//2014_Enews/August/aug29proclaim.pdf )

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The next blog-post will feature the Keynote speech from the Conference about 'Moving members from Consumers to Contributors'.  

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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Proclaim 2014 : Workshop 4E 22 August

14/10/2014

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Workshop 4E: Engaging Married Couples to build Parish Community

This workshop was jointly presented by Faye and Kevin Noonan from Teams of Our Lady.

Website information about Teams of Our Lady / Equipes Notre-Dame

http://www.teamsofourlady.org/home0.aspx

http://www.teamsoceania.com.au/

http://www.equipes-notre-dame.com/documents_privates/Guide_EN.pdf

http://www.foryourmarriage.org/a-tool-for-your-marriage-our-experience-with-teams-of-our-lady/

Faye and Kevin Noonan

http://www.teamsoceania.com.au/about-us/people/

The title of this workshop was a misnomer. It was only about Teams of Our Lady and not about any other ways of building up married couples in parish life. However, the workshop was still very interesting.

There are about 1000 members of the Teams of Our Lady in Australia.

This is a successful model for engaging married couples that works across cultures, ages and stages of marriage.

Kay and Kevin Noonan have been married for 34 years and have been in Teams of Our Lady for 33 years. It is one thing that we do as a couple, which enables us to serve as a couple. Parish rosters tend to split husband and wife up, and get you out of sync with each other, so that they often end up not even sitting at Mass together.

It is probably not an accident that you haven't heard much about the Teams of Our Lady because they don't tend to make a big fuss of things. However some 130,000 people need in homes every month as part of this movement worldwide.

Teams of Our Lady might make you think of a Catholic football team, but that that is not the case. The older meaning of the word 'equipes' relates to village fishing where the little boats would go out as a mini fleet and would look after each other on the way out, and on the way back, so that no one would get left behind in a storm or any other nasty seafaring disaster. This is a far richer meaning than the one we usually ascribe the word team.

So how did it begin? In the late 1930s five couples in a French parish near Paris wanted a new approach to married spirituality. They desired to live out their faith and marriage together. This was a time of men's sodalities and women's sodalities, when there wasn't much in the way of helping couples grow together towards God. So they approached their parish priest Fr Caffarel, who said 'Let's find out together'. After meeting together and growing together they learned and the movement became official in 1947, well before Vatican II.

Because the movement grew out of parish life, it is an ongoing model for supporting married couples at a parish level. It is a good answer to 'What do you do next?' for those who have been through Antioch, Engaged Encounter etc. Over 8000 clergy and religious are involved as members of the Teams of Our Lady.

Pope Benedict XVI sent a message to the 11th International Gathering of the Teams of Our Lady in 2012

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/papal-message-to-the-11th-international-gathering-of-the-teams-of-our-lady

"…couples of the Teams of Our Lady proclaim, not so much with words but above all with their life, the fundamental truths about human love and its most profound meaning."   

St John Paul II spoke to the Teams of Our Lady present in Rome for an international gathering in 2003.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2003/january/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20030120_equipes-notre-dame_en.html

"Fr Caffarel taught the greatness and beauty of the vocation to marriage, and, anticipating the fruitful directions of the Second Vatican Council, he set forth the call to holiness that is integral to marital and family life."   

Bl Paul VI spoke to the Teams of Our Lady on 4 May 1970

http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Marriage_sexuality_love.html?id=-nZ9NAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2177754

the version in French http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/speeches/1970/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19700504_notre-dame_fr.html (then use Google translate)

Both Benedict XVI and John Paul II quoted from this address in the messages above.

"A man and a woman who love one another, the smile of a child, the peace of a home: here is an exhortation without words, but extraordinarily persuasive, in which every man can already anticipate, as by transparency, the reflection of another love and its infinite appeal"
 
Canonically the Teams of Our Lady are a 'private association of the faithful with juridic personality', in other words a lay group / movement with a defined purpose.

