The final session of Proclaim 2016 was a plenary one, with a Discussion Panel made up of many of the keynote speakers and workshop presenters.

The Discussion Panel consisted of:
Fr David Ranson, Parish Priest of Wahroonga and Vicar General of Broken Bay diocese (DR)
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington (DW)
Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster (NH)
Dr Susan Timoney, Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington (ST)
Jude Henessey, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) Wollongong (JH)
Sophy Morley, Diocesan Pastoral Coordinator and the Coordinator for Liturgy in the Diocese of Sale (SM)
Professor Brother David Hall, dean of the La Salle Academy at Australian Catholic University (ACU) for Faith Formation and Religious Education (Br D)

(As usual, expect that these notes will be rough, but will give you the gist of what was discussed.)

Fr David Ranson (DR) facilitated the discussion panel.

DR: Thank you for all the questions that have been submitted. We will focus on the themes that were found in those questions. The American priest and sociologist Andrew Greeley, wrote that ‘the Catholic parish is one of the most ingenious communities that human skill has ever created. Its overlapping networks of religious, educational, familial, social and political relationships has created … “social capital"’. No other community can accompany the human journey in such an effective and sustained way. Would you agree that our definition of parish is changing? It still has a mostly geographical definition, but increasingly membership is more by affiliation.

ST: Urban mobility is both an opportunity and a challenge. Diversity of experience in a parish is a sign of vitality. We see parish as our spiritual home, and want the newcomers to be able to claim it as home too. If the community is changing rapidly, then more flexibility is needed. We need to both extend welcome, and to honour the history of our parish.

DR: How do we keep cohesion between the newcomers and the old timers? The latter feel displaced and the former bring new energy, but how do we maintain the identity of the parish?

DW: By getting them to realise they share the same values. We pass them on through community life and the welcoming nature of our communities. Pope Francis tells us that parish is supposed to be flexible, and to be able to grow and develop. I read Andrew Greeley's 'The Church in the Suburbs' during my college days.

DR: Perhaps the opposite situation is faced by those in stable rural communities, whose challenge is how to keep the message fresh.

SM: We do have large parishes in country Victoria, but they are remote. I travel to each parish. They are mainly 'anglo' parishes. There is an asylum seekers support group liaising with Melbourne. Through the Marist Fathers there is some solidarity with the East Timorese. Rural parishes have strong bonds of community. When other races and religions come into a small community, most people have no idea what to do with them. But this is only due to ignorance. With the Sudanese the breakthrough came through song and story, they love to sing and they love to hear and share stories. Once you get the connection, it all works.

NH. With 214 parishes in the Diocese there is lots of mobility. So we have to be more strategic. We have to ask ourselves, 'How are we meeting the needs of all groups in the parish?' With constant demographic change in each 12 month period, we need to take the pulse systematically. Are there large groups that don't come to certain activities, or some who come to some activities and never to other ones?

DR: Let's talk about parish collaboration.

JH: Wollongong diocese resides along a coastal strip with parishes close together. We are looking at clustering. But how to form the smaller communities into one community is a big challenge. We've visited the megachurches in the USA, and they look at areas on maps that are within a 30 minute driving circle firstly to pick locations without competition and secondly to make small groups viable.

Br D: The future requires collaboration, but brutal realities have to be faced. Who will get the youth? Who will get the young professionals, and by extension, the money? To make it work requires lots of respectful dialogue. It is a good concept, but less attractive in its reality.

DR: What does the sociological reality of communion look like in a parish?

DW: Communion is a spiritual reality, a grace of God poured out on us. Baptism is the foundation of communion, but it has to be manifested and expressed. What do our congregations do when they gather geographically or ethnically? They do what the first parish did, as described in the Acts of the Apostles: Acts 2:42: the disciples anointed by the Holy Spirit prayed, listened to the teaching of the Apostles, grew in the bonds of communion, and celebrated the Eucharist. How does this communion happen? Through solidarity, working together and collaboration. It takes practical day in day out effort. Our challenge is to find ways to manifest the presence of the Holy Spirit together so that everyone feels a part of it and is invited into it. At the same time we recognise that members don't have to be 'in everything'.

DR: St John Paul II in Novo Millennio Ineunte spoke about the need to promote a spirituality of communion and said that our external structures of communion rely on this inner reality.

NH: We are here because Pope Francis has a dream for a missionary option. He tells us in Evangelii Gaudium that if we respond to the call to evangelise that we will really experience joy. But we need to include the most marginalised, because joy is also found with the poor. Our structures must serve communion, and then that communion fuels mission. Vision without strategy is hallucination. Goals without means for achieving those goals – are illusory. We must organise our parishes as teams. Pastors need to acknowledge that they can't do all this alone. Laity acknowledges that we can't possibly do this without our pastor. What can you do with a reluctant pastor? Persevere with the Evangelii Gaudium vision, and choose 2 people to go and say to Father, 'We cannot do this without you'.

DR: We live in an age of migration, and many of our priests are from cultures alien to our own. This has the potential for richness, but also the potential for great difficulty. How should we deal with the difference in culture between the pastor and his community? There have been as many responses to this situation as there are communities, and we acknowledge that religious orders are helping a lot. A key factor is the quality of the induction of our foreign priests. It has to go much deeper than a 2 day course, and we need to allow more time for this induction process to take place.

ST: There are 21 language Masses each Sunday in Washington DC. We share a lot of catholicity and we all share Marian devotion. The challenge is how to weave devotions and practices together. A pastor is ineffective without the collaboration of parishioners.

JH: Wollongong has lots of cultural groups and chaplains. They are part of the richness of the body of Christ.

SM: This is a challenging experience for our parish communities, but we find that once the pastor begins to share his background stories then things soften. We held a day for clergy. Around 1/3 of them were from overseas. So we asked this 1/3 to tell the others what it was like to be a priest in this diocese. That broke down a lot of barriers. We have developed close links with a Nigerian diocese. Fear is normally our first response. We have to get out of our comfort zone and appreciate that these priests from overseas are on fire with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

DW: As integration begins to happen, it becomes easier. We need the virtue of patience. We have so much migration and so much merging going on between cultural experiences. The perfect vision should not become the enemy of the good reality. Small steps will get us there.

DR: We are called to be centres of inclusion. I've heard of a Tuscan village where the altar servers have mental disabilities. They stand at the Eucharistic prayer and have their elbows on the altar. How can we become more inclusive?

Br D: Inclusivity is a wonderful concept, which is now politically correct. It is good up to the point that it is cute, fun and OK, but when it brings confrontations…? Zacchaeus wanted in, and Jesus was seeking to find the lost. Are we courageous enough to bring them in? 'I'm going to have dinner tonight at his place.' I have to be open to being changed by those included. We must dialogue, and be open to be changed by the other. We need to be very honest with each other. The cycle of partial inclusion, followed by a road block (obstacle to further inclusion) and an 'I'm out of here' has to end. However there will always be limits to our ability to be inclusive – because of what we stand for, and we need to be absolutely honest about those limits with those on the way in.

DR: How do we advocate for the poor? What is the prophetic role of the local parish?

SM: Advocacy requires walking with people and making ourselves vulnerable. They might have personal issues that are threatening to us. If we look at the Emmaus story we see that Jesus didn't jump in, but that He first asked questions and let them talk. It is necessary for us to meet people where they are at and find out their passions. We are inspired by places like Paris and parishes that don't lock their doors, but leave them open so that the beautiful artworks can touch the soul. In our parish there were migrants who wanted to work hard, so we developed an unemployment help service – a project which is still going on. Other groups came together to help with finance and budgeting. These works did draw people in gradually.

DR: Whom is the Jesus you love and worship? In Benedict XVI's essays on Christology we see Jesus first at prayer. If the world looks at us at prayer, who does it see?

DW: We hope they see what we claim to be: the Body of Christ worshipping the Father thanking for the Spirit and rendering thanks that we are One in that Body. Coming to Mass expresses what we already are through Baptism, and is always an expression of the faith we profess in the Creed.

Bishop Comensoli: We thank our guests and our panel for what they have shared with us. Our thanks goes too to all of the workshop presenters and booth holders. Thanks to the many volunteers present here at the conference and to the other volunteers who worked in preparation for it. This huge team have been evangelising us through service. Thanks too for the representatives from the dioceses of Ballarat and Maitland Newcastle who have been with us. You have been through much pain, and you are hope and encouragement to us. My personal thanks to Daniel Ang and Natalie from our diocesan Office for Evangelisation. Bishops with ideas are dangerous and you made those ideas reality. I acknowledge the Bishops Commission for Evangelisation and thank them for all being here. We are committed to Proclaim 2018, but whether it takes place on the east coast or on the west coast is still to be decided.

David Patterson expressed thanks to the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the sponsors, Chatswood parish, exhibitors, volunteers, musicians and the Concourse staff.

Daniel Ang: It is coming to an end, our wonderful three days together. To the over 500 delegates who came, thank you for your grass roots work. Thanks to Bishop Comensoli for his confidence and trust and for taking Proclaim 2016 on as a continuing gift to the Church. Special thanks to my personal staff Natalie and Jenny. Thanks to our two MC's David and Alison. We now call upon the Holy Spirit to help us to return and to do.

Hymns, prayers and a blessing followed, together with a reading from Luke 5:1-11

Now it happened that Jesus was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round Him listening to the Word of God, when He caught sight of two boats at the water's edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats - it was Simon's - and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then He sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When He had finished speaking He said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.' Simon replied, 'Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if You say so, I will pay out the nets.' And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point. When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.' For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.' Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed Him.

We were sent to serve the needs of the Church and to strengthen our bonds of communion.
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My response

The panel covered some very pertinent questions that I think most of us would have liked to have heard more in depth discussion on.

One of the things that came home to me as I talked with people at the conference was the dichotomy between the experience of the speakers (mostly leaders and curial officials from large well-resourced dioceses and archdioceses) and the situations of the delegates (mostly pastors and parishioners from regional and remote parishes with extremely limited resources).
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For Proclaim 2018 I would very much like to see speakers from ordinary non-Cathedral parishes in Australia that have been growing at healthy rates. If time was spent this year finding those parishes and learning their stories and sharing them, the protagonists of them would be just as big drawcards to the next Conference as any 'big names'. I'd like less people to go away despondent because they know what needs to be done, and know what is possible in bigger places, but can't see how to apply it in their own context and more people to leave with true hope 'that if Kincumber, Mount Isa and Geraldton can do it, by George, so can we!'.
 
This is the last issue in the Proclaim 2016 series.

Workshop 5G – Who do you say I am? Parishes proclaiming Jesus Christ: Opportunities and Challenges.

This workshop was led by Shane Dwyer, the new director for the National Centre for Evangelisation. 
https://www.facebook.com/evangeliseaustralia/

Shane has lots of theological, teaching and public speaking credentials, but he is difficult to locate on social media.

