Parishes the key to transformation in our Archdiocese

Parishes the key to transformation in our Archdiocese

(Article from "The Living Parish" 16 August 2010)

One of the aims of this newsletter is to support parish leaders with pastoral planning information, resources and stories. In this edition I provide a reflection on the impact on parish of the changed context for mission, and how this might inform some of the ways we go about pastoral planning at an archdiocesan and parish level.  After looking at the importance of listening to people at the grass roots and the power of small group conversations in parishes, I outline some practical ideas that have been proven to transform parishes into growing and vibrant faith communities.

Our Archdiocese is blessed with inspiring and committed priests who have laid down their lives in prayerful service of others.  We also have so many faithful lay leaders who serve and support with generosity and creativity. Despite this, we face significant challenges with declining attendance at Mass, a shortage of priests and many of our young families no longer engaging with the practice of Catholic faith.  

At a spiritual, theological, sociological and organisational level in the Church the question is being asked: What do we do now? The old adage that “if we keep doing what we have always done, then we will get what we have always got”, is a challenging message, perhaps especially for those who find themselves in leadership. 

Listening to people at the grass roots

Clearly there is no simple answer. However, there is a tried and tested pathway to follow, which I would describe as “listening to the grass roots”.  I say this because it is almost without exception that every renewal movement in the Catholic Church has risen from the grass roots, from the most basic and simple structures that exist in the Church.  And it seems to me that you can’t get much more grass roots than the small group conversations that take place in our parishes.

It is the grass roots conversation in the small groups in our parishes that will transform our Archdiocese. This is because all large-scale transformation occurs when enough small groups shift in harmony towards the larger change.  This is indeed the story of the Catholic Church over 2000 years; small groups encountering the risen Christ and in turn influencing spectacular large-scale transformations.  

So we need to listen to the conversations that take place in our parishes, because they have been, and always will be, the fundamental place for the small groups in the Catholic Church.  Small group conversations that are founded upon accountability and commitment will transform the direction of a parish, and in turn the whole Archdiocese. 

Changed context for doing mission

But what should the focus of these parish small group conversations be?  

The context in which we are doing mission has changed. In the past we could rely on a strong Catholic culture and inherited faith to bring people to our parish. 

The cultural change has been so drastic that we need to shift from doing mission as we used to do it, to doing mission in a new cultural context. We need to shift from doing mission in ways that worked in the past, to doing mission in ways that will work in the future. This is where new methods and new thinking are required:

 

"Look to the future with commitment to a New Evangelization, one that is new in its ardour, new in its methods, and new in its means of expression." (John Paul II, address to Bishops of Latin America, Haiti, 1983).

 

As an example in the 1980s and 1990s a huge number of resources and programs were written about being a “welcoming” parish. These arrived on the scene as parishes were realising that their numbers were declining and parishioners were ageing.  The difficulty with most of these programs was that they assumed that people would come to your parish in the first place. In our new context we need to become “inviting” parishes, or parishes "that know how to invite others into their communion of faith".

Being aware of the changed context for mission is important, but it is not specific or practical enough to be an effective focus for these critically important small group parish conversations. 

Having a strengths focus

When working as a family therapist I was often faced with the complex problems that only family relationships can throw up.  Sometimes the weight of dysfunction and fragmentation in families was overwhelming to the point that the situation seemed hopeless.  I found in these circumstances the best thing was to focus the conversation on “exceptions” to the problem, times when the problem was “less bad” or on other “strengths” that could be identified. I believe that we need to be explicit about taking a similar approach in our parish small group conversations.

What are the strengths that exist in your parish? What are the strengths of our Archdiocese?   Where are things working well in our Archdiocese? Where have things gone from bad to better?

What does the evidence tell us about what works today?

A further question that can provide us a very concrete, practical and specific focus for our conversations is related to the question of “What do we know works?”  

Fortunately there is a growing body of evidence about what works for parishes that are seeking to adapt to the changed context for mission and become growing faith communities.

For example, there is the experience that Martin Teulan had in his own parish.  Martin is currently the national Director of Catholic Mission but was previously the Director of Pastoral Planning in the Diocese of Parramatta. In his own parish Martin facilitated a particular approach to planning that resulted in a doubled attendance from around 1,000 to 2,000 in a three-year period. Martin provided the practical framework for the parish's planning for that growth, which was the result of the attitudes and work of the parish priest, staff and parishioners.  Looking at Martin’s experience and that of other parishes in our own Archdiocese and from other Christian Churches there is a range of practical advice available on how to rapidly and effectively turn around your parish so that it becomes a growing, outreaching, positive presence of God to the world. A question to consider is how to make this advice more readily available and accessible to parish leaders?

On his website (www.evangelisingparish.com) Martin provides the following seven essentials he considers are required to become an evangelising parish:

1.    Relevant Vision

2.    Strong Leadership

3.    Dynamic, Involving Worship

4.    Ongoing Conversion

5.    Small Groups

6.    Stewardship

7.    An Evangelising Pulse

It seems to me that the degree to which parish small group conversations could focus on these seven topics, is the degree to which the parish could be transformed. 

Without doubt these parish small group conversations are already happening! 

How can they be further supported and shared with other parishes? How can the Archdiocese practically support our parishes to continue or start having these types of small group conversations?  While there are many challenges ahead and a heavy burden of complex problems with no simple solutions, our first step must be to listen to what God is doing at the grass roots.  It is the parishes that are the key to transformation in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.  

Prayer

The process of a parish or Archdiocesan planning for its future is in the end a spiritual discernment process, which must be wrapped with prayer.  The words of Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated 30 years ago, and whose birthday it is today, are a reminder for us of what is at the heart of all pastoral planning. 

This is what we are about:

We plant the seeds that will one day grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realising that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it well.

It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way;

an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

Archbishop Oscar Romero