So what is a Team of Our Lady? A movement with the two-fold mission: of supporting each couple in their married life, and couples supporting other couples.

A typical Team consists of a small Christian community of 5-7 couples, ideally guided by a spiritual counsellor, who are committed to mutually supporting each other between meetings. Each month they would meet together in the home of one of the member couples. Each team has access to local, national and international support.

Teams of Our Lady is not for those already in troubled marriages. It doesn't have the purpose of counselling. Clearly this is a Catholic movement, but it is a gentle one and couples with mixed marriages (one Catholic spouse and one Christian spouse) are welcome. The idea is to listen more than you speak, and to listen even if you don't agree with what someone else is saying. It is not a 'fix-it' group.  Because Teams of Our Lady have a set of statutes, it is regulated by them.   

There is a social aspect to how Teams operates, but it is not a social movement. Pragmatically, unless you have a small infant, meetings are for couples only and arrangements for someone to look after your children during meetings have to be made. Of course if there is a Mass, whole families come together to celebrate it. When Teams take retreats together they do things like rent out a beach house, and have a few times set aside for discussion where the older children look after the other ones, but the rest of the time is like a holiday.   

You only ever belong to one team. Over time as you grow together deeper things get talked about. Trust only comes with time.   

Each couple is expected to live by the six endeavours, which are a framework for growth. These are not tasks to be accomplished, but attitudes to be awakened and absorbed.

  1. The Sit Down. Where the couple takes an hour to sit down, on a monthly basis, to talk about themselves and not about functional things and not about work, children and other non-personal things.

  2. Reading the Word of God. On a regular basis and discussing it.

  3. Annual Retreat.

  4. Personal Prayer

  5. Couple Prayer

  6. Rule of Life. Thinking about and working towards doing better as a couple and family

Each Team meeting has four elements, and everyone takes a turn at leading them.

  1. Liturgy and prayer. A lighted candle, a scripture reading, intercessions

  2. Meal. Hospitality and table ministry

  3. Sharing. This is not a monthly download of your highs and lows, but a chance to share something that is important to you, a chance to listen and to be listened to. Of course, it is very confidential.

  4. Study Topic. Discussion on a book or social issue, one chapter at a time. For this there is a list of suggested reading, but each Team chooses what to study and doesn't have to choose from that list.
 
If things aren't going well we don't set any Team adrift. There is a liaison process whereby a 'check the heartbeat ' of the group is done, and support is given.    

A Marriage Encounter weekend acts like a shot of adrenalin into a marriage. Teams of Our Lady are in for the long haul.

The numbers of couples in Teams of Our Lady are steadily growing, and have been for 6 decades. Currently in Australia there are 130 Teams with 1200 members and 72 spiritual counsellors. Teams can be parish based, or language based, for example one Team in the Sydney area is for Arabic speakers.  Brazil has the largest number of Teams (3,250), followed by France (2,127). Even China has 14 teams, and New Zealand has 6 teams.   

Teams of Our Lady encourage their members to be involved in parish life. Because the meetings are monthly they can function alongside the usual parish commitments that members have.   

Teams of Our Lady can help start a new Team in your parish by providing presenters, formation for new Teams, Retreats (local, regional and international), ongoing formation, and links to many cultures.    

"A real Christian couple is a great work of God: the brightness of the sacrament of marriage is the reflection of the immense tenderness that unites Christ to the Church" Fr Henri Caffarel   

To ask Faye and Kevin Noonan for information about what is possible locally, email them at teams-noonan at grapevine dot com dot au.  
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The next blog-post will feature the homily from Saturday's Mass at the Conference.

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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Proclaim 2014: Workshop 3B 22 August

6/10/2014

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Workshop 3B: Living the Gospel – Lessons of Leadership from Pope Francis

This workshop was jointly presented by Lana Turvey and Peter Gates, both from Catholic Mission.