He provided a booklet containing the source material for the content of this workshop to participants, but it didn't make it onto the resource list at the Proclaim Conference website.

NB. These notes are rough, they do not contain everything said, and will lack his particular emphases and probably mismatch some of his thoughts.

Shane started with a quotation from Archbishop Christopher Prowse, 'We are all called to go out to all people with all of the Gospel message all of the time.' That is our mission!

The degree to which our parishes are beacons of light, peace, joy, mutual support and integrity is the degree to which they are places to which those responding to the invitation to walk with Christ can find the formation and support they need.

The call to evangelise is not meant to be a problem. It is meant to be an invitation.

We are not called to wait for a parish priest to tap us on the shoulder, and think that we can ignore serving the body of Christ until that happens. We are not living in an easy time, but there have been terribly tough times for the Church before during her 2000 year history. Those truly rough patches testify that is it the Holy Spirit who has kept the Church going – and that it is not a human work. Miraculously God keeps bringing something to be, and that is the cause of our hope.

Our families may be a bit shabby at times, especially when we have a black sheep, but we still love each member in their imperfectness. In ministry we often get to hear about people's disappointments. But if we think about how wonderful and beautiful the gift of faith is, and focus on that, then those difficulties get put into perspective and it becomes easier to cope with family members not on the full path.

Before having time with members of our extended family it is worth doing some preparation. What would be the best approach to speaking about Jesus with each relative? If there was a positive response, where would I recommend they go? Would their local parish be wonderfully welcoming and well equipped to help someone come back to the faith or into a deeper relationship with Jesus? What could you invite them to that would be beneficial to where they are at right now?

Our parishes and homes are called to be oases of mercy.

Our vocation can only find meaning in the context of the real world in which we live. A high school student once asked, 'How is the Catholic Church not a cult?' The answer is that we look to our leaders and teaching for truth, but we each decide how to live it. We are free sons and daughters of God, each with our own vocation, each called to take responsibility for how the truth we have received is incarnated in our daily lives.

For this reason we can say that our vocation as baptised Catholics breathes with two lungs: personal holiness (relationship with God) and mission. We need both. If either is missing we are ineffective. Mission without holiness makes us become a real nuisance. Holiness without mission, means that we are not sharing the gift we have received for others.

Sometimes it is easier to be told what to do. But each of us will be called to account to God for how we have lived our life. We each have to respond to His call. There are no back seat passengers in our faith. None.

'Simply reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have.' 1 Peter 3:15

It doesn't have to be rocket science. We get overwhelmed and give up. Don't start with the end point, start with this advice from St Peter, and the rest will follow.

The Church exists for one reason only – to reveal Jesus Christ to the world. That we may participate in this mission, the teachings of the Church are directed towards the transformation of every aspect of our lives so we may become more like the One into whose life we have been baptised.

For example one of the teachings of the Church is the rule about attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation. Many complain that this is their only day off, and can't be bothered doing something someone else wants them to do. That rule is a nuisance until I am called to proclaim Jesus wholly in my heart, and realise that I need Him fully, that I have a hunger for Him, and that I need to receive Him in my heart in order to be able to live out this mission and to accept all that He is offering me. It is only then that I realise that if I don't receive Him that my spiritual life will wither up and die. Now I understand why the rule is there, and I experience sadness for those who are no longer in the pews and did not persevere until this rule became alive for them.

We are called to become 'as Christ Jesus' Phil 2:5, that we may proclaim Him to the world. He who emptied Himself to became one of us. We are all called to this mission of the Church. Resting safe and secure as we focus inwardly on the trappings of our faith may help us to feel good and holy – but it is not the mission to which we are called.

Holiness is for us the laity, not just for the clergy and religious. We the laity are the vulnerable front line of the Church's mission to the world. We are to be in the world, witnessing to our faith and our personal relationship with Jesus Christ in everything we say and do. That front line is experienced at every water cooler moment when I have to decide whether to speak up or not.

At times we will come across leaders who have taken on false teaching, eg 'Don’t worry if you don’t get to Mass. Nobody believes that the Eucharist is the body of Christ any more'. Remember that they are good people who are confused, good people who have been misinformed. In these cases it is better to say, 'Let's talk about that' than to shout out, 'That's a heresy!!!'

When we want to start discussions, having a good quotation to kick things off with is very helpful. Pope Francis has been providing lots of good quotations. We can share a quotation and say, 'If this is true, then it means we need to do something about it. What could we do?' And we need to allow everyone to contribute to the discussion, not just those with the best English and the best egos.

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

Evangelii Gaudium 49.' Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).'

Evangelii Gaudium 120b: 'Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples” and “missionaries”, but rather that we are always “missionary disciples”. If we are not convinced, let us look at those first disciples, who, immediately after encountering the gaze of Jesus, went forth to proclaim him joyfully: “We have found the Messiah!” (Jn 1:41). The Samaritan woman became a missionary immediately after speaking with Jesus and many Samaritans come to believe in Him “because of the woman’s testimony” (Jn 4:39). So too, Saint Paul, after his encounter with Jesus Christ, “immediately proclaimed Jesus” (Acts 9:20; cf. 22:6-21). So what are we waiting for?'

Evangelii Gaudium 127. 'Today, as the Church seeks to experience a profound missionary renewal, there is a kind of preaching which falls to each of us as a daily responsibility. It has to do with bringing the Gospel to the people we meet, whether they be our neighbours or complete strangers. This is the informal preaching which takes place in the middle of a conversation, something along the lines of what a missionary does when visiting a home. Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey.'

Beginning in an encounter with the living Jesus Christ, Who fosters in us an attitude of conversion and the decision to follow Him, by our living in communion with Christ and being called by Him within the communion of the Church, a sense of ecclesial belonging is strengthened and generates life.

Conferences like these help us learn that we are not alone. We get enriched by different perspectives. Sometimes we will get it wrong, but if we are not alone, then we can work on solutions together. With God we can find unity in diversity. It is easy to love in theory, it is more tricky in practice.

Let us understand that the mission has a Church: not the Church has a mission.

God is already active in people's lives, even in the absence of the kerygma proclamation. If we can get people to reflect on their own life experience, and affirm them while seeking the right moment to say, 'This is how I make sense of …….. – with Jesus'. How to pick that moment, and not too soon, is the big question. Calling on the Holy Spirit will help. We remember that Jesus is always looking for His lost sheep. With that help we can see how to look upon each situation in a positive way, and to promise that you can have all this and more with Jesus in your life.

When speaking with those who have different belief systems from our own we can ask, 'Do you believe in a supreme being? It is the same One we acknowledge. Let's talk.' Points of contact and similarities are what we need to find, and it is an art to find and express them.

Talking to lapsed Catholics is more difficult. By comparison atheists and agnostics are much easier. It is tough talking with lapsed Catholics because they think they know all they need to know, they will be defensive, and will want to tell you what's wrong with everything and won't want to listen to anything that causes them to re-evaluate their position. The integrity of how you live the faith, your prayer for them, and your willingness to answer their questions, is all we can do.

As the saying goes: 'If you can find the perfect church, go and join it – but be aware that as soon as you join it, it will no longer be perfect.'

It takes prayerfulness, confidence and boldness to bring Jesus into a conversation, but it's worth it.
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My response

This workshop was additional reinforcement to the previous talks and workshops at the Conference. The consistency of the message, 'Evangelisation isn't as hard as you think, yes you can do it, no it isn't optional, it is essential, and here's some more ways you can do it' was rather amazing.

The real test, of course, is whether we are alert for the opportunities to talk about the impact Jesus has had in our lives, whether we use those opportunities, and whether we are actively on the lookout for more opportunities.

I am reminded of a holy parishioner from decades past. He was a retired journalist, and poet, with a deep love for the mother of Jesus and at daily Mass until his health began to fail. He had been hospitalised and I had gone to visit him. Thinking that this was just one more of his short hospital stays, I launched into local news. But he was wiser than that, and he stopped me and said that he needed to be still and to put all his attention on Jesus. As it turned out, he only had hours left to live. However, his lesson has stayed with me. The older we get, and the wiser we get, the only thing that matters is Jesus, the rest is distraction. So increasingly any homily that brings Jesus alive for me is a good one, and anything less is a wasted opportunity.
We have a mission, to bring Jesus to others, and we won't be pleasing to Him unless we do.
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May He help us fulfill that mission and purpose. Amen.
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The next issue will be the last in the series, with notes from the panel discussion session that closed off the conference.

Before the keynote address began, conference participants were introduced to the new National Director for the National Centre for Evangelisation, a new entity bringing together the former Catholic Enquiry Centre and the National Office for Evangelisation. Shane Dwyer was very surprised to be considered for this role. 'The task in front of us is daunting. What to do? How to do it? But I don't see that as a problem, rather as an invitation to be responded to. Everything will go right if we stay close to Him, and allow Him to lead us in this task of calling people to come close to Him. Part of this role will be supporting bishops in this ministry. Sadly we often don't support each other in ministry effectively. Yet we are all on the same side. None of us have all the answers, but we can still work towards them together.'

This final keynote address of the conference was given by Bishop Nicholas Hudson, auxiliary bishop of Westminster. You won't find him on social media, but a few YouTube clips of his speeches can be found online.

Bishop Hudson is the 4th of 5 boys, educated at Jesuit schools and studied history at Cambridge. He then studied in Rome and obtained a licentiate in Fundamental Theology. In 1986 he became chaplain to the L'Arche communities. In 2014 he was made auxiliary bishop of Westminster.

His keynote address was entitled, 'Oases of Mercy: Parishes which radiate Christ'.

NB. These notes are rough, they do not contain everything said, and will lack his particular emphases. The full text of his keynote is available at http://proclaimconference.com.au/doc/resources/281016/2016%20Proclaim%20KeynoteBishopHudson.pdf but might not be available online for longer than 2 years.

Good morning. Thanks for the warm welcome
Some parishes are truly Oases of Mercy. The parish of St Egidio in Rome is a good example. Some parishioners back in the 1980s started a prayer group, and over time felt a desire to assist the poor. They began with soup and offering shelter at night. Later on they worked out that the need for literacy and education was just as big as the need for food and shelter, and did something about that too. These days they are feeding around 200 people a day.

Pope Francis used this phrase first when he said 'Wherever there are Christians, everyone should find an oasis of mercy' : Misericordiae Vultus 12

St John XXIII spoke about a parish being like a village fountain to which all have recourse in their thirst.

In Evangelii Gaudium 28 Pope Francis said that a parish 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.'

In Evangelii Gaudium 24 Pope Francis shared this vision of Church, and by extension of parish:
The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, He has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy.

