Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Australian conference seeks to strengthen parish life

Australian conference seeks to strengthen parish life

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 12:25 am by CNA Daily News

Australian conference seeks to strengthen parish life 2014-08-29T00:25:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Sydney, Australia, Aug 28, 2014 / 06:25 pm (CNA).- A national New Evangelization conference in Australia last week worked to reinforce parishes as faith communities actively seeking to grow in discipleship.

“It is essential for the parish to re-orient toward reaching those who are not active in the life of the Church,” said Fr. Michael White, one of the keynote speakers at the event, entitled PROCLAIM 2014.

Fr. White is the pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Md., which has nearly tripled its weekend attendance from 1,400 to more than 4,000 during his tenure. Commitment to the mission of the Church has also grown within the parish, as evidenced by the significant increase of giving and service in ministry.

He addressed participants at the conference along with Tom Corcoran, who is the associate to the pastor at the Church of the Nativity, responsible for weekend message development, strategic planning, and staff development.

“The key elements to rebuilding the parish are focusing on unchurched people, prioritizing the weekend experience and moving Church people to action,” Corcoran said.

Together, Fr. White and Corcoran co-authored the book, “Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, Making Church Matter.” They drew from its contents, based on their own experience revitalizing a parish, in their conference talks.

Among the topics they addressed were the need to live out the Church’s missionary calling in order to transform parish life, and practical ways to encourage parishioners to take a more active role, contributing and assuming responsibility for sharing their own faith.

The key message for the Church is to call parishioners “to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ,” Fr. White told more than 500 delegates at the event.

The PROCLAIM 2014 symposium, held Aug. 21- 23 in Chatswood – a business district north of Sydney – was organized by the National Office for Evangelization, which has its mandate from the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The event drew from Pope Francis’ encyclical “Evangelii Gaudium” and focused on the theme, “Living the Joy of the Gospel in Parishes.”

Over the three-day conference, various workshops addressed topics including how to be an authentic welcoming community, disability and inclusion, understanding youth evangelization, explaining your faith without raising your voice, and how a parish can support the sexually broken.

Some speakers discussed practical questions regarding the recruitment, training, and education of catechists and other key contributors in the mission of the parish.

Dr. Ruth Powell, director of the National Church Life Survey Research in Australia, was joined by three panelists from the Anglican, Baptist and Pentecostal churches in her address, “Finding a way Forward,” which presented trends in evangelization across all denominations.

Powell, who is also an associate professor at the Australian Catholic University, pointed to statistics indicating that only 52 percent of Mass-attending Catholics feel at ease sharing their faith. Another 15 percent say they are looking for opportunities to do so.

Highlighting that the average Catholic newcomer is a 46-year-old woman who is married and university educated, looking for something missing in her life, Powell challenged conference participants to consider how Catholics can reach out to newcomers.

She also called attendees to think about how to support mothers and fathers in the task of evangelization.

Bishop Peter Ingham of Wollongong, who chairs the Australian Catholic Bishops’ evangelization commission, described the conference as “an incredible opportunity for bishops, priests and parishioners to understand the successes and challenges in parish life.”

“PROCLAIM 2014 is about helping Catholics respond to the call to the new evangelization, helping to build our parishes as faith communities full of disciples and missionary in outlook,” he said.

Asia - Pacific

Previous Post

August 28, 2014

UN intervention against ISIS would fit Pope's call, scholar suggests

Next Post

August 29, 2014 Catholic couple marks 25th wedding anniversary at Rimini Meeting

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Paul offer to do if Onesimus owes Philemon anything?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pray for resolution Forgive the debt Have the church pay it Pay it back himself