LITURGICALLY, the Christmas season is over and we have started the first week in Ordinary Time (Green vestments).
This Sunday is the second week and the Crib will be packed away for another year. My little experiment to put the crib in the narthex was not a good idea – I apologise – and it will return to the Church in 2016.
But liturgy does not determine the economy and many people are enjoying the summer weather, the Big Bash and the Australian Open, and some will holiday on the coast or overseas.
For a priest, with more time and fewer phone calls, its also a quieter time. I have been able to indulge my love for reading and to enjoy some dinners with parishioners.
Personally, I also find it a good time for more reflection and prayer. It gives me time to review and gather my thoughts for the Parish Pastoral Council.
I wanted to share two ideas or, rather, principles that I think should guide our parish planning and pastoral life. Perhaps they are nothing new but they seem right to me.
The first is that, with the many changes in society, especially the growing prosperity of Western liberal democracies, traditional hierarchies and values come under pressure as people scramble to share in the new wealth (materialism) and enjoy new freedoms (technology, creativity, leisure and play). Society becomes segmented and religion is allocated its particular role, no longer the master plan of life, but a small part of the new blueprint which is dominated by wealth, freedom and the secular society loosed from the constraints of authority.
The new reality of the Church is a challenge for Christians seeking to maintain their position and voice within a society where every voice receives a hearing. Perhaps a whole generation of Catholics find themselves at a distance from the traditional forms and practices of faith.
Rightly, they see that it is not what you believe that makes you a good person but what you do. Added to this questioning of faith is a new relationship with the traditional Church, namely, the decline in Mass attendance. These and many other challenges, associated with modern life, demand a pastoral past solutions. We must pray over these challenges with new ideas.
The second principle or guideline is that, in new circumstances, parish communities should maintain their Christian character and viability with the resources that they already possess.
In practice this means avoiding the temptation to think of amalgamating, twinning or combining resources (numerical and financial) just to maintain what is an arbitrary ‘critical mass’. Even when Christian communities age, as they do, and do not maintain a younger generation or struggle financially, as they do, and find maintenance difficult, they can and should dig deeper spiritually for the resources to be the ‘Body of Christ’ in their communities.
Instead, what I see around us, is a large amalgamation of parish resources. More widely, this is true of Dioceses and Archdioceses throughout Australia. Instead of the existing Catholic community taking responsibility for its faith and pastoral life, it becomes part of something bigger. The question then is whether this larger entity is a more faithful witness to Christ as a result of this kind of strategic planning?
Greythorn parish has not been part of this ‘amalgamation theory’. We are a community of faith and love with a considerable outreach to the poor and needy.
Our challenge is to continue to gather regularly for the sacraments; to celebrate well and to go out to others in a spirit of compassion and service. It is the quality of our Christian life that is critical not our numerical or financial strength.