Fr Josh’s Front-Page Reflection

The Movement of God’s Grace 

Our parish’s Mission – to be a vibrant community that actively accompanies people to encounter Jesus – is a silky-smooth statement that sounds terrific but will also take a deliberate approach to achieve and a lot of Grace! This deliberate approach necessarily employs the unique skills, gifts and talents that God has given to people in different communities. Perhaps most of all, it requires the intentional development of existing and new lay leaders who experience the desire (Grace) to walk the path of Mission.

There is always a lot going on in our parish, but while you’ve heard that from me on numerous occasions, much activity – particularly activity which is specific to building firm foundations so that together, we can be on Mission – goes on beneath the radar.

We are deep into the implementation phase of our five-year (2023-2027) Strategic Plan. An important aspect of this plan includes a deliberate approach to investing in the six Ministry Leadership Teams (MLTs). Four times each year, the 30 parishioners who make up the MLTs gather to share the wins they have experienced as a team, learn about a specific aspect of leadership, and pray/worship together. Beth Davies, our parish’s Mission Coordinator, also accompanies the leader of each team through monthly mentoring. Further to this, Beth and I are in conversation about ways to grow these emerging lay leaders and their teams from Doers-to-Developers.

Another important behind-the-scenes aspect of building a firm foundation is our parish’s process to onboard new volunteers. While each worshipping community has one or more extremely generous leaders who manage their community’s volunteers, we don’t have a robust process to ensure that all parish volunteers are compliant with current archdiocesan and legal safeguarding requirements. In the parish office, we have a growing Volunteer Team who have been vetted and trained for not only the effective management of our safeguarding requirements, but who are working hard to onboard the 45 people who responded to our recent Parish Service Day – thank you for your patience in this area! Th goal is to build a unified parish database that is up-to-date, and which the relevant community coordinators can safely access.

With the development of these two behind-the-scenes areas, I am seeing a lot of people – some for the first time in a parish context – saying “Yes” to the gentle invitation of Grace. While Grace is one of the primary ways that God works in our lives, how can we understand this sometimes-enigmatic communication of God? One of the challenges of recognising Grace is that it’s often not discernible until after it’s already there. In that sense, the coming of grace into our lives is like the gentle movement of Holy Spirit, who, like the dewfall, is often there whether we know it or not. Perhaps the easiest way to recognise Grace at work is when we say “Yes” to God’s will for us (you can bet your bottom dollar that God’s gentle invitation was there long before we responded). Grace, therefore, is the gentle, inviting nudge from God which patiently waits for our freely chosen “Yes.” What is Grace doing in your life right now? In what ways are you experiencing invitation? I invite you to take these questions to prayer, and to notice the thoughts, feelings and desire that God places upon your heart.

Peace and Grace-filled blessings, Fr Josh