The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
12 October 2003
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It’s ‘mission accomplished’ for parish evangelisation experiment
The choir at St Francis Xavier, Ashbury, took part in the parish mission
By Marilyn Rodrigues
Parishioners of St Francis Xavier,
Ashbury, have enjoyed a successful experiment in parish evangelisation - a parish
mission run by students of the Good Shepherd Seminary, Homebush.
Each day for a week people went to hear guest speakers, see presentations, attend Mass, Eucharistic adoration and go to reconciliation.
Speakers included the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, the rector of the seminary, Bishop Julian Porteous, members of the Emmanuel community, the L’Arche community and the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Each day had a theme: family life; the poor; the Church; youth; mercy; and Our Lady.
Children were included with special activities and catechesis each day.
But the mission extended beyond simply the adults and children in the pews.
The 11 seminarians who volunteered for the mission also spent time each day walking the neighbourhood, knocking on doors to meet the locals and invite them to visit the church.
Chris Higgins, a third-year student at the seminary said he found the door-knocking rewarding, particularly the opportunity to speak to non-Catholics or lapsed Catholics.
He found a man whom he had spoken to the day before sitting outside the church.
“I went and sat with him for a while, but he wouldn’t come in, it wasn’t his time,” said Chris.
The idea for a seminarian-run parish mission came from Dr Pell after he saw similar missions in Europe with an emphasis on the new evangelisation.
Bishop Porteous was pleased: “It’s gone very well. It’s very different,” he said.
“What’s been very powerful has been the adoration and the Mass in the mornings. The idea is that this be held in other parishes later on.”
Fr Tom Carroll, parish administrator, said the mission “gave the seminarians exposure to parishioners, and the parishioners exposure to seminarians”.
“When Bishop Julian approached me I thought it was a fantastic idea to involve seminarians in a mission in the parish. I think their intellectual and spiritual formation needs to be embedded in the pastoral context.
“I’ve been very impressed with how easily they’ve mixed with the parishioners ... it’s important for parishioners to see young men who are keen about a vocation and are so down to earth. It shows there is new blood coming through and that the Church is vibrant.”