Blessed John Henry Newman spoke about radiating Christ, and penned an inspiring prayer to explain it better:

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine: it will be You shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You in the way You love best: by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words, but by my example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. Amen

The way to proclaim Christ in the 21st century is to make our parishes oases of mercy, radiating the face of Christ. When Pope Francis calls us to be missionary disciples, he wants us to be missionaries of mercy. This, in turn, calls for a new way of doing things, and each of us individually and collectively have to ask, 'What more must I do?'.

At the beginning of the millennium St John Paul II invited us to 'put out into the deep'. Now Pope Francis asks us to enter into a 'resolute process of discernment, purification and reform' EG30 in order to find 'new paths for the Church's journey in years to come' EG1.

The first step in this process is to celebrate what we already do that is having a positive evangelistic impact. Discover what you do well, and then ask what more the Lord may be calling us to do.

The next step is to review the evangelistic potential of what we do under 5 headings, Prayer, Caritas, Faith Formation, Marriage & Family Life, and Evangelistic Outreach.

For example, if Prayer is going well, how do you deepen it? How do you unlock its possibilities for evangelisation? What are the prayer needs of our young people? Does the parish have opportunities for genuine forms of popular religiosity, eg processions and rosaries?

'Genuine forms of popular religiosity are incarnate, since they are born of the incarnation of Christian faith in popular culture. For this reason they entail a personal relationship, not with vague spiritual energies or powers, but with God, with Christ, with Mary, with the saints. These devotions are fleshy, they have a face. They are capable of fostering relationships and not just enabling escapism.' EG90a

Under the heading of Caritas, we might be doing well with our care for the elderly and food for the hungry, but how are we doing in the area of inclusion of people with disabilities? You might like to look into setting up a monthly Faith and Light group: a mix of intellectually disabled people, their family and friends, parishioners and young people gathering together for friendship, sharing, prayer and celebration.

There is always a danger that we focus our Evangelistic Outreach inwards instead of looking outwards. While there is some evidence that people with Christian backgrounds are finding their way  to the Catholic Church, our track record with the unchurched is very poor.

Have you heard about Night Fever? The idea behind Night Fever is simple: open a city centre church at night, fill it with candle-light and prayerful live music, and invite passers-by inside.

(Ed. Read about what has happened with Night Fever at Chicago, Saskatoon, Blackpool and Dublin:
https://nightfeverchicago.org/
http://saskatoonrcdiocese.com/news/nightfever-offers-outreach-conversation-prayer
http://www.castleriggmanor.co.uk/faith-and-life-stories/2014/12/13/nightfever
http://irishcatholic.ie/article/nightfever%E2%80%99s-simple-invitation-reaps-huge-response )

We need to think about how to reach out to those who come nowhere near the church threshold. Do you have a Welcoming Group set up to greet those that do cross the threshold?

In your parish communities it is good to make 3 year plans for outreach, and to have a mission activity to focus on in the next 18 to 24 months.

Form evangelisation teams. Discernment about how to evangelize as a parish/team can happen before or after the team is formed. Having an evangelisation team is essential. Do not walk alone, walk together under the leadership and guidance of the bishops. Jesus did not walk alone, He had a team. Like His team, ours should ideally have 12 members.

Again, like Jesus, prayer is essential before choosing the members of the team, and once the team is chosen. You want people with solid prayer lives in the team. You also want the diversity of the parish reflected in its team members, across age, occupations, ethnicity etc. You want membership of this team to be their primary parish role, and not a secondary one.

The purpose of the team is to keep the parish mission-focussed, and to become the 'mission conscience' of the parish. It is their task to discern how to evangelise and how to resource those initiatives.

What exactly do we mean by evangelisation? Just like there is a multiplicity of ways of praying, there is a multiplicity of ways to evangelise. Evangelism is about communicating a relationship with Jesus in word and deed in such a way that people ask, 'Who is this Jesus you love and worship?'

Pope Francis reminds us that the spiritual and corporal works of mercy are the criteria upon which we will be judged. We will be judged on the basis of love, as St John of the Cross puts it.

The corporal works of mercy are:

To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To shelter the homeless
To visit the sick
To ransom the captive
To bury the dead

We don't have to reinvent the wheel, look at some of the ways others are already doing them:

Mary's Meals https://www.marysmeals.org.uk/# feeding the hungry
Water Aid http://www.wateraid.org/au giving drink to the thirsty
Read http://www.clothingpoverty.com/ about the hidden world of fast fashion and second hand clothes.
St Mungo's http://www.mungos.org/ helps the homeless
Little Sisters of the Poor http://www.littlesistersofthepoor.org.au/ looking after the sick and dying
Prison Fellowship https://www.prisonfellowship.org/ assisting those in prison
Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services http://cmsmission.org/solutions/cfcs/ burying the dead
(Ed. This last one is best guess, CFC were the initials I wrote down and the screens flashed quickly)

When considering the works of mercy, we are encouraged to look at them by Pope Francis in the context of the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told this story to answer the question, 'Who is my neighbour?' and through it we understand that our neighbour is not just someone in a far-off land; our neighbour is more often the person we meet close at hand and whom we find to be in need. The Latin word for mercy is Misericordia, having a heart (cor) for the poor (miseri). Mercy needs to be not only affective (touching our hearts), but effective (bringing real relief). In order to make our parishes oases of mercy, they must become places which have a heart for the poor.

A pathway for discernment could go like this:
Take one of the five headings for evangelistic initiatives eg Marriage & Family Life.
•Ask, what do we already do well in this area?
•What more could the Lord be calling us to do in the light of Evangelii Gaudium?
•Then prayerfully consider each of the works of mercy in the light of that initiative (eg Marriage & Family Life) and the light of Evangelii Gaudium and see what possibilities those considerations lead to.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has very good material on their website about the New Evangelisation http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/ . In particular there is a practical and feasible list of ways of suggestions for putting the Corporal Works of Mercy into practice http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/jubilee-of-mercy/the-corporal-works-of-mercy.cfm
These are the suggestions for Visiting the Sick:
•Give blood
•Spend time volunteering at a nursing home – Get creative and make use of your talents (e.g. sing, read, paint, call Bingo, etc.)!
•Take time on a Saturday to stop and visit with an elderly neighbour.
•Offer to assist caregivers of chronically sick family members on a one-time or periodic basis. Give caregivers time off from their caregiving responsibilities so they can rest, complete personal chores, or enjoy a relaxing break.
•Next time you make a meal that can be easily frozen, make a double batch and give it to a family in your parish who has a sick loved one.

Many of these suggestions are already being done by individuals and families in parishes. Have a think about how they could be organised better, to help more families and give a louder proclamation of mercy.

My father taught me about how acts of mercy are meant to be part of family life. He was a school teacher, working Monday to Friday and Saturday mornings. When he came home from work on a Saturday he would take me – and a hot shepherd's pie – in the car to visit old Mr Flood. His flat was so bare, but he would sit day in and day out at his window and smile and wave to us boys. That smile of his, I realise now, radiated Christ to us. We met Christ in Mr Flood. We always receive more than we give. I think what Pope Francis would say is 'Yes, that's what I am talking about. Do more of it.'

The L'Arche movement was founded by Jean Vanier. He spent 10 years in the Navy and then studied philosophy and later taught philosophy. He met a priest who invited him to befriend two men who lived at a local psychiatric hospital. Jean felt a deep call to share his life with these two men, and bought a little house and called it l'Arche (The Ark). He had no idea he was starting a movement; he began just by doing it. The best way to proclaim mercy, is to start doing it. The easiest way to evangelise, is to start doing it.

The vision of L’Arche is found in Luke's Gospel:
'Jesus said to His host: ‘When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbours, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.'' (Luke 14, 12-14)

Soon after Jesus says, “Do this and you will be blessed.” Jesus doesn’t say they will be blessed. He says you will be blessed. Why? Because in the poor person, to whom you give a welcome, you welcome Jesus. When you reach out to the poor, you touch the wounded body of Christ. In assisting the poor you both meet and proclaim Christ.

But we need to also talk about our faith, and to add words to the mercy. Telling people who the Lord is for us is vital. When visiting Mr Flood we never talked about our faith, we never even said Grace with him. If we had, maybe it could have opened up a gentle conversation about God; either by inviting him to more prayer, or by asking if he minded us praying.

The spiritual works of mercy are:

To instruct the ignorant
To counsel the doubtful
To admonish sinners
To bear wrongs patiently
To forgive offences willingly
To comfort the afflicted
To pray for the living and the dead

The spiritual works of mercy are about expressing our faith in words. Pope Francis speaks strongly about them in Misericordiae Vultus 15:

'We cannot escape the Lord’s words to us, and they will serve as the criteria upon which we will be judged: whether we have fed the hungry and given drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and clothed the naked, or spent time with the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-45). Moreover, we will be asked if we have helped others to escape the doubt that causes them to fall into despair and which is often a source of loneliness; if we have helped to overcome the ignorance in which millions of people live, especially children deprived of the necessary means to free them from the bonds of poverty; if we have been close to the lonely and afflicted; if we have forgiven those who have offended us and have rejected all forms of anger and hate that lead to violence; if we have had the kind of patience God shows, who is so patient with us; and if we have commended our brothers and sisters to the Lord in prayer.'

We need to focus on both the words and the deeds of mercy. With both we need to proclaim Jesus, and we definitely need words in order to evangelise:

'There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.' Evangelii Nuntiandi 22

The early church used the kerygma to announce the Gospel to others. Kerygma means proclamation. It is the core proclamation of the Gospel. The key to evangelisation is proclaiming who Jesus is for you in a way that leads others to Him. Pope Francis says that it’s simply telling people, 'Jesus Christ loves you; He gave His life to save you; and now He is living at your side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free you.' Evangelii Gaudium 164

Pope Benedict XVI told the Bishops of the Philippines on 18 Feb 2011 : 'Your great task in evangelisation is therefore to propose a personal relationship with Christ as key to complete fulfilment.'

Listen again to St Peter's proclamation in Acts 2:22-24

'Men of Israel, listen to what I am going to say: Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and signs that God worked through Him when He was among you, as you know. This man … you took and had crucified and killed ... But God raised Him to life … Now raised to the heights by God’s right hand, He has received from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit.'

How do we share this core message with people? Sometimes opportunities take us by surprise. In Rome I was asked to look after 3 young women, aged around 19. On the way to visit St Peter's Basilica I talked to them about St Peter and the major events of his life with Jesus and his life with the early church and his martyrdom. By the time we got to the Confessio I was just about finished telling the story and said, 'And this is where he was buried. Right here, but about three levels down'. This profoundly affected at least one of these bright young women who said, 'I just don't understand why no one has ever told me this before. How come I've never heard this? I wish I'd known it before!'

