Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle

1. Formation of Co-ordinating team – meeting monthly, praying together, sharing, being formed, discerning. A forum for exchange of  ideas. Largely advisory, supportive and on-going. Feb 2005

b)  Formation of Core Groups as need arises for planning and implementation of
particular aspects

We started with 5 Evangelisation Made Easy days held in the 5 Episcopal Areas April-July 2006

• to raise awareness, allay fears and affirm people in what they are already doin
• to inspire, equip and offer creative ways of evangelising
• to share our stories and see how God is active in the lives of all

As a result of feed-back from these days, a 3-year diocesan  programme was drawn up. People had asked for a) a deeper spirituality  b) scriptural formation c) some help in meeting the challenges of our contemporary culture.  This led to:

Stage 1: Spirituality for Evangelisers: Time Apart – days of prayer and empowerment
  in three parts of the diocese

Stage 2: Scriptural Formation: How Jesus Evangelised and the power of the Word                  
held in north and south of the diocese     Feb ‘07

Stage 3: Connecting with our Culture – a day on the challenge of evangelising the
                            society we live in.  Led by Kevin Higham of Blowing Your Cover at Ushaw ;May ‘07
 These diocesan events brought us into contact with about  1000 people.
      

A two-year intensive programme for a selected deanery (Sunderland) – a pilot  scheme ( to be repeated in other deaneries ) 
Part 1:   Formation: a whole deanery approach stressing personal evangelisation
Part 2:   Invitation and Calling Forth.  Priests would invite individuals to be part of  the
Part 3:   Training, resourcing and supporting of the Team for Reaching Out to Others

Formation of  a Deanery Evangelisation Team should impact on parishes in that deanery.
Eventually it is hoped that every deanery will have an evangelisation team and that evangelisation will become the life-blood of the church in that area.