The exciting news that we, as a Diocesan Community, are committed to a life of Mission and Evangelisation. Under the guidance of our Bishop Philip, there has been an exciting and challenging re-organization of the local Pastoral Area to express these Gospel values.
As from last week the Area Pastoral Council ceased to function. It is to be replaced with an EVANGELISATION STRATEGY TEAM.
This will be made up of selected volunteers from the Catholic parish Communities in our area. Members of our congregations are being asked to volunteer to serve on this Team.
It is important that we, in this Parish, have representation on this important Team; to have a say where and what the Church should be doing for our Area.
The criteria are simple:
Do you love Christ and his church?
Do you have a passion for others to know Jesus?
Are you willing to use your gifts and charismaa for evangelisation?
Many of you, I know, are passionately concerned for Catholic Education in the area; many of you are concerned about the poor and the marginalised; many of you want a deeper life of prayer and a greater understanding of the sacraments.
NOW IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO HAVE A VOICE.
PLEASE look at the leaflet provided by the Diocese, read it and pray, asking that the Lord will help you to come to a decision to volunteer for this work. Formation and guidance will be given and there will be an opportunity for us to meet during Lent to discern if this is the right way forward for you. The whole of this initiative and our response to it is formed and shaped through prayer and openness to the Holy Spirit.
So, to help us we shall have a series of HOLY HOURS when we can pray before the Blessed Sacrament asking for workers from our Parish to come forward to work in His Vineyard.
As the Co-ordinating Pastor for this Area it is my job to receive the names from other Parishes who, like us, been given this news and asked to volunteer for our Strategy Team. It would be a sad state of affairs if we, here at Sacred Heart, could not have a representation on that Team.
WHAT DO I DO?:
All you have to do is put your name, address and contact email or telephone number on a piece of paper together with a not to say that yo are interested in offering your interests and talents for the Strategy Team, and you will be contacted.
NOW IS THE TIME for us to take seriously those words of Pope Francis calling us to look outward when he says:
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 evangelisation of today’s world rather than for her self preservation….the renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in his light.