Another time the English World Cup rugby team were visiting, and one of them decided that he wanted to play on the College's organ. The music attracted other team members to the College chapel. On the walls of the college were frescoes of martyrs from the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. It wasn't long before someone asked me who these people on the walls were, and I started telling them about the stories of the ways they heroically stood up for the truths of the faith and refused to be a part of a church that had broken away from unity with Rome. One of them, with tears, spoke on behalf of the others, 'I don’t understand why no one has ever told us this before. This is all news to me.' Many of our young people could say the same to us: 'You never told us. There's so much about Jesus and our history that no one ever told us.'

This proclamation of who Jesus is, and of how others have testified to that, needs to be present in every homily, every class and every talk we give. When I meet young people preparing for Confirmation, I challenge them, and remind them that when you make these baptismal promises for yourself, you are saying you believe Jesus is who He says He is:

You are saying you believe He was God made human; that He was a historical person; that He was born a little over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem; that He grew up in Nazareth; that, at about the age of thirty, He was anointed by the Holy Spirit and began a ministry of teaching and preaching and healing; He worked many miracles which proved He was divine; but, after three years, His people rejected Him; they had Him put to death by crucifixion. But He had promised them He would rise from the dead. When He returned to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit upon His disciples. And it is this same Holy Spirit who comes upon you and leads you into the fullness of life.

Now, that’s the kerygma, the core proclamation. It’s what we mean by kerygmatic catechesis.

Every time someone comes along, adult or child, for sacramental preparation dare to ask, 'When you say the Creed at Mass on Sunday, do you believe in everything we say there; or are there some parts you wonder about, would like to discuss, or know more about?' After all, if we can't talk about these things in formal catechesis, then when can we? At all the different stages of faith development we need to revisit this core message of a relationship with Christ, in word and in deed, in such a way that makes people ask, 'Who is this Jesus whom you love and worship?'

Ever thought of changing the world one heart at a time? That's how Jesus began with Peter and Andrew, Matthew, John and James. I do believe it is one heart at a time that we begin to radiate Christ – showing every person whom we encounter not just that our parish is an oasis of mercy but that they will find an oasis of mercy in us, in each of us. To be able to embrace individual hearts this way comes from years of meeting the Lord daily in prayer. Then you begin to radiate Christ. And it is where we need start too: on our knees. As more people do the same: giving themselves daily to the Lord in prayer, giving themselves daily to their neighbour through acts of generosity, self-sacrifice, charity and loving kindness – then, little by little, our parishes will become oases of mercy which radiate Christ. And we will find our Church becomes missionary in ways we never imagined possible.
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My response

It is some months now since this talk was given, but I do remember how after this talk everyone tumbling into the area where food and drink could be found had this upbeat sense of 'Yes, I can do that' about these ideas for evangelisation, or 'now I understand what this kerygma stuff is and how to do it'. We were all grateful for these very practical ideas and explanations.
​
What these words cannot convey are the video-clips and photographs Bishop Hudson showed us. We were all deeply moved by a little girl with intellectual disability praying the Our Father and the photographs of parishes including people with all kinds of disabilities in their activities.
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In the next issue will be notes from the workshop on the opportunities and challenges for parishes as they seek to proclaim Jesus Christ.

The principal celebrant for this Mass at Our Lady of Dolours, Chatswood, was Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington.
 
The readings were mostly taken from Saturday Week 22 Ordinary Time Year II, with the Proper for the feast day of St Gregory the Great.
 
Opening hymn: Sing a New Church (to Beethoven's tune of 'Come Sing a Song of Joy…')
 
Cardinal Wuerl : We gather together for the Eucharist, our source of faith and energy, our purpose and our reason for all that we do.

The first reading was from 1 Corinthians 4: 6-15, a passage where St Paul asks us to keep to what is written, and to remember that all we have has been given to us so that there is no cause for boasting. He reminds us that as apostles poor treatment is expected, and that we are to pay back with a blessing.
 
The responsorial psalm was part of Psalm 95(96), which includes 'Sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, bless His Name.' taken from the readings for St Gregory the Great, with the sung response 'Proclaim, proclaim, proclaim His marvellous deeds to all the nations.'
 
The Gospel reading was from Luke 6: 1-5 about Jesus walking through the cornfields with his disciples on the Sabbath, and getting into trouble because the disciples were doing 'work' on the Sabbath by picking the ears of corn and eating them.
 
Cardinal Wuerl
My brother bishops, priests, religious, and brothers and sisters in the Lord, I want to express to you my gratitude for participating in this Conference with you, and for the intensity of your commitment. Today we celebrate the feast of St Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church, a great inspiration for his day and age. His Book of Pastoral Rule written to help bishops in their ministry still inspires us today. He was the Pope who used the title Servant of the Servants of God for the first time. How do you carry the Gospel into the world in which we live? In the Gospel we hear Jesus say that 'The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath', helping His disciples understand who He is. What does Jesus ask of us, as He reveals who He is? That we place our faith in Him. The Eucharist is the agent and power of our faith. We come to Mass to be renewed every day, praying to be open to the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit. Faith, great as it is, is meant to be shared. Jesus says to each one of us, 'You will be My witnesses'. Grateful for the gift of faith, St Gregory the Great sent missionaries out. We are particularly thankful for the missionaries he sent out to the English speaking world. St Paul tells us that we are born to faith through those who have proclaimed it to us, and in turn we become Gospel reflections to others. We hear the words of Jesus, 'You will be My witnesses', 'Proclaim, proclaim, proclaim', 'You will be My disciples'. When we respond through the act of faith we become active participants in the transformation of the world. St Gregory the Great challenged his missionaries to engage in the announcement that Jesus is Lord. How do we in turn bear witness to the people around us who are in need of the faith, love and presence of Jesus? That is the great task of the New Evangelisation. Firstly our minds and hearts must be renewed in the faith, continually, over and over again. Then in confidence stand, and calmly and serenely offer to others the words of everlasting life. Live it. Go Out. Share it. Pope Francis encourages us not to stay locked up in the comfort of faith, and to go out and share it. What does it take for each one of us to invite someone to Mass? A true witness will recognise that it is our turn. The same power of the Holy Spirit is with us to quietly, persistently, consistently live in the joy of the Gospel in such a way that invites others to share that joy. He is the Lord, we are His witnesses and the power of the Holy Spirit is His gift to us.

Communion Hymn: Take and Eat
 
Recessional Hymn: Go To The World (with the tune of 'For All the Saints' Sine Nomine)
 
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My response

For me this homily contained the key thought for this third day of the Conference: 'In the power of the Holy Spirit, quietly, persistently and consistently live the joy of the Gospel in a way that invites others to share that joy.'
​
This homily brilliantly distilled in a few sentences all that we had heard God calling us to do throughout the Conference. The hard part, of course, is actually doing it. May God help us.
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In the next issue will be notes from the keynote speech of Bishop Nicholas Hudson about how to make our parishes oases of mercy.

Workshop 4E – Who do we think we are? Models of Parish that help or hinder our mission.

This workshop was led by Lorraine McCarthy, co-ordinator for Alpha in a Catholic Context, and a spiritual director with many years of pastoral associate experience behind her.
You can find her on Facebook and Twitter .

Working out who do we think we are is an important question, because we cannot communicate a clear vision or mission without agreeing about our purpose and identity.

Then we can ask 'Who do people outside the church think we are?'

Lorraine showed us a very good video-clip prepared by the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and the Any Given Sunday Project about the various reasons people give for not coming to Sunday Mass.

***Hopefully access to the video-clip link will be restored soon www.anygivensundayproject.org

They included: 'I've got to get my life together first'; 'They're hypocrites, who only care about money'; dress code; nervousness; 'I don't believe everything you do'; 'It is only for wimpy girly men'; 'My past is an issue'

We were invited to chat about these reasons, and any others we could come up with.

We have to build a big bridge of trust. Outsiders no longer look favourably upon us as a church.

Before we begin to welcome, we have to break down those barriers.

Trust is not the same as an active personal faith, but it is a step in the right direction.

We were then given three questions to chew on:
•Have you seen evidence of negative attitudes in people on the fringes of your parish?
•How is a bridge of trust built?
•Name one step your parish can take / does take to build bridges of trust in your community.

There is a difference between being a welcoming community and being an inviting community. Building trust has to happen off church property, eg on train trips, down at the footy club.

Who do WE think that we are?

The Church's mission is given in Matthew 28:19-20
Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.'

Making Disciples is the core mission statement of our parish.

Pope Francis encourages us in Evangelii Gaudium 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”.

Models of Practical Ecclesiology: The Presumptions that hinder our mission

Parish as Social Club
We might see parish as a place for community building, and for leisure and social activities, but we have to ask whether in doing so we are building Christian community. Socialising and Christian Fellowship are very different. Socialising is getting people of like minds together, and excluding those who are 'a little bit different'. Socialising can tie up facilities and resources. Fellowship leads to people saying, 'look how they love one another'.

Parish as Funeral Home
Funerals are an important part of the provision of pastoral care. People with little or no church affiliation expect a funeral Mass and the use of parish facilities for refreshments afterwards. It takes some 6-8 hours for a priest to prepare for a funeral. If he has an 8am Mass and a 10.30am funeral, he has no time and energy for anything else. Funerals, although necessary, have the potential to cripple the timetable and energy of the priests, staff and people of the parish.

Parish as Museum
We have a fixation on the parish buildings and maintaining things of the past, the outward forms of our faith. 80-90% of parish finances can be spent on maintaining, insuring, heating and cooling buildings. The clustering of parishes that is going on means that some parishes have sets of presbyteries, churches and halls. Some of the funds tied up in buildings could be released for more staff or more modern facilities. Are our buildings meeting the needs of our current parish identity or are we doing the equivalent of marching around with pom poms on our feet like the Greek Presidential Guard – relics from times gone by?

Parish as Bank
When a parish is following a maintenance model, its primary focus is on maintaining the flock. Concurrent with this will be a focus on debt reduction and having money in the bank as a buffer. As a parish's average age of member increases, pressure is on to save now to make it through future times of financial aridity. But Jesus Christ calls us to a kind of 'venture capitalism'. If you are asking members to give of their resources to aid the mission of the Church, then if that money is saved in the bank rather than spent on the primary 'making disciples' mission of the Church –something stinks. Often we play it too safe, too careful. When a strong vision is presented, people will buy-in and donate. Disciples are raised up through relationships not through buildings, and you need the parish staff to enable the relationships.

Parish as a School
For many parishes their main missionary and financial focus is the parish school. It is not unusual to see a nice school adjacent to parish plant (church, office. meeting rooms, presbytery etc) that is in poor repair. Some parishes are contributing $30,000 per annum as well as the labour of parish staff members to keep the local parish primary school open for business. How did we get to this situation when the example Jesus gives in the Gospels is of teaching the adults and blessing the children? Traditionally (at least in living memory) we've been teaching the children and blessing the adults! To follow Jesus our teaching priority should be adults not children.

