Parishes are seeing a rejuvenated enthusiasm and influx of families attending Mass, but there is still work to do building “the new face of the kingdom of God on earth” in Sydney.
Sacramental coordinators, catechists and family educators convened in Lidcombe for a networking session hosted by the Sydney’s Life, Marriage and Family team in July to discuss the evangelisation of families so far in 2024 and beyond.
“Children are wanting to know more, they’re actually asking for that. It’s amazing how attentive they are when you reach them at their level,” Anne-Marie Irwin told attendees in an open forum.
The St Joachim’s parish worker said there still remains a struggle with the outreach of sacramental programs.
“It’s at times a challenge to reach Catholic students and families in public schools who have shown they have a lot to contribute, or even the ones in Catholic schools that have fallen away from faith.”
Family educator Maria Chaloub from St Ambrose in Concord West said stronger ties between sacramental coordinators and family educators is a starting point, as it was for her now-growing network across 12 parishes and schools.
“Why are we working solo, trying to work out how best to most effectively bring families together? That doesn’t have to happen,” she said.
“The conversations we have are about basic challenges that could be alleviated by joining forces and talking, sharing challenges.
“If we’re communicating, it could make a world of difference across deaneries.”
Sacramental coordinator Bernadette Bassil took back to her Our Lady of Fatima Kingsgrove parish key lessons as they work to rebuild and evangelise the youth and adult groups, of which many families are a part of both.
“It’s a new world and we’re trying to create renewal and make sure everybody feels a part of it,” she told The Catholic Weekly.
“Kids and families are the strong pillars of our church. We know we’re not alone.”
Sacramental life and RCIA coordinator Simon Yeak, who helmed the event, said the event was great for parish workers to see they’re not alone.
“Sometimes you can get caught up in these siloes. The left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing,” he said.
“We need to empower each other. Things don’t always go our way, we might get let down, this person or that person doesn’t show up when we need them to. But God shows up for us all the time.
“We need to remind each other of that, and as a networking community of evangelists we have a great chance of building the kingdom.
“The mission of the archbishop is bringing people back to the parishes. Let’s put ourselves in a position to be able to do just that.”
