New Directions: Moving Forward Together
Meeting at St Robert's, Washington - 19th June 2010
A large crowd of people from the diocese gathered together for a meeting "Moving Forward Together" on Saturday 19th June at St Robert’s School, Washington. Priests and people from parishes throughout the diocese, members of the diocesan councils and Bishop Seamus met together to look at some key questions. This meeting was a continuation and follow up to a series of meetings on “New Directions” held recently in the diocese.
To listen to audio click arrow above
Bishop Seamus spoke about the focus and purpose of the day. Conversations during the day would centre on three areas:
- Spiritual development - becoming a more Christ-centred people, working to know Christ better in prayer.
- Formation for ALL - for priests and people together. Priests and people need to come together and be formed and grow in faith together.
- New structures - God calls us to live now, in the present, and look in hope to the future. There may be tough decisions to make, but we need to be centred on the Lord.
Today’s consultation, he said, was a continuation of the process begun at Ampleforth, and a key theme of the day was the need to ask God what God wants of us, and to listen to one another.
It was so important, Bishop Seamus said, to listen with respect even when other people’s viewpoint is radically different to our own.
There followed an inspiring and helpful liturgy led by Fr Adrian Dixon, which set a very reflective and open atmosphere for the discussions that would follow later. Then Martin and Chris from the Kinharvie Institute of Facilitation in Glasgow explained the format and logistics of the day. There would be opportunities to choose a “conversation” to join - each of these centring on an aspect of the three key themes above. The summary and recommendations from these group conversations would be available to all to view later in the day.
Plenty of opportunities for conversation during the day
Below are the ‘Conversations’ which people were invited to choose from:
Spiritual Development
- 1. What does ‘spiritual development’ mean for you? How could the diocese support your development?
- 2. What do you enjoy most about the celebration of the Mass? How could we bring more ‘life’ to it?
- 3. What would help congregations in the diocese to understand and embrace the New Mass?
- 4. How could stillness and silence play a larger role in the spiritual development of the diocese?
Formation for All
- 5. Adult formation – what do we need to be forming laity and priests for?
- 6. What types of initiatives and events would best facilitate adult formation in the Diocese (i.e. seminars, online content, small groups)?
- 7. What would support people to learn about the different adult formation events that are organised in the Diocese?
- 8. We would like to explore the possibility of more shared formation of the clergy and the laity. Would this be of interest? If so, how could this be done?
New Structures
- 9. If the diocese could start all over again, how could we best use our present resources?
- 10. In the future there will be a decline in the number of priests in the diocese. What challenges and opportunities do this present for eucharistic communities?
- 11. What are the most important needs of people in the diocese? How could structures be developed or established to meet these needs?
- 12. What types of new initiatives would you be happy to establish and/or support?
- 13. There are going to be significant changes happening in the diocese over the next three years as a result of this new vision. How could these changes be best communicated to people in the parishes?
In each of the thirteen conversation strands a summary of the main points and recommendations was recorded and available to view by the whole gathering.
A scribe from each group wrote the headlines and recommendations on the big sheets:
Looking at the big sheets:
At the end of the day some of the threads running through the conversations in the three key themes were summed up briefly by Harry O’Neill, Joe Hughes and Maria Elliott.
In the Spiritual Development groups there had been agreement on the priority of spiritual development and the need to support and teach different ways of praying. A clear need to involve lay people and young people emerged, and to develop welcoming eucharistic communities.
For conversations looking at “New Structures” there emerged the need to be radical, even revolutionary. Encouraging people to recognise their giftedness, and the need to develop people not just resources was a repeating thread. It was suggested too that everybody needs to hear the theme of this morning and in particular the talk by Bishop Seamus.(See audio above)
Groups looking at ‘Formation for All’ supported a joint formation centred on scripture and eroding the gap between priests and laity. The need for communication was central, using old and new methods to market and promote the message.
The day was very much enjoyed by all those present and everyone left with a feeling of looking forward with anticipation and hope to the future.