Parish as a Soup Van
In this model the parish exists to provide services to the parish members and to the community. Such a model risks seeing individuals categorised through the specialised care that they need, and not as people called and gifted to serve God's mission.

Evangelii Gaudium 183
Consequently, no one can demand that religion should be relegated to the inner sanctum of personal life, without influence on societal and national life, without concern for the soundness of civil institutions, without a right to offer an opinion on events affecting society. Who would claim to lock up in a church and silence the message of Saint Francis of Assisi or Blessed Teresa of Calcutta? They themselves would have found this unacceptable. An authentic faith – which is never comfortable or completely personal – always involves a deep desire to change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth somehow better that we found it. We love this magnificent planet on which God has put us, and we love the human family which dwells here, with all its tragedies and struggles, its hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses. The earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and sisters. If indeed “the just ordering of society and of the state is a central responsibility of politics”, the Church “cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice”. All Christians, their pastors included, are called to show concern for the building of a better world. This is essential, for the Church’s social thought is primarily positive: it offers proposals, it works for change and in this sense it constantly points to the hope born of the loving heart of Jesus Christ. At the same time, it unites “its own commitment to that made in the social field by other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, whether at the level of doctrinal reflection or at the practical level”.

We are called to witness with both our words and our actions.

Evangelii Gaudium 200
Since this Exhortation is addressed to members of the Catholic Church, I want to say, with regret, that the worst discrimination which the poor suffer is the lack of spiritual care. The great majority of the poor have a special openness to the faith; they need God and we must not fail to offer them his friendship, his blessing, his word, the celebration of the sacraments and a journey of growth and maturity in the faith. Our preferential option for the poor must mainly translate into a privileged and preferential religious care.

We have to do both together, practical care and spiritual care for those in need, especially the poor. But a parish should primarily be where competent apostles are formed and sent out to bring Jesus Christ to the world through acts of love and mercy. At least some of our energy and resources have to be used to form people to use their gifts. The more apostles we send out, the more all that good stuff we are called to do is multiplied.

At this point workshop participants were invited to discuss the following question: Do you see echoes of these models operating in your own mindset or in your parish?

Archbishop Porteous: 'Evangelisation is not an ecclesial marketing campaign. The Church does what she does because Jesus has changed our relationship to everyone.'

Parish as Photocopier
This is a model for evangelising, discipling and missioning. Evangelisation is the work we do to draw people in, just like the photocopier draws in paper. Everything we do has to have the capacity to draw people in. Discipling is what we do in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), in schools, in sacramental preparation. Through the catechesis and sacraments people are transformed in Christ, just like the photocopier prints, copies, fold and staples, our task is to imprint Jesus on hearts and souls through their involvement and formation in the parish. Just like you can't get the ink off the photocopied paper, the transformation is meant to be permanent. Missioning is the sending out of apostles. In a photocopier, the paper that comes out the other end is designed to be a message distributed to many. Likewise, the parish is designed to send forth its members to spread the message about Jesus, the Son of God.

This kind of cycle is how the Church (and parish) works best. A healthy parish looks like this, with all three parts working properly. Are our parishes overheated, jammed or gathering dust?

Who wants change? Yes, everybody does.
Who wants to change? Nobody does.

What are the characteristics of a mission-driven parish?
•It is united in how it understands mission
•It regularly talks about mission
•It has multiple experiences available for those at pre-evangelisation, kerygma and catechesis stages
•There is a clear, simple path for discipleship, which is visible and understandable by everyone.

Stages of trust and curiosity
-are where pre-evangelisation is used
Stages of openness and seeking
-are where the kerygma is presented
Stages of discipleship and apostleship
-are where catechesis is offered

The game plan or discipleship path looks like this:
Invitation, Alpha, Alpha team member, Connect group member, Ministry group member, Discipleship group (to each year learn something) and Worship

All parishioners are expected to participate in the game plan at their level of interest.

The culture of discipleship contains an expectation of growth, where the relationship with Jesus and the faith community is nurtured and sustained.

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

This workshop highlighted what the missing link is: trust. By and large parishes are doing better at greeting and welcoming…but that only works if a newcomer has the courage to enter the door of the church. Too often we sit and wait for them to come, and forget that the first word of the Great Commission Matt 28:18-20 is Go as in 'Go, get 'em'.

So the question becomes, how do we get an outsider to go from thinking of church going folk as weird aliens steeped in stupidity and superstition and a danger to children to thinking of us as people just like them finding real help from God in the struggles of life? It is not going to happen through a letterbox drop or an ad in the local newspaper, it has to be living person to living person. Good quality testimonies on YouTube have their part to play, but won't reassure a viewer about the type of person they would meet if they showed up at church. That's where the dog walking lady who lives on the same street and stops and chats has an infinite edge, if she mentions she goes to church and once in a while says, 'hey, would you like to come too?'.

'Building trust has to happen off church property' and by extension where you naturally find lots of people'. That means we need something to precede kerygma opportunities like Alpha. St Paul Street Evangelisation teams are one way of doing this: http://streetevangelization.com/ . Having a table at the local once a month market stalls is another. Renting vacant space in a busy local shopping centre and setting up an area of prayer and rest, with a corner to listen to personal stories and offer intercessory prayer for needs revealed is something else to consider. Entering teams in local fun runs and walkathons for charitable causes is an option, as is getting together contingents for the public celebration of days of national significance (eg. a lone priest at the local dawn service on Anzac Day will make a much bigger impact if there are 30 parishioners with recognisable name badges with him, who mingle and chat with people they don’t know before and after the ceremonies).

The image that keeps coming back to me is of a car with the motor running, and the wheels turning, but not touching the ground. Unless the rubber of the tyres makes contact with the street, the car will go nowhere. Local parishioner to local person conversation that includes content about prayer, faith, Jesus, and the benefits of worship as a united community is what will get the rubber hitting the road...it might take a few times to gain traction…but that's what will get the missing link of trust active again.

I've seen all these models of parish (except the photocopier) in action. Chances are you have as well.

Parish as social club is a tricky one because generally we have to get to know each other first before we are comfortable to talk about what God has done for us, and is doing with us. Having a culture that expects one to lead to the other, and facilitates it; that's the goal to aim for. Beware of the subtle forms of exclusion: locations difficult to get to by public transport, functions with a cover charge that people on a very tight budget could not afford.

Parish as a funeral home is unavoidable, firstly because burying the dead and praying for them are acts of mercy; secondly because they are moments of truth. Depending on how the family of the deceased is treated, they will either grow in openness to God and parish or they will shake the dust from their feet and never look back.

Parish as museum, parish as bank, parish as a school and parish as soup van are part of our commitment to those of the past who built them up, and part of our commitment to those of the future who will benefit when we are long gone and pushing up daisies. The issue is whether scarce resources are being managed with a balance between maintenance and growth.

Surely we would all laugh at the business owner who didn't have budgets for advertising, public relations, professional development, and product research and development. Without them he'd he would see no growth and sooner or later the business would be insolvent. Likewise we can no longer view budgets for pre-evangelisation, kerygma, and adult catechesis as optional luxuries; they have to be looked on as essential costs of doing 'missionary discipleship' business. Granted, those budgets might have to start small and grow gradually, but they have to start!

I do really like the parish as photocopier analogy. It is very good for helping people understand the making disciples process; highlighting why each part of the process is absolutely necessary and working out which part of the process their God-given gifts have equipped them to serve in most. In this model, let's not forget where the electrical power comes from: co-operation with the Holy Spirit and lots of intercessory prayer. Even the best photocopier will be useless unless the connection to the Holy Spirit power source is switched on.
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In the next issue will be notes from the homily from the third Mass of the conference with Cardinal Wuerl, archbishop bishop of Washington presiding.
 

Workshop 3F – Renewing Sacramental Preparation: Engaging our parents and children in the life of faith.

This workshop was led by Marguerite Martin, Pastoral Associate at St Vincent's parish, Ashfield and assisted by Sinead Kent, Family Educator at St Vincent's parish, Ashfield.

(Just a reminder that these notes are rough and do not convey everything that was said, nor the nuances with which it was said.)

Why am I Catholic? That is the big question for me. I've been part of an ecumenical youth team, and have had many lively discussions with the team members. As part of the team we were invited to 'leave church baggage behind and go into State High Schools'. On the positive side it gave me lots of insight into other Christian denominations and what we commonly held as true.

Why am I Catholic? The answer lay in the sacraments, and I grew to love those sacraments with a passion. Around this time, the Parish Priest needed help with Sacramental preparation. The wonder of sacramental preparation is that the people come to us! We don't have to go seeking them. So I helped, and later on I was offered the position of Pastoral Associate.

Ashfield is an inner west suburb of Sydney, close to a railway station. Some people call it 'Little Shanghai' because of its multiplicity of restaurants.

You are here at this workshop because you share the same passion for the sacraments.

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program is part of my role in the parish. Through that I met a beautiful Chinese girl who wanted to join the biggest organisation in the western world. I asked her to join me at Mass, and that Sunday Mass happened to have a baptism in it. At the Sign of Peace I encouraged her to say, Peace be with you', and she loved that. At the cup of tea after Mass that day, I left it to the parish community to answer her questions. She asked, 'Why are you Catholic?' and really wanted to know the answer, which was a challenge we all needed.

My role to prepare families for the sacraments is a bit like painting the Harbour Bridge, because as soon as you finish one end, you have to start over at the other end. However, it is such an opportunity to contemplate the intimacy of God in the sacraments and an opportunity to see the action of God in their lives.

When meeting people, everybody matters absolutely. Everybody has a story, and we are lucky of they share that story with us. Then we need to respect that story.

We are the gate keepers of the golden gate. Pope Francis tells us that we need to be warm and welcoming. You can have the best program, but if you can't smell like the sheep it won't resonate in any heart.

I got talking to a woman from a previous parish of mine, a week before her grandchild's First Communion. They had arrived from Italy years ago, and all they knew First Communion was about was faith in God and getting on with it. As a family they were great at celebrating the big things, baptisms, confirmations, weddings etc. Us Catholics, we are the party people. For her this First Communion was an opportunity to dress up and go to a party with the family.

We need to examine whether we are too rigorous, too by the rule, and too possessive when we deal with families who come to us seeking sacramental preparation for their child. Do we reject a family from outside the parish boundaries without asking for their reasons? Do we focus on 'What's your connection to this parish?' when a couple comes looking for a place to get married more than on how great it is that they want to undertake this sacramental commitment? Do we say, 'You've missed a meeting, therefore you can't…..' without finding out the circumstances and offering a catch-up opportunity? Do we insist, 'You have to attend Mass every Sunday, and if not in this parish, you will need proof you attended elsewhere'?

