Comfort zone

Sydney
14 July 2002

School defies terrorism

Pope ‘force for freedom and good’

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Caritas renews call for help as southern Africa faces food crisis

Jason scores with ‘no sex before marriage’

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Queensland search for men to teach

St Vincent’s clocks up 1000

IVF baby farming banned - Govt ‘no’ to sale of eggs

Witchcraft move under fire

Editorial: Tangled web

Letters: Catholicism and the Royal Family

Conversation: Never say never - always hope - Larri Hayhurst, nurse educator

Reflections: Justice: what it means to me

Earthcare - a call to ‘expand our vision’

Opinion: Where young and old share the joy!

Comfort zone

Embryos used to find ‘morning after’ pill

Stem-cell research: Warning of embryo use in human tests

Stem-cell research: Legislation provides for ‘destruction of embryos’

Stem-cell research: ‘Key principle’ at stake

Stem-cell research: Risks to egg and sperm

Resurrection and ‘last things’ in Catechism series

Sing? Yes! Sing-along syndrome? No!

Inspirations: Joseph, 8, gives up toys for Cebu kids

Comfort zone

The National Church Life Survey report (Message is loud and clear - parishes must do more to attract young people, CW 19/5) and our editorial (Is your parish in tune?) suggested that the use of modern music might help attract more young people to church. The reaction from readers has been mixed, as these responses from Sean Finucane and Juanita de Paiva show. They have been edited.

By Juanita de Paiva

I’m 45, and if every week I was only able to attend a Mass that catered specifically for retirees over 70 or people from a nursing home, I’d be bored stiff. And if I had to sing their music, I’d feel ill. So I must say I was quite diverted by the recent article (Message is loud and clear - parishes must do more to attract young people, CW 19/5) on how to attract young people to the Church.

I am the musical director of a large cosmopolitan parish, and because we draw a lot of our parishioners from traditional cultures, we have a higher than average attendance of young people. Our choir is musical and joyful, and we are sometimes accompanied by a professional violinist or flautist whose specialties lie in spirited or soulful Celtic music; we sing a wide range of material, from wildly joyful African songs, and gospel music, to John Bell’s delightful contributions to the renewal of church music. We sing Salve Regina from Sister Act, on the one hand, and Soul of My Saviour in four-part harmony, on the other.

Our congregation is learning very rapidly to respond to our priest in Gregorian chant. Our arrangements are usually interesting, and all are designed to include the congregation. The Spirit is certainly present in our ministry, there is a real energy and love which overflows from our music... so we are able to attract the old and the young and the very young.

We also have an inspiring pastoral associate who involves some of our young adults in dramatic presentations of the Gospel which are reverent and very moving.

As musical director, though, I can’t be complacent, and I intend researching the ‘Hills’ music which is so popular at the moment, the Pentecostal approach and I may even have a wee peek at hip hop!

I am, however, a parent of four young

people, and this problem of involvement has always fascinated me.

A colleague says Sunday evening is the ideal time for a youth Mass as young people go out on Friday and Saturday evenings but there is little to do on Sunday evenings, underlining the need for social contact.

Going to church is really about meeting the Lord in the love of his people. It is not the best time for meditation or one-to-one communing with the Spirit, although there should be time for that, too. If that is what I need, I usually go to the mountains or a lonely beach and commune with the Spirit in the fullness of solitude. We should treat ourselves to that occasionally.

So we have to make Church work socially for our young people. Culturally appropriate music is terribly important in creating that togetherness and giving a deeper dimension to prayer in oneness with each other.

Drama is also a powerful tool that we are not using nearly enough. Creativity draws people together, while those watching a good presentation sometimes feel like the blind beggar whose eyes were suddenly opened!

Worthy as the article and the editorial were, I do believe that even with exactly the right music, the move to attract young people would lack impetus and die. It would only be a temporary solution. Once we have attracted them, we have to engage them. Remember, this is the ‘X’ generation. They will only be engaged by honesty, by relevance, by a sense of getting to the “nitty gritty”.

This takes leadership. It will take pastors young enough to shepherd them, to relate the Gospel to their immediate concerns, dilemmas and joys.

It will take a sense of humour - when I go to the beach early in the morning and the rising sun on the water makes it look like a sheet of steel, I can’t help thinking that Jesus walking on the water was absolutely a boyish prank, and he would have been chuckling to himself as he impressed his mates. God is about joy. Needless to say, the good news shouldn’t be read in sepulchral tones.

To be honest, I was a little incensed by the suggestion that the music ministry should fix up what I consider to be one of the most serious problems facing the Church today. Similarly, I don’t seek to lay the problem at the doors of our wonderful, hard-working priests and dedicated congregations.

Our young people are very precious to us, we need them to carry on the faith, yes, but we want them to have life’s treasure for themselves too, the treasure of an intimate friendship with the Lord.

Are we denying them this?

No one can dispute that we need young leaders, that most people over 35 are really over being interested in things that concerned the adolescent stage of their lives.

We live in an affluent society, which may be a drawback in spiritual terms; but it’s all we have to work with. We can’t throw up our hands in despair.

Youth is a huge time of exploration of the meaning of life, a time of making choices, of taking on one’s life. It is a time of realism, but also of idealism, a time of great generosity.

Today’s young people are a lot more aware.

Theology alone won’t draw them. The experience of connection to Jesus and each other will. We need to remember that our God is a God of relationship, and the ‘X’ generation craves connection, but a connection that is real, that is true.

It is not about entertainment - it is about sharing the deepest truths with them, in a way that they can make sense of. It is the journey along the road to Emmaus. They are special people, they are on the brink of adulthood, and they are hungry for God.

Juanita de Paiva holds the part-time position of musical director at Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Fairfield.