Lana Turvey

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=9&articleID=4991&&sub%20conversation%20with

au.linkedin.com/in/lanaturvey

https://twitter.com/lanaturvey

http://blog.travelpod.com/members/lanaturvey

Peter Gates

au.linkedin.com/pub/peter-gates/52/871/83a

http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/02/jan/27/06.html

'By and large the leadership industry is self-satisfied, self-perpetuating and poorly policed', Barbara Kellerman, The End of Leadership

A recent survey into the levels of confidence Americans had in politics, religion and education revealed that they hadn't any confidence at all in these institutions.

'Leadership is about influence, and all people influence each other', Alvesson and Sveningsson, Managers doing leadership: the extra-ordinarization of the mundane

Leadership does not require title and formality.

Just like Archbishop Bergoglio donned a new habit of white and became Pope Francis, so we need to don a new habit in our leadership areas.

It was recommended that we reflect upon the talk Pope Francis gave to the priests of Rome in September 2013.

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-to-rome-priests-never-settle-for-simp

and to these excerpts from Evangelli Gaudium:

EG 25:  I am aware that nowadays documents do not arouse the same interest as in the past and that they are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that what I am trying to express here has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing along the path of a pastoral and missionary conversion which cannot leave things as they presently are. “Mere administration” can no longer be enough. Throughout the world, let us be “permanently in a state of mission”.

EG 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. We must admit, though, that the call to review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them completely mission-oriented.

Peter and Lana then led a workshop exercise where we talked about what makes a good leader, and then wrote all those ideas down. No one had to think very hard to come up with these ideas, and the consensus was overwhelming.

To be a good leader: micro-managing doesn't work; focus on the big stuff, not on the electric light bill; having a vision is critical, being able to articulate it is even more important; lead by example; be honest if you don't know where you are heading; having an inappropriate vision for your organisation is very bad; be flexible; be authentic; be humble; be fair; be an attentive listener; be decisive; be other-centred; be inclusive; delegate; be approachable; have subject knowledge; be present; obey the golden rule (do to no one what you would not want done to you); be practical; be willing to learn; acknowledge your limitations; bring out the best in others.

Of course, if we aim to do all this we will certainly set ourselves up to fail. We can't do it all, but we can try to the best of our abilities.

Peter and Lana then took us through some amazing photographs of Pope Francis.

Some of them showed how Pope Francis ministers to the very sick, and the wheelchair bound, with tenderness, treating the other person – no matter how disfigured they may look – as Christ incarnate. He is compassionate and authentic.

Other photographs showed how Pope Francis is letting the little ones on the fringes come to the front, especially young children.

Many photographs show him prayerful and reflective eg in front of a statue of Our Lady or at the Wailing Wall.

It is obvious that Pope Francis is connected to God, and he shows respect for other faiths and the leaders of other faiths. To those on the opposite sides of national conflict he is not afraid to invite them to discuss their differences on neutral ground.

Pope Francis is open to the other. He takes time to make personal connections, to hug and to share closeness with the different one, the stranger.

In these photographs we see him preaching without words to us, because he is authentic 100% of the time. Holiness is leadership.

The people Pope Francis comes in contact with he converses with. He engages with them with dignity and respect. He can play and smile, and let himself be touched by others physically and emotionally. This is not 'at a distance' ministry. It is very important for people to feel listened to.

He freely shares joy-filled moments and can connect with people through laughter. He can help others smile, from the ordinary person through to the president of the United States. Pope Francis doesn't have to be in control, and he is quite happy to join in moments with others – like selfie photographs with young people.

Pope Francis calls us all to be missionary disciples. He imparts a vision that is positive and hopeful, and currently isn't doing as much critique of the modern world as his predecessors have. He frequently asks for prayers and recognises himself as a sinner.