I've actually seen a sign outside a Confessional that had the message, 'God's mercy has a time limit – keep it brief'. It might have got the message across better if it had said, 'The priest is available for confession for a half hour prior to him serving the 6pm Mass. Please be conscious of how many others might want to receive God's mercy too, and adjust how much detail you give accordingly.' God's mercy, of course, has no time limit while we are still breathing.

How accommodating are we towards children with disabilities, eg autism? Sacramental preparation should not be an educational test or exercise in completing worksheets if a child has fine motor skill problems, dyslexia, or any other hurdle that can be got around aurally with a scribe. There are other ways of gauging whether a child has sufficient understanding to receive a sacrament than a pencil and paper test. The Jesuits (Loyola Press) have put together Adaptive Kits for First Communion, Penance and Confirmation specifically for individuals with Autism and other special needs. You can give a family one of these kits and let them work through it at their own pace.

The Adaptive First Eucharist Kit for individuals with autism or other special needs includes eight pieces:
• My Picture Missal Flip Book and Mass Picture Cards are for use at Mass. They help the individual maintain focus and actively participate in the Mass.
• Bless Yourself Matching Puzzle helps the individual learn how to make the Sign of the Cross. This activity can be paired with parent or catechist modelling so it becomes a gross motor imitation task.
• Who Is Jesus? Instructional Story introduces the individual to Jesus as the Son of God and relates God’s family to the individual’s family.
• Communion Is Not the Same as Food Matching Puzzle helps the individual distinguish between the Eucharist and ordinary food.
• How to Receive Communion Matching Puzzle shows all the steps of receiving Communion reverently, providing a guide for the individual to practice. This learning tool may be taught with sequencing or modelling.
• I Receive Communion Picture Book reinforces the reverence and proper steps of receiving Communion.
• Helper Guide includes tips on how to use the kit.
• A backpack so the individual can transport the items from home, faith formation sessions, and Mass.

Judith Lynch's blog on Finding God in the Everyday – Tarella Spirituality is worth a read. The article recommended, 'A Creed about God, Religion, Parents and Families', sadly no longer has an active hyperlink.

Family is the foundational Christian community. Family is where God is first encountered and imaged – physically. Experiences of life, love, forgiveness, community and symbol occur first in the family. Families generate their own rituals and liturgies, and they are good at this. Families share values, belief systems and stories. God's mercy makes sense in the life of family.

A gentleman shared his First Reconciliation story with me. He was frightened. Father disappeared into the 'box' and all the boys were lined up. When his turn came, he was so scared he wet his pants, and the boys following him had to kneel in that spot. He was still coming to church because he had grown beyond that experience. Some of his classmates might not have.

When it comes to Baptism, there are no conditions attached to how parents will exercise their responsibility to educate their children in the faith. Parents who present a child for sacraments of initiation have faith. Whatever experience of faith such parents have, it is to be valued.

How not to do it: Some years ago I was taking registrations for the sacrament of Penance. One of the pre-requisites was a baptismal certificate. One boy came up, but his baptism was in the Uniting Church. His mum was heavily pregnant. I said, 'but he's not baptised'. She left. The poor way I handled this, and the consequences for that mum and son have weighed heavily on me ever since.

A happier story: Thomas was a slightly older child. He was anxious and eager, wanting the sacraments, but not baptised. Finding out the stories behind the situation is crucial. The child's mum was married to a bloke who didn't want the boy baptised. But Thomas kept asking. It was worked out that he would get baptised with his school mates and mum present, because his school mates are his Christian community, and then get plugged back into the parish cycle of the other sacraments of initiation. His persistence, and having someone pick up on and actively listen to his story, made the critical difference.

The parents who come to us have within them the religious truths that enrich their lives, but sometimes just don't have the language to be able to talk about it. We must be careful not to confuse faith with religion. Parents need help to name, claim and proclaim the sacred in the ordinary stuff of their family lives. Parents underestimate their experience of the sacred.

Hugh MacKay's book, Beyond Belief, talks about five levels of belief. 1 Divine Presence 2. Omnipotent Judge 3. Heavenly Father 4. Imaginary Friend 5. Spirit within and among us.

The Church should help parents educate their children in the faith, not the reverse. Many of the things the Church tries to teach parents about God and faith lose their meaning in 'church speak'. Jesus spoke to us in relational terms, using images from everyday experience.

We can't pass on our faith by simply sacramentalising our children, and maintaining a 'getting them done' attitude.

Our church comes wrapped in families. The waters of baptism ripple through our lives. We underestimate the part that God plays in the sacraments.

A priest we know went as a secret missionary to China. He could take no books and no bible with him. He had to go incognito as a teacher. Only when his students began to ask him what he believed in, could he begin to organise illegal gatherings to share stories of his faith in Jesus. The one Gospel passage he took with him was the Sermon on the Mount. In a similar situation, what Gospel passage would you choose?

For me, it would be the story of the Prodigal Son. It is a story we use in our reconciliation programmes. We find it works well when dramatized with volunteers as the main characters, a good narration script and a few props. (Ed. During the workshop we saw this dramatization in action.)

Who do we minister to?
Evangelii Gaudium 14-15 tells us they fall into 3 categories:
• the community of faithful that worships in the pews and those who express their faith in different ways but seldom take part in worship
• “the baptized whose lives do not reflect the demands of Baptism”; who lack a meaningful relationship to the Church and no longer experience the consolation born of faith.
• those who do not know Jesus Christ or who have always rejected Him.

We are on the right track when a father with a son at a Catholic school says, 'I need to know the story about Jesus. We are not doing so well if we are unable to answer a mum with a child who wants to be part of the sacramental programmes when she says, 'If we're doing OK without God, why would I need Him?'

Our constant challenge is how to keep those who come to us seeking the sacraments for their children, and how to keep them interested – especially if they don't feel the need to come to Mass on Sundays.

Pope Francis is eager for us to extend ourselves to evangelising those who come, with patience, with love, with maternal concern and with creativity. We have to be able to bend the rules at times, even though it is uncomfortable for us. Always we need to remind ourselves Whose hospitality we are extending.

No one comes away from a sacrament without receiving something.

It is always through the children that you reach the parents. If the same parent cannot bring them every week, maybe they can be brought by someone else. If they can't make it this Monday, maybe they could catch up with another group on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, or maybe the group leader can go to their home.

The model of going to church on Sunday is no longer there, which is a great sadness.
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My response

The sacramental model that Ashfield parish is working on is a school based model, with presumably the pastoral associate/sacramental co-ordinator and family educator not working as volunteers. I echo the question asked at the end of the workshop, 'How much of this is transferrable to a family based model led by volunteers?'

I agree that we need to get in touch with what God has already been doing in the lives of the families who come to us for the sacramental preparation of a child, and to respect and value it. Easily we fall into the trap of thinking that if we don't see them at church, then they don't have faith. At least that's one thing we can work on changing.

The other trap is thinking that they have the religious literacy to understand what we are talking about when we say 'church', 'Mass', 'Eucharist', 'sin', 'scripture'. We can't make those assumptions anymore. Just like an author of a story, requires some 'beta readers' to help him locate plot holes and inconsistencies' because he is too familiar with this specific story world that what seems obvious to the author is no longer obvious to the reader. So too, we need to find a group of unchurched people and ask them to help us decode our sacramental programmes so that every word makes sense to them. All too often our programmes are both written and reviewed by people fluent in 'church speak'.

With 15 years in the sacramental preparation trenches under my belt I'm not so sure that being as accommodating as possible is the correct call. Grace might be free, but it is by no means cheap, and I suspect we do a disservice to it if on one hand we say this is the pearl of great price and on the other hand we say you can have it if you do these bare minimums. Maybe I'd think differently if I had ever experienced gratitude from those I went out of my way to help complete the programmes. In quiet moments I've often wondered if things were closer to throwing pearls before swine (Matt 7:6) than good seed into good soil (Matthew 13:8). Getting the balance right between being accommodating and requesting commitment isn't easy.

As you may imagine, I have a lot of sympathy for Fr James Mallon's call to help get families truly hungry for the sacraments by giving them opportunities to be evangelised first. Adding a 'Yes, but not yet' to our response options when families come requesting to 'get their kids done', is something we should consider. By and large we use age of child or grade at school as the guarantee that the child is ready for the sacraments of initiation. Neither measures a individual child's understanding or hunger for the sacraments. The sacraments make sense in the context of a relationship with Jesus and His church, they don't make sense if either relationship is missing.

We still need to be warm and welcoming, and there's a lot we can improve on when first contact is made between family and parish. It shouldn't be first contact, but all too often it is, and all too often the experience resembles battle conflict instead of a family reunion.

Those Adaptive Kits for children with special needs look wonderful.
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Getting to the story behind the request for sacramental initiation is a worthwhile aim, and would be very fruitful. However it could only be done with an interview process, and most volunteer sacramental co-ordinators I know already give innumerable hours of personal time answering the nuts and bolts questions of families regarding each sacramental programme – or chasing answers to unanswered questions on enrolment forms. To do the interviews would require a paid position, and not many parishes have the resources to make that possible.
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In the next issue will be notes from the workshop on models of parish identity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Paul VI challenged us in Evangelii Nuntiandi 22:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A major sponsor of the Conference was the Australian Catholic University (ACU), and Dr Clare Johnson the Director of ACU's Centre for Liturgy spoke to us briefly. The Centre for Liturgy offers Professional Development and Pastoral Training Programs as well as Academic programs. Part of that purview is Sacred Arts, although trying to get more information on that part of the programs proved elusive.

The first keynote address of the day was given by Dr Susan Timoney from Washington. You can find some of her thoughts on her blog, and via Twitter, and can learn more about her background on LinkedIn.

Dr Susan Timoney is the Secretary for the Secretariat of Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington in the United States. In this capacity Dr Timoney is responsible for coordinating and implementations archdiocesan-wide evangelisation initiatives.

Her keynote address was entitled, 'The missionary mandate of the Parish: Christian life embedded in our neighbourhoods'

NB. These notes are rough, they do not contain everything she said, and will lack her particular emphases.

Good morning. I'm delighted to be here. I have a passion for helping people discover that what they hunger for most can be found in parishes and in relationship with Christ. I love parish life. I work with parishes to increase their capacity to evangelise.

verything depends on love, and we learn to give and receive love in the family and in the spiritual home that is the parish.

My dad had a life-long relationship with his parish, retaining it even after his parish merged with another one. He never lived more than 6 kms from the parish centre. He would say, 'As Iong as I can be buried from there – I will be OK.' Having lived on 4 continents, my life has been very different but I have always felt at home in the church wherever I have been due to the Eucharist and to the connectedness the Eucharist gives us to the universal church and everyone in it.

