72 Disciples

PRESENCE OF YOUTH  As well as giving renewals to adults we often spend time with youth, especially in Australia and New Zealand where  there are more parish schools. We also celebrate Masses and liturgies for them whenever possible. We try to incorporate a question time as we do for adults and have been impressed with their questions. School staffs too have impressed us with their dedication. At one parish, all the ministers at the Mass for Anointing were teenage boys!

ALIVE  ADULTS  We know we only get invited to the best parishes but last year was exceptional. We found parishes with an accent on RCIA, youth ministry and involvement, good liturgy – often with effective use of powerpoint, social outreach and imagination in ministry. One parish had 71 people in RCIA from all backgrounds and age groups; another handed out prayer shawls to the sick to remind them of parishioners’ prayers. We saw a parish in Australia with an established outreach to Aborigines, another in New Zealand teaching migrant refugee women English and helping them with residency forms. Another parish had over 200 people baking muffins for the mission, so every break was “Muffin Time”. If people didn’t come to hear us, they had to come to taste all the muffins! And a parish concluded the Family Reconciliation Service with the local ice cream van – kids and adults enjoyed that!

QUALITY LAY MINISTERS  In nearly every parish we were impressed by the lay staff. Many of these people make a sacrifice working for the Church and many of the achievements noted above came from their imagination, devotion and professionalism.  Nowadays, over 75% of Church staff are not priests or religious and we believe Lay Ministers are the Church of the future, it is where we most notice the presence of the Holy Spirit.

GOOD QUESTIONS  There are similar questions asked in every parish – how to cope with the lack of priests and religious, what is the future of the Church going to be, how to pray better, questions about salvation, heaven, hell, purgatory. But new questions are emerging that show sensitivity to modern issues: did Jesus know that he was divine, fundamentalism amongst Christians – what are the causes and how do we deal with it, Islamic fundamentalism, ecumenical relations with Islamic peoples, what can be done for divorced and remarried Catholics, is the environment conservation a religious moral issue?  These questions keep us on our toes and often provide an insight into new talks. We are now developing a talk on Jesus as a result of questions.