Here is an example of the kind of man he is: One day when he was bishop he was visiting a parish where he met a young person who was in need. Knowing that he had places to be and thinking someone else from the presbytery would help the young person, he turned and left to resume his travels. However he hadn't got far when he was overcome with 'what have I done?' thoughts. So he turned back, found the young person, and spent time listening to him. When the young person had been helped, his episcopal schedule now in tatters, he went to a nearby convent to stay and found a priest to whom he could go to confession before saying his next Mass.

Good leadership looks like Jesus in action.

Peter and Lana then invited us to think about two questions:

Q. How can I improve how I live good leadership in the parish?

Be in less of a hurry. Take time to talk to those I see gifts in (natural evangelists, intercessors etc) and encourage them, and if possible connect them to people who can help them take the next step to develop/use those gifts. Engage more in conversation, and make time to do so. Take advantage of social activities outside Church and work on inviting others to experience hospitality eg to come out for a coffee and a quality chat.

Q. What am I going to do to live the joy of the Gospel?

Go and meet the person at the nursing home with a facial disfigurement.

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The next blog-post will be about the workshop on the Teams of Our Lady.

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.  
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Proclaim 2014 : Mass Homily 22 August

29/9/2014

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Friday Mass, Memorial of the Queenship of Mary

The principal celebrant for this Mass was Archbishop Paul Gallagher the Apostolic Nuncio for Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gallagher_(bishop)

http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bgalla.html

http://www.cam.org.au/News-and-Events/News-and-Events/News/Article/16457/Meet-the-Apostolic-Nuncio-Archbishop-Paul-Gallagher#.VCNy78scTIU

http://protocol.dfat.gov.au/Mission/view.rails?id=86

The readings were taken from Friday Week 20 Ordinary Time Year II

The first reading was from Ezekiel 37:1-4, a passage where God takes Ezekiel to a valley of dry bones and commands him to prophesy over the bones. The bones change and become an immense army. God then tells Ezekiel that this is what He wants to do for His people who think all their hopes have dried up.

The responsorial psalm was not the one in the lectionary. It was Psalm 62(63) a.k.a. first psalm for Sunday Week 1 Morning Prayer with the response 'My soul is thirsting for You, O Lord my God'.

The Gospel reading was from Matthew 22: 34-40 where Jesus is being questioned by a representative of the Pharisees about which is the greatest commandment of the law, and Jesus answers him by saying that we should love God with our whole being and we should love our neighbour as ourselves.

This reading from Ezekiel is one of the options for the Vigil of Pentecost and one that prayer groups in recent decades have often prayed would be fulfilled in their lifetimes. To have that reading proclaimed to us gathered for the Conference on Our Lady's feast day of her Queenship in the presence of the Papal Nuncio and representatives of the Church throughout Australasia was thrilling beyond measure. To hear that promise anew spoken by God into such an assembly was a promise of a mighty action of God's Holy Spirit if we put into practice the new directions He is giving us through this conference. In many ways, it was also deeply consoling and encouraging after we had taken a good long look at all the bad news in the National Church Life Survey results for Catholic parishes.

Archbishop Gallagher : "The reading from Ezekiel we have heard today is more than sufficient for us. Sadly these great quantities of dry bones are a contemporary experience in all the killing fields and places of genocide in our world. They are a testimony to the cruelty of man and to the reality of evil. We would much prefer that they did not exist.

What shocking words these are 'these bones are the whole house of Israel'. These words resonate with me as a pastor and as a human being. We would not be here if everything was beautiful in the garden of the Church.

We struggle on many fronts. It is hard to be confident that flourishing will come, especially when we stare at the white haired imposter that looks back at us from the bathroom mirror every morning. Yet we all know elders of great vigour who put us all to shame.

The Church is injured by many self-inflicted blows. We must be grateful for this awareness that gives us such a cold shower of sobriety.

Be guardians of hope, that is what Pope Francis is telling us, by keeping aflame faith, love and zeal.  God takes the initiative. He has loved us first. Let us go out to the crossroads and invite and welcome everyone. Let us take the first step, and become involved in God's great work.

