Below is the message as delivered to parishioners on the weekend of 4th and 4th June 2022.
Building Hope Message…
Week 2 – Context of The Building Hope Process
Good morning/evening everyone!
My name is………………
As a representative of the Pastoral Parish Council, I am here to speak with you about the Building Hope Parish Process.
This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is constantly calling us to renewal, to be a living church. We are being called to be disciples. As Jesus was sent by the Father, so he sent out the disciples. Today we celebrate being empowered by the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church.
This renewal is the focus of the Building Hope Process for all parishes in the Archdiocese. We are asked to renew our discipleship roles.
In his Easter Pastoral letter, Archbishop Dermot said it is time now for the whole diocesan family to address the specific challenges we face as a diocese. The Building Hope Task Force Report proposed a process for renewing our mission as God’s people, keeping in mind that our primary purpose is to accompany each other today towards an encounter with the Lord Jesus.
This undoubtedly requires new ways of looking and thinking; it requires a shift in mind-set; it requires us to renew our own personal discipleship. It will not happen without prayer and dialogue. We will need to discern and make decisions and make those decisions together.
The Archbishop is inviting each parish community to begin to reflect on how best to respond to the situation in which we find ourselves. The future will not look like the past. Our challenge – and it is yours and mine – rather than simply reacting to events, is to shape the future in the light of the gospel.
We need to be courageous in moving forward. We need each other on this road: that means all the baptised, working closely together, with their gifts and talents, sharing their resources and wisdom, in the service of our parishes, and the one mission entrusted to us all by Christ.
You are being asked to take part in the Building Hope Process. The good news is we have been working on it in our Pastoral Area already. We belong to a living church. However, change is happening at a much greater pace and now there is a sense of urgency to do something. You need to be involved. It is in our hands.
We are all invited to meet, to take part in a discussion and to propose responses.
The meetings will be at 8pm on:
- Tuesday 14th June in Kilian House Family Centre
- Wednesday 15th June in Kilcoole Community Centre and
- Thursday 16th June in Newtown Community Centre
Save one of those dates in your diary!
Next week we will discuss in more detail the format for these gatherings.
This Pentecost, we invite you to think about our church as a living body, constantly giving life, a church of active involvement, and in creating the church we all want, what does that actually mean for our faith community?
Thank you.