The new "Some Definite Service" programme is working, say Catholics in the Southwark archdiocese.

They say the programme is behind the 450 adults who completed the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) course this year.

They also assert the programme is behind the 164 percent increase in RCIA candidates since last year, the highest figure since 2015.

The new programme encapsulates Archbishop John Wilson's vision of Southwark being a "missionary and evangelising archdiocese" says the archdiocese's Agency for Evangelisation and Catechesis.

Agency director Mark Nash says the programme focuses on "evangelisation, catechesis and formation supported by local people, plans and prayer".

A place of invitation

The Some Definite Service programme aims to create "a missionary volunteer network" Nash says.

The programme has two parts to it, he explains. It aims to establish a new structure within the archdiocese. It also aims to inculcate a new language.

Nash says one example is "intentional accompaniment".

This is "an overarching way of behaving, which has at its heart the willingness to aid the growth of another person and through them, the growth of others".

Another example is "active listening".

"I think that's been a fundamental shift, actually. People are talking a lot more about the need to evangelise."

Instead of working alone or in small groups, they're being connected with one another. Each has a distinctive role to play in God's "great work" he says.

Support crucial

Participants have an extensive support system, which is crucial to the programme's success.

Instead of organisers creating a structure and objectives, then relying on individual initiative to accomplish a complex goal, Southwark's volunteers have a network to call on.

They are part of a wider team and know where to get help.

"There's a quite a bit of commitment on the part of the archdiocese and also the archbishop, because they have invested ... all the resources necessary. They're a phone call away" one volunteers says.

It is very transformative. "The parishes are coming alive."

Greater cohesion

The team overseeing Some Definite Service is clear about what it wants from parishes, given many parishioners are overburdened.

"We want each parish to develop a parish plan that can be refined over time" Nash says.

He says the team also want parishes to select three parish leads — one each for evangelisation, catechesis and formation.

"We're also asking them to pray."

Although the programme is still being developed, growth is ongoing.

"The single biggest thing is actually articulating and offering them [parishioners] something of a vision.

"Something that's expectant, something that's inspired.

"I think people will commit to something for a very short period of time if they feel as though they have to do it.

"But they are willing to commit themselves generously if they see something as being fundamentally worthwhile."

Source

• The Pillar

This "confronts us with something new, but something we do not clearly understand.

"There are hardly any priests or practising Catholics.

"We feel perplexed, even that the Lord has abandoned us. We feel that we have lost our way" Archbishop Dermot Farrell told a group of Catechists.

"These are important parts of our journey."

The "memory of huge numbers, and of a secure, strong Church" can be "a very painful learning for us". He said this during a ceremony where 45 lay people received certificates after completing a year-long course in Catechesis (teaching Christianity).

"Generously, you have given of your time - to engage with your faith" he said.

But the ceremony - and the need for it in the first place - is something new for the Church, he pointed out.

"Even 20 years ago, hardly anyone here could have imagined an evening like this.

We've changed

"Our country has changed, our lives have changed, and the expression of our faith - which is an expression of our lives - has changed" the archbishop said.

The Church "happens in our lives. As we change, our Church changes. We are called to recognise how the Church is changing and discern where the Good Shepherd is leading us" he said.

Farrell compared human life to a journey. Our faith lives are also journeys he commented. And, "the Church is our journey in faith together".

The journey's current stage is in a new environment with a diminishing number of priests available to serve in the Archdiocese's parishes and other ministries.

At the same time, there are fewer and fewer people who celebrate the sacraments regularly, and a need for increased resources required to maintain the existing parish infrastructure, he said.

Parish cooperation

The changes in priestly and congregational numbers, combined with today's infrastructure costs mean "it is no longer possible for me to appoint a resident priest to every parish" the archbishop said.

That means parishes will have to step up their cooperation to provide sacraments and pastoral care, Farrell explained.

Lay Catholics will need to help out.

It will require "a much greater involvement of the lay faithful in the partnerships of parishes to enable them to fulfil their mission and ministry".

It would always be "a little flock that takes the way of Jesus to heart; it will always be a little flock that will have the courage to follow him, and the generosity to give as he gives" he said.

New generations are needed to "lead new generations on the way of Christ, to guide and empower their peers to receive the gift of God".

It was "not about who will say our Masses, or who will teach the faith" he said.

"Let us pray for people - young women and men who would ‘hear his voice,' entrust themselves to it, witness to it and show us all how God is near" he said.

Source

• The Irish Times