Like those bones in the valley, we need life, that life which comes from the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel passage we see the Pharisees try to disconcert Jesus. The Pharisee who asks the question about the greatest commandment is implicitly asking Jesus to throw him a lifeline. In many ways it is a similar question to the young man who asked Jesus 'What must I do to inherit eternal life?' The reply Jesus gives to the Pharisee is a challenge to us as individuals and as Church. Jesus will not give up until He has all of us, heart, body, soul and mind.

Following Jesus is not a soft option. I am in this for life.

I cling to the words of St Irenaeus, 'The glory of God is man fully alive'.

Let us beg the intercession of Mary, Queen and Mother, and Jesus, for the graces to become truly alive in Him to the glory of God the Father."

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The next blog-post will be about the workshop on the leadership of Pope Francis.

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.  

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Proclaim 2014: Ecumenical Panel 22 August

24/9/2014

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What's working in other churches - Ecumenical Panel

Rev Edward Vaughan

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/edward-vaughan/9/409/436

http://www.stjohnsanglican.org.au/rector.html

Ed is currently the rector of St John's Anglican church in Darlinghurst. He is married with three children. Having studied at Moore College he ministered in parishes around Balmain and Rozelle for 13 years before moving to Ireland for a few years to be rector at an Anglican / Church of Island parish in south Dublin.

While Ed was stationed in Dublin he took his family on a holiday to Donegal. (County Donegal is in the far north of Ireland). There they found a big church, and wondered which denomination it belonged to. They walked all around it and could not find a sign anywhere.  As they got to know the place, with its small local community, they realised that everyone knew which church it was, what the Mass times were and who the priest was. Here was a community that needed to discover its missionary imagination and to think beyond the locals to the visitors and holiday makers who didn't know such basic information. In times gone by they had no need for outreach because the whole community shared the same faith. Things are very different in Ireland now.

The Anglican parish of Darlinghurst is a very complex place. It is full of young secular people living alternative lifestyles, and has a large gay population. The most common response to Gospel overtures is indifference rather than hostility.

Before starting anything new in the parish, Ed led his parish through a discernment process and through times of waiting on God for direction. It took a whole year of listening not only to in the pews but also those not in the pews. Several prayer meetings were held where people were asked to bring their phones. After prayers they were sent off to various destinations around the parish. On the way they walked in silence and recorded their observations with the camera and sound recording functions of their phones. The idea was to listen to all the words being spoken, to what they heard, saw and smelt as they went around parts of the parish. Then they returned and reported what they had discovered.

From this they determined that God was calling them as a parish to be 'a people of freedom and a presence of blessing'.  One initiative that emerged from this time of discernment was a café for street people manned by parish volunteers. The café provides a safe place for street people and others to come, and a place to start conversations and to make real connections with them. The parish has also found the Alpha programme very helpful in their context.

Greta Wells

http://ac.edu.au/faculty-and-staff/greta-wells/

https://www.facebook.com/gretacornish

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/greta-cornish/66/647/7b2

http://www.theomag.com/author/gretacornish/

Greta would probably describe herself these days as a charismatic Pentecostal.  There is a wide variety of diversity under the 'Pentecostal' umbrella ranging from Church of Christ renewal movements to charismatic churches and to the more vivid expressions of the Holy Spirit found in Vineyard churches. Of interest is that new churches form flowing from new experiences of the Holy Spirit rather than splits over doctrinal differences.

Most Pentecostal churches follow a four-fold Gospel model

  1. Jesus is Saviour

  2. Jesus empowers us by the Holy Spirit (through personal encounter with Him a person is empowered to give witness to Him

  3. Jesus is the Healer (we are empowered to ask for healing)

  4. Jesus is the soon-coming King

The 1980s saw the rise of the mega-church. There are signs that long term thinking has begun in these churches. They still have that sense of urgency about proclaiming Jesus as the soon-coming King, but that urgency isn't as strong as it once was. Altar calls are still a common thing, but the follow-up to such altar calls isn't so good. Some churches are decentralising their congregations, and are conducting experimental engagement with the prevailing culture.

