Throughout August and September, the Parish Renewal Team within the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation held workshops to help parish pastoral councils in their vital work supporting Sydney parishes.
With the theme: ‘Foundations for Effective Parish Pastoral Councils’, The Catholic Weekly attended the second of three workshop nights, held on 11 September.
The 13 parishes from across Sydney gathered at Our Lady of Fatima in Kingsgrove, packing the church hall to receive practical advice and workshop ideas and strategies.
Parish Renewal Team officer, Helen Wagner emphasised: “Tonight was about helping our parish pastoral councils dream big for what is possible in parishes; to help the parish grow in its role of leading people to Jesus and strengthening our faith.”
During the night, the PPC members were challenged by the members of the PRT team, Tania Rimac, Sr Anastasia Reeves OP and Helen Wagner, in activities designed to inspire and prompt forward thinking, inviting members to consider new ways to live and promote a more vibrant and effective parish community with Christ-centred leadership.
The Catholic Weekly sat in with members of St Joseph’s Parish in Camperdown including parish priest Fr Renante Sentillas MI (‘Fr Rey’) and his council; couples Angeline Arellano-Lopez and Ricky Lopez and husband and wife; Joseph and Michelle Rodriguez.
Fr Rey explained the challenges of their parish because of its location.
“Our parishioners all come from different suburbs across Sydney. It’s very transient. That’s the limitation we have. They can’t commit because they are not residents.“
Helen Wagner challenged the attendees to look ahead five years and come up with objectives and strategies to meet those objectives as a PPC.
The PPC from Camperdown reflected on their door knocking campaign they’d started in trying to build bridges with lapsed Catholics in the area.
“We have made some steps towards meeting the challenges of our area, by door knocking houses and the nursing homes within our local community and inviting people to the parish. We have 20 volunteers doing this,” Angelina Arellano-Lopez commented.
When Fr Rey asked how the PPC could build on this initiative, PPC member, Ricky suggested tapping into the housing commission community in the Camperdown area.
“If we could reach 50 per cent of the people living in housing over the next five years, we could make a significant difference. We need to be more invitational and welcoming to them,” he suggested.
The PPCs were then invited to share their ideas with the room.
Maureen Dunn from St Joseph’s in Belmore shared: “Our people are hungry for spiritual faith formation. So that’s what we’re planning on focusing on from the activity that we’ve done tonight.”
“Tonight has been great as we can support one another and get some ideas from each other. We are hearing about what works at other parishes and we can take that home with us and see if this is something that might support the needs of our parish”, said Patrick Abourizk a PPC member from St Felix de Valois in Bankstown.
Stephenie Tordo from St Thomas More in Brighton Le Sands Parish Council said it was an invaluable night for PPC’s wanting to be more proactive in their work supporting parishes and their priests.
“It’s been great to learn how to be more effective and to do more for the Church. I feel like some of us are ‘doers’, but I feel like after this, we’re all going to be doers, which is good in our mission to evangelise and get more people involved in ministries,” she reflected.
The evening closed with PRT Team Leader Tania Rimac’s talk on ‘Principles for Great Meetings’, advising PPC’s with practical ‘dos and don’ts’ on running effective meetings that will maximise their effectiveness.
She commented on what she hopes each PPC member will take back to their parishes: “I hope they will leave inspired by what is possible in their parishes, and with a renewed vision for how they can support and encourage one another in their role as PPC members. I pray they will be open to fresh ideas and take time to discern the unique needs of their own parish, recognising that no two communities are the same, so that each parish may flourish, grow in faith, and be equipped with both the Gospel message and practical ways to share the Good News within their wider community.”
link