Evangelisation Day "Be heralds of the Gospel"
A day focused on Evangelisation and entitled "Be heralds of the Gospel!" took place at Ushaw on 16th February 2008. The day was organised by the Diocesan Evangelisation Team, and Clare Ward from CASE was the keynote speaker.
Sr Michael introduced the day and told the participants: " You have all come because you are already heralds of the Gospel, but today Clare will help us all become better proclaimers."
Information about evangelisation, the work of CASE and resources were available to participants during the day.
Over a hundred people from all parts of the Diocese took part in the day and found it a valuable and enjoyable experience.
ClareWard from CASE speaks at the Evangelisation Day at Ushaw
Clare's enthusiasm and her gift of being able to present evangelisation in an an accessible and exciting way left everyone enthused and ready to go out and evangelise at the end of the day. "Now is the time to be heralds of the Gospel," Clare told the people taking part. "Our primary calling as Catholics is to share the Gospel message in a way appropriate to our times."
The Gospel message does not change, she reminded the gathering, but we need to have an appreciation of our culture to present it. Moreover we need to be a people of prayer to the Holy Spirit, who is the source of the New Evangelisation we are called to.
Clare used examples from contemporary culture in her presentation, including film clips from "The Simpsons" and "Bruce Almighty" which in addition to being entertaining really helped to make her point of how evangelisation can interact with and learn from our culture.
Clare encouraged the participants to really look at the language they used when talking about faith, and to use ways that people from a non-church background could understand and relate to.
We must learn how to "use simple language to communicate profound truths", she said.
Clare Ward and Sr Michael
Clare told the participants of the success of the National Campaign "Come Home for Christmas" and some of the parishes represented at the day also shared how their parishes had taken part.
During the day evangelisation resources were looked at, including the episode on evangelisation from our own diocesan podcast , which the gathering had a chance to listen to.
Ways of sharing our individual stories were looked at in the context of being able to answer "Why am I a Christian?" and the participants were reminded of the three rules:
Be:
- A - Accessible
- B - Brief
- C - Christ-centred
The day began and ended with prayer, and the Team were grateful to the Music Group from St Cecilia's who very kindly brought instruments and played the hymns.
The day ended with an individual blessing and commissioning given by the priests present.