Pentecostal churches do have a population spike with the 15-29 year olds, but this comes at a cost which is generally the under representation of over 55 year olds. These churches do challenge us to be continually open to the Holy Spirit and to make the Gospel tangibly relevant now, today.

Rev Pete Davies

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pete-davies/30/32a/261

Pete is an ordained Baptist minister, married with four children and several grandchildren. He currently serves as the Director of Church Development for the NSW & ACT Baptist movement. He has over 15 years of pastoral experience and 3 years of evangelisation training with Ambassadors for Christ International.

The Baptist churches consider autonomy to be a value, and thus have no hierarchical structure. This means that as I go visiting churches throughout NSW and the ACT I have the task of a bishop but not the authority that goes with it. Leading Baptists is like shepherding cats.

Baptists are very strong on the importance of making a personal decision for Jesus Christ. The majority of Baptists believe that the gift of faith is offered to all mankind.

Baptists have been known for their evangelistic crusades and big events with big tents which often happen on an annual basis. Sunday night appeals and altar calls remain common experiences in our churches. Personal evangelism has always been encouraged. We have found the Alpha programme very useful. By and large overseas immigration has kept our parish numbers up.

There seems to be a trend in Baptist churches away from event evangelisation to process evangelisation.  This is recognising that it takes time for people to come to the point of giving their lives to Jesus, and that it takes time for the Gospel message to find a home in hearts. We are learning to be present to people better, and to do more listening and saying less than before.

We are finding DVDs very useful as teaching aids and discussion starters in small groups.

If you can get newcomers to stay long enough, grace will happen. There is a move to seeing evangelisation as something that the whole community has a part in and not reserved for the pulling power of an exceptional guest speaker. At the same time we are experiencing a shift in proclaiming the Gospel of salvation to proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom.

We are challenging people to be radically weird for the sake of Jesus, so that it is clear to others the difference that faith in Jesus makes in our lives.

It is Jesus' job to build the church. It is our job to make disciples.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

After this panel discussion we had a break for morning tea where we were invited to discuss two questions:

Q. Which idea you heard today could translate easily into your parish?

Q. What possibilities are there in your parish for denominational collaboration?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The next issue will feature the homily from Friday's Mass at the Conference.

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 from that link.  

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Proclaim 2014: Second half of 22 August Keynote Speech

17/9/2014

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Finding a Way Forward – Dr Ruth Powell- Part 2

Between talking about the third and fourth trends in the National Church Life Survey, Ruth Powell took us on a tour of the Hillsong website and invited us to compare it to our own parish websites. http://hillsong.com/

When you scroll down the home page you get to a section which reads, 'Free this weekend? Join us in church!' and then shows a page of icons with locations around the world. This website is unashamedly set up with newcomers in mind.

So we'd click on Australia. http://hillsong.com/australia

And what message greets us? 'Welcome home. You belong here!' and 'Find your place' Followed by church locations grouped by state, options to check out the leadership team and options of special events coming soon.

Ruth then showed us the landing page for those who clicked on Sydney Hills http://hillsong.com/hills

Scrolling down you get service times, location with 'plan a visit' option, events coming up, what's available for children, youth etc, answers to frequently asked questions, a look at the pastoral team and more.

If you click on Plan a Visit http://hillsong.com/hills/plan-a-visit/ you find out about a concierge service which (if you fill in your details) will on your arrival show you around the place and introduce you to people.

Of course welcoming newcomers is important, but you also have to take steps to integrate them into the community or else they will leave by the back door and not be seen again.