Parish is not principally a structure, but a family on fire with the Holy Spirit.

By nature a parish is situated in a neighbourhood and local. It is the home of 'resident aliens': members of a pilgrim Church. The mission of a parish is found living in the midst of its sons and daughters embedded in the life of a community. Embedded in the sense of how journalists were embedded with troops during the Afghanistan war.

The parish is a stable point of reference in the daily life of the Church's believers.

As parishes we need to be seen as contributing to the larger neighbourhood, and for that to happen attitudinal change is needed. Do we contribute to civic life or are we 'for members only'?

If as parishes we are inviting and welcoming we will become a bridge of encounter with the living Christ for others, and helping them deepen that encounter through worship, service, sacraments and education.

When some of our meeting room space is made available for public use by support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, it can open doors for outsiders to encounter the life of the parish and through that to offer them the possibility of an encounter with the risen Christ. But it has to be done well and intentionally.

What could draw people back to our parishes?

A parish is called to serve the whole of the neighbourhood. St John XXIII had a vision for parish to be like the village fountain to which all would have recourse in their thirst. Before the days of running water in our homes, everyone would go to the fountain to get water and exchange community news. All of us thirst for God. Jesus is the One who quenches that thirst and we find Him in our Christian spiritual life.

We live in a world of increasing secularisation. As a society we have to choose whether to push God further to the margins or whether we will rediscover the wonder of God.

Many of the people around us have never been presented with the Gospel. So because they have less 'baggage' many of them have an unusual openness. We need to remember that those not with us are not necessarily against us.

There are three groups we need to reach
•Those who don't know Him at all
•Those who have been hurt by the Church or alienated from the Church
•Those who are active but don't see themselves as evangelisers

Each year the Archdiocese of Washington runs two big initiatives. For Christmas, targeting the first group is Find the Perfect Gift. It is an invitation to get to know more about Jesus Christ in the lead up to Christmas, with reflections and news about Advent events and Christmas Mass times. For Lent, targeting the second group is The Light is On for You. It is an invitation to return to the sacrament of Penance, with guides and information and especially confessionals open and ready on all the Wednesday nights during Lent.

We need to make things available for ALL to come and see.
What is the Gospel asking your parish to do now, and who to reach out to?

We have a program for those who say 'I want to find out more about the Catholic Church'.

Are we better at keeping our parishes running than at going out to evangelise? Jesus was always on the move, seeking out each and every person. As the Gospel of Mark shows us, He was always going out and saying, 'come and see', 'come and stay'.

When Mass ends we are told 'Go forth', 'Go and announce the Good News'. That is the task of the laity, to embed the life of the parish in our communities. We are the eyes, hands and feet of Jesus to those at home; in our jobs and in all the places we go.

We have to become more intentional about inviting people. Go. Invite. Welcome. That's the plan.

Give people an opening to ask questions and get engaged in conversation. It can go like this: A neighbour of mine walks his dog. We stopped to chat.
He said, 'What do you do?'
'I work for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington'.
'Oh, so you work for the Catholic church.'
'Yes.'
'Do you believe? Do you believe all of it?'
'Yes, it has the best answers to the most important questions.'
That was 9 years ago. Now he begins a conversation with me about anything Catholic that has been in the news.

We need to engage the missionary consciousness that was given to us all in baptism. We also need to assess the capacity of our parishes for evangelisation. How many in our parishes have been evangelised? How many are evangelisers?

We can go out, because He has loved us first.

By and large we seem to take our cues from the secret service; we are present, silent and watchful.

Institutions don't help the encounter with Jesus Christ to happen, but the people who work in them do.

Missionary Disciples
• Are co-responsible for the mission, and alive to the opportunities that present themselves around the kitchen table, at BBQs, and while getting ready for Mass.
• Are heralds of hope. When Benedict XVI visited America there were banners around the place with the message, 'People with hope live differently'. Recently I was talking with a young lady at one of our RCIA classes and I asked her why she came. 'I never have serious conversations with my friends. They are interested in the latest movie and pedicure etc. I am desperate for serious conversation about things that matter.'
• Share the Good News. We are always missionary disciples. If you look at the people who encountered Jesus in the Gospels, they in turn evangelised others.

Assess the quality of welcome.
Do the demographics in your parish reflect the face of the neighbourhood. Is it the same mix of people you see in the grocery store or not? Does the vestibule of your church have a 'welcome' vibe for any newcomer at your front door? Does it contain information helpful for a newcomer? How much do you speak in acronyms, eg 'YAM is having a sausage sizzle after the 6pm Mass next week.' Could you guess that YAM stood for Young Adult Ministry? Could a newcomer guess that that?

It matters how our communications with those on the fringe are framed. Is it like, 'We look forward to learning with you and your child in the sacramental preparation program'? Or is it like, 'You need to do X, Y and Z to get enrolled in the sacramental preparation program by ddmmmyyyy.'?

Is there a link between your parish and the community? Do you have brochures about your parish available in local cafes? Are some of your parish events being promoted through community email 'What's On' style lists? Do you have 'Come and join us for Christmas Mass' messages in the local newspaper?

Pope Francis believes that our parishes have great flexibility. “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.”Evangelii Gaudium 28

Parishes are flexible and adaptive because they can respond to needs that are local. Effective responses require pastoral planning. A parish that is missionary knows that it is the work of every one and every ministry. To assess the calibre of a parish's ministries, compare them with what a secular organisation (eg Red Cross) achieves.

If your parish is located in a poor neighbourhood, then it is likely to have a food program. But thought should be given to how the parish could help those coming to the food program to encounter Jesus. Maybe one way is having the church doors open, and soft background music.

If your parish has a powerful preacher, record some of them onto DVDs and have them available as 'take home' material. At the same time have some 'How to learn more' material available too.

We take our 8th graders on a retreat day. We ask them what they want as part of that retreat day, and the top answer is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Washington Archdiocese has developed an 'Indicators of Vitality' self-assessment tool for parishes. It consists of 12 questions covering each of the areas of Worship, Education, Community, Service, and Administration. The 24 page PDF guide to the Indicators of Vitality tool is here and is in both English and Spanish.

Worship: With regard to worship, how is your Mass schedule meeting the needs of your neighbours? We are finding that Sunday evening Masses are getting more popular.

Education: Adult education needs to have a variety of opportunities and schedules. We found that a lot of men still wake up as early on Saturday mornings as they do for the weekday commute to work. So we offered a bible study group for men at 5.30am on a Saturday morning followed by 7am Mass and 150 men made the commitment.

These days it seems like people are busier, and lifestyles have changed. It is not that they don't have a desire for the things of God, it is just that it is seen as a luxury.

Community: How are we building fellowship and communion?

Service: These are our works of mercy. Who are the most vulnerable in our community? And how are we meeting their needs? Who is on the periphery of your community? The answers will be different for each parish. It might be those suffering as a result of domestic violence, it might be young adults, it might be migrants.

Administration: The goal is the best match of resources for ministry. Dare to change the conversation, and commit to praying and discerning where the Lord is drawing our parish community.

Moving a parish from maintenance to mission is not a short term goal. No one program will do it for you. Generally it takes around 100 years for a Council to bear fruit in the life of the Church. Because of Vatican II the 21st Century church is better fitted for preaching the Gospel to the people of the 21st century.

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. 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.
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Participants at the Conference were then asked to reflect and talk about the following two questions:

Q. What is the greatest challenge for evangelisation in your neighbourhood?
Q. What tools or encouragement might you take from Dr Timoney's presentation to respond to that challenge?

For our area it would be the commuters who regularly spend more than 3 hours a day travelling between home and work. It means that weekday and weeknight events in the parish are largely unattainable to them, and for a sacrifice of weekend time to be considered the offerings have to be truly excellent and not the mediocre 'going through the motions' stuff that seems to be the norm. To get them back, nothing short of excellence will do.
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My response

While I am convinced that there need to be better communication channels and personal encounter experiences between the parish and the community, I am not convinced that having non-parish groups meeting in parish premises is the way to go. That's even if it is done intentionally and with a plan for engagement with the non-parish group. With Rebuilt and Divine Renovation ringing in my ears, I know that such plans tend to be fruitless in bringing people to Jesus. Surely even the most basic bible study group or catechist meeting is going to be doing a better job at making disciples than a secular support group. Parish resources are too few to squander in the hopes that someone coming to a secular event might pop in and pray inside the church.

I also have Pope Francis ringing in my ears saying that the Church cannot and must not become an NGO (Non-Government Organisation). Our works of mercy must be full of the tenderness that is lacking in secular charities and must be offering encounters with Jesus as well as assisting those in need. How easy it is for a work of mercy to start the right way, and over time to become more bureaucratic and secular! Seeking government grants to assist with the funding tends to be the start of the slippery slope. The Saints got around the funding needs of their works of mercy through intense prayer and dependence on Divine Providence.

Getting the balance right between works of mercy and outreach, and between evangelisation and formation/catechesis is the challenge. They are more of those 'both/and' things that are so typically Catholic: 'faith and works', 'virgin and mother', 'human and divine', 'scripture and tradition'.

That said, the need to be more visible and accessible to the neighbourhood is crucial. Staffing information booths at the local agricultural Show, having a contingent at the local dawn Anzac Day services, recruiting a parish team for participation in charitable events (walkathons, Fun Runs) or sporting competitions, are options. As are posters in shop windows for guest speakers or Christmas and Easter Mass times in the local press and online.

I'd like to see something like 'The Light is On for You' initiative happening here, too. Having churches open for prayer and the Sacrament of Penance on Wednesday nights during Lent seems quite do-able, and would be helpful for commuters and shift-workers.

The story of the young woman desperately hungry for conversations about stuff that matters resonated with me. I'd prefer to have conversations at that level all the time, but they tend to be few and far between even in parish life. Our monthly study group on Evangelii Gaudium is one of those few places.

I did go looking on the Washington Archdiocese website for information on a 'I want to find out more about the Catholic Church' program. It sadly wasn't immediately obvious. It wasn't in the FAQ section. You had to go to Education/Adult Faith Formation/Faith Foundations to find it. I had to scroll to the bottom of the Home page to find 'Interested in Becoming Catholic', but that wasn't exactly the question I was asking, and the text on that sub-page didn't provide a link to Faith Foundations.

​Could someone visiting your parish or diocesan website be able to find answers to both questions: 'How do I find out more about the Catholic Church?' and 'If I am interested in becoming Catholic, what do I need to do?'
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In the next issue will be notes from the keynote speech of Daniel Ang on evangelisation strategies for Australian parishes.

Workshop 2D – The Joy of Love: Evangelising Parishes though the Family and the Couple.

This workshop was led by Francine and Byron Pirola, directors of the Marriage Resource Centre. For 28 years they have been married, and have been blessed with 5 children and an international ministry.