Ruth then showed us the results of the NCL Survey for what Catholic parishes do to help people integrate compared with what Protestant parishes do. These are the main strategies:

  1. Follow-up visit from clergy or laity

  2. Invitation to join a social group or faith discussion/bible study group 

  3. People extend hospitality and invite them to meals

  4. Invitation to take up a task or ministry

  5. Course for new Christians / orientation program

  6. Other

Our Protestant brothers and sisters are twice as likely to provide follow-up visits (a), almost twice as likely to offer an invitation to join a group (b), over three times as likely to offer hospitality (c), a little less likely to tap them on the shoulder and give them a task (d), and four times as likely to offer a course for newcomers (e).

The fourth trend is an increase in acts of service. This trend is clear across both Catholic and Protestant churches where members are more likely to be involved in informal acts of service and church-based acts of service. Informal acts of service include lending money, caring for the sick, helping someone in a personal crisis, visiting a person in hospital, giving away possessions, donating money and contacting members of parliament.     

What the survey results cannot tell us is whether this increased busyness is feeding the consumer culture in our parishes or opening up avenues for conversations that lead to discipleship. Is it a case of 'look busy, Jesus is coming'?

These acts of service certainly build bridges between the parishes and the community, but it is worthwhile doing it strategically. For example, why start your own soup kitchen / help for new immigrant service etc when you could join your efforts to the church down the road that has already got a similar initiative up and running? 

Then there are many works of church based service that function like non-government organisations and never tell people the reason they serve is because the love of God impels them to. The way forward requires an integration of both words and works, since we know from experience that 'word only' and 'deeds only' doesn't work. A way forward is to get better at testifying to the reasons why we act in Christian service.

The fifth trend is a decline in inviting people to church. Here are the results of how Catholics answered this 2011 NCL Survey question:

Q. Would you be prepared to invite to a church service, here, any of your friends and relatives who do not currently attend a church?

  1. Yes, and I have done so in the past 12 months (27%)

  2. Yes, but I have not done so in the past 12 months (34%)

  3. No, probably not (18%)

  4. No, definitely not (2%)

  5. Don’t know (20%)

The decline is happening in Protestant churches too. Some of the decrease in Catholic willingness to invite others to church may be attributed to the Royal Commission into Child Abuse. It is the e) Don't know category that has gone up and the a) Yes, and I have invited someone in the last 12months category that has gone down, the rest are more or less stable. Overall 3 out of 5 people in Catholic pews would be willing to invite someone along compared to 4 out of 5 people in Protestant pews (with 2 of those 4 actually doing so).

The research has not found any single stand out value that attracts newcomers. Rather it is a range of things that together make an impact. The good news is that working on even one of these values will have a positive flow on effect to the whole church community. For example…

  1. Discover a sense of vision and direction

  2. Promote a strong sense of belonging

  3. Focus on those beyond church life (on the fringe)

  4. Encourage those that  attend to invite others to church

  5. Be an empowering leader

  6. Nurture growth in faith and movement toward commitment

  7. Aim for joyful, inspiring services

  8. Introduce contemporary worship

  9. Encourage informal acts of helping

  10. Look after the young

  11. Be willing to try new things

Summary

  1. With the notable decline in society's belief in God it is important to learn about what authentic and effective evangelisation looks like in this time and in this place. Churches need to reflect and to experiment.

  2. Happily there has been an increase in willingness to share faith with others. Since family members are so significant for sharing faith, how is your parish supporting them and equipping them for this role? There are people whom God has called and gifted to be evangelists in your parish. So identify them, support them, celebrate with them, and learn from them.

  3. Healthy, growing churches have been orienting themselves to newcomers. For many parishes doing this will require a major cultural shift and this shift will take a long time to do.

  4. There has been an increase in acts of service. They help build bridges between the church and community where authentic connection can happen. However we must guard against being busy serving consumers rather than being busy building relationships as we serve and taking advantage of the opportunities that arise to invite those we serve to discipleship.

  5. There has been a worrying decline in people inviting others to church. We need to find out what is stopping them from inviting others. If some of those reasons are parish based, we need to find out what needs to change and do something practical about it.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The next blog-post will be about the panel discussion on what is working in other Christian churches.

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.  
 
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