You can follow them under Smart Loving MRC on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you for coming to this workshop. Why did you choose us?
•We want more for the families doing baptismal preparation, to help plug them into parish life
•We belong to Teams of Our Lady, and are looking for more input
•The topic of the Joy of Love was enough to get me here
•I have a young family, and I'm feeling alone
•Our parish has lots of young families
•Family is the domestic church, so family is crucial
•I'm looking for tips on how to help 3 adults in my life to choose Jesus
•I want to know how to improve on 42 years of marriage
•I want to find out how to engage the families who only seem to show up for sacraments and are never seen again.

In this workshop we'd like to achieve 3 things:
•Give you a fresh mindset for family and parish
•Reflect on Pope Francis' post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia
•Get practical with ideas for what you can actually do in a parish
Family as a force for Evangelisation

Gifts vs Needs.
We can choose to see the families in our parishes as gifts and resources, and not as consumers of resources. The charity model breeds dependency and encourages people to say, 'What's in it for me?'. We have grown up seeing ourselves as consumers, rather than seeing ourselves as co-responsible for the mission of the Church.

'What's in it for me?' thinking actually encourages criticism and comparative evaluation. We can't win that kind of competition. The lure of the beach or the sleep-in eventually wins out.

We need to see families as agents for evangelisation. This requires lay leadership. Inspired by priests, supported by religious, - but done by laity. For this shift in thinking to happen, we have to start searching for the gifts.

Families evangelise in the ordinary
•They disciple their children, and pass on the faith to them
•They disciple the friends of their children, and the families they come from
•They give hospitality and welcome

Our family homes contain the expression of our faith as the domestic church. Somehow we seem to have forgotten the impact of opening up our homes and have got into the thinking that our homes are not good enough and that everything has to take place in parish meeting rooms. Why is it that we seem to have lost the art of hospitality? Let's start seeing our homes once more as places for evangelisation.

When we go to a zoo, we see the giraffes and lions in artificial environments. It is only when you go on safari that you get to see them in their natural environments. The way we experience those animals and the way we relate to them in those environments is completely different. In the same way, a parish meeting room or gathering area is an artificial environment for experiencing and relating to family life.

In our homes, every day, there are at least a dozen evangelising opportunities: tradesmen, postman, passers-by while gardening, children, relatives, phone calls etc.

A friend of ours who believes in the sacrament of marriage has a dream. He'd like to stand at the door of the church on Sunday mornings and ask each married couple how they would rate their passion for each other on a scale of 0 to 10. For anything less than an 8, he would send them home to the bedroom to work things out – so they could come back and celebrate Eucharist properly.

With happily married couples in our pews, our churches would be full with the people who want what they can see we have in the joys of married love.

Our primary evangelising unit is the family.

When we go to Mass we sit together, we go up to Communion together, and we are warm and responsive to each other. Just doing this makes us witnesses to God's love in a gentle natural way.

However we do have to stop and remember what we are about. We have to make real choices. I can choose to pick at the faults of my wife every day OR I can be surprised that this wonderful woman is still with me.

The families in our pews are the biggest gift we have.

Amoris Laetitia by Pope Francis
What an extraordinary document! It is not a hard read, but it is a long read.

Pope Francis uses two images of the Church. The first is the Light on the Hill, where truth is emphasised: teaching, doctrine, vision, ideals for holy living. The second is the Field Hospital, where hope is emphasised. A Church that ministers to the wounded, and accompanies them, and embraces the process of gradualism (it will take many steps in the right direction, but we'll take it one step at a time). Imperfect love is still valuable. A field hospital deals with the reality of life as it is.

There is a gap between our ideals (Light on the Hill) and the reality (Field Hospital). There is a gap between teaching and practice. What are our options?
•Change the teaching? No
•Shout it louder? Make it clearer? No
•A third way, according to the call of Pope Francis.

Archbishop Prowse uses the analogy between referee and coach.
Referee: defines the rules, pulls up players when the rules are broken.
Coach: encourages and supports, seeks to help players improve performance.
We need BOTH.

Anyone who has raised a child  - is a skilled evangelist.
That's because they understand that there is a process: Just as there are stages in teaching a child how to cross a road safely there are stages in bringing someone into full relationship with Jesus: 1) Don't cross the road 2) Look right, look left 3) Be careful 4) Go for it. The process works because we take them on a journey, and we share our life with them.

If we really understood the Eucharist, we would crawl on our knees in unworthiness. Yet so many of us look at the Eucharist with the wrong lenses: 'It is a right. I've earned it.' We are worried sick about those who do not understand, but we choose to love them and work with them.

When you hear a homily at Mass on Sunday, are you listening with the ears of criticism or with ears open to being challenged?

Back in the Parish: Practical Tips
It is time to see more married leadership in the Church. It will be good for the couples, and good for the Church because it will utilise the charisms of marriage that don't burn out.

We have to see marriages as evangelising opportunities.

Go looking for the sacramental charisms that come from the sacrament of marriage, and that become operative when the couple is ministering as a couple.

It is no longer the case that just showing up is the right qualification for any kind of ministry.

The gift of charisms is part and parcel of the sacrament of marriage. There is the inner dimension for the couple, and the outer dimension for the Church. The graces are given not just for us as a couple, but for the whole Church as well.

How many married couples are on your parish council? How often do we put individuals into roles of service and not the married couple he or she is part of? It happens because we don't think of the married couple as an evangelising unit. Their sacramental witness of their married love is what makes them God-like – because there the power of the Holy Spirit is active.

When we do things from our own skills and strengths, we burn out. However, if we minister from spiritual and sacramental charisms, we don't burn out.

When we are together, we are nicer together. We pull each other up gently and effectively. For example, if a wife is present at a meeting with her husband, and he is beginning to ramble, by a gesture she can get that message through and acted upon - before the others at the meeting get restless. We are much better people together than individually.

How to find them
Pick busy people, because they are natural leaders. Look for couples that radiate energy, joy and love. Affirm them. Tell these couples that you need them, and why you chose them. 'You have a gift. We need you'.

Don't ask for volunteers. If you do that you won't get the best, you will get people with spare time.

Seek people who are joy-filled. Don't get old grumpy-pants.

Think about picking married couples to lead ministries.

When faced with a choice between couples with the sacramental impact of holiness or couples with secular skills, go for the ones with holiness. You want the ones that make you say, 'They are great to be around', not the ones who make you say, 'I'm so glad I'm not like them'.

Marriage Mission Team
Every parish should have a Marriage Mission Team, who can plan, build and grow the marriage mission.

To begin with you need at least 2 married couples in each parish. No committees and no reports are required. What are needed are eyes that are out and about seeking talent in other married couples: Couples that can recruit other couples as parish mentors for younger couples, and who will continue to affirm and support the recruited couples.

Initiatives can be added. Events for anniversaries, Valentine's Day, Blessings for the Engaged (we need to celebrate them and pray for them).

On average couples spend 30 seconds a day in personal intimate conversation. Aim for 4 minutes a day. The biggest impact is from 0-10% not from 90-100%.

Tell your families in the parish how stunning they are. Tell them.

The best most dramatic results come from marriage preparation that is married couple community based. The resources are there, not just in the couples already in your parish but also the very good married couple community based programs that are available to help them.

Affirm your married couples in their greatness.

Smart Loving is the result of 20 years of work developing parish based marriage preparation courses. This couple to couple mentoring program is now available in an online version, accessible cheaply and easily. The programs for both the engaged and the married are successful in helping them as couples and in engaging them in parish life.

50% of separations happen in the first 5 years of marriage. That's why a safety net for the newly married in their home communities is so desperately needed. Marriage Mission Teams and Smart Loving programs are ways to provide this.

A question was asked about how to deal with the battle of weekend sport and keeping the family unit together for Sunday Mass. The answer was to start small. It really helps finding another family, and working out which Mass both families could go to together.
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My response

This was an eye-opening workshop.

So what are the charisms of marriage, and what should we be looking for?

"Some people have an extraordinary gift of making people feel welcome, at home, and loved. When I was a seminarian, a Catholic family welcomed me and several others from the seminary into their home for fellowship and relaxation each Friday evening. The experience of their home had a significant effect on my life. They welcomed us as if we were Christ and we were all built up in the Spirit as a result. Hospitality flowed from their charism of marriage (see 1 Cor. 7:7) which they regularly nourished and exercised. It was the first time I saw married life with Christ as the centre, lived out as a prophetic sign. Their life together was so radical and open to others that on feast days they could sometimes have up to 22 people around the table basking in the warmth of their home." Marcellino D’Ambrosio 11 May 2016

Unity: The gift of being one in mind, heart and body.
Procreation: The gift of welcoming new life.
Reconciliation: The gift of restoring relationship.
Hospitality: The gift of welcome and belonging.
Nurture: The gift of care and education.
Fidelity: The gift of faithful dedication.
Generosity: The gift of sharing without reserve.
Mercy: The gift of forgiveness.
Friendship: The gift of companionship and encouragement.
http://cathfamily.org/the-charisms-of-marriage/

And it might look like this: (from the same link given above)

Sarah and Henry are passionately committed to growing deeper in intimacy. Following prostrate surgery that left Henry impotent, they persisted in seeking new ways to express their unity. Their joyfulness is contagious.

Michelle and Mark have four children. Their home is an open door for the parish youth who are often found at the family table talking to Michelle and Mark about important life decisions.

John and Barbara are the focal point of their parish community, welcoming people each Sunday by name and serving refreshments afterwards. They are often the first ones people call when there is a pastoral crisis.

But there definitely isn't enough research around into the ways that the Holy Spirit gifts married couples as married couples for the good of the Church. There must be other charisms of marriage that we have yet to discover because we haven't been looking for them, calling them forth and celebrating them.

I do think they are right, and that the time has come to treasure the couples living out the sacrament of marriage among us, to call them forth, and to help them to shine and put their married charisms at the service of the Church's mission to make disciples. They are our very best response to the crazy political ideologies of our day.

Our homes should be the hubs of where the evangelistic action is, with less reliance on the parish office and parish meeting rooms. Romans 12:13b 'You should make hospitality your special care', is a call from God through St Paul that we need to be more responsive to. It is something that I have been doing less of, and that needs to change.

What a difference it would make to the effectiveness of our parishes in bringing people to Jesus if we took seriously 'our primary evangelising unit is the family'!

Big positive changes would happen too if we kept on the lookout for people on whom the Holy Spirit is bestowing charisms (individuals and married couples) and encouraged them to use those special gifts for the good of others.
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Marriage Mission teams sound like a very good, very workable and very fruitful idea to implement in parishes.
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In the next issue will be notes from the keynote speech of Dr Susan Timoney on parish outreach to neighbourhoods.