Community Consultation Update

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you for the way we are progressing in our community consultations. It is anticipated that we will have completed both the first and second parts of the process – Conversations in the Spirit with 8-10 representatives from each community, and a whole-of-community meeting – by Sunday 8th December. I would anticipate the announcement of a new Mass roster (which will commence on 18/19th January) by the weekend of 14/15th December. 

Gratitude 
I am thoroughly edified – enamored even – by the sensible, realistic, and stoic ways that communities and individuals are approaching the conversation. I use the word stoic deliberately because it acknowledges the challenge and perhaps even pain of our changes ahead, as well as the lack of complaints – we are in this together! People are most certainly sharing their feelings at this time: anxiety, worry, hope and optimism; this is healthy, and I will continue to encourage this because what people are experiencing is real.

Challenge of Engagement 
It is abundantly clear from the Conversations in the Spirit which Beth and I have facilitated that many people in our parish experience a warmth and welcome, and sense of belonging and family within their worshipping community; this common thread is pure gold. It is important to note, however – and people have indeed identified this – that those 8-10 parishioners who are engaged in the Conversations in the Spirit represent people with a high level of engagement in their community. One of the larger worshipping communities, for example, when they held their post-Mass community-only discussion, experienced 50% of the congregation choosing not to participate in the conversation.

Friends, it is of utmost importance for those who are engaged to both encourage engagement (this is most certainly “Ministry in a missionary key”, as Pope Francis encourages), and keep in mind the experience of those who may feel they have no voice in this process. Let’s keep in mind those who may experience marginalization in all our congregations and civic communities. Perhaps the biggest mistake we could make in our consultation process is to focus on the wants/needs of the engaged members of our worshipping communities.

Parishioners’ Thoughts 
There have been some extremely helpful ideas and observations shared by parishioners about aspects of our process which neither myself, my team and/or other parishioners have thought about. These ideas and observations have been articulated within the context of Conversations in the Spirit – the first and most important consultation phase – and perhaps offers something of God’s will for us to consider. One Maleny parishioner, for example, named that when it comes to change, particularly change which impacts normally immovable parts of our life like Mass times, it is natural to go through a period of distress and grieving; this person went further, though, to name the settling down and peace which often follow major change. Another helpful observation from a Kawana parishioner pertained to a challenge which every community has raised: their ageing worshipping population; she went much further than naming the challenge, however, by asking the question: “What can we do to help in this area?”

It is thought and ideas such as these which convince me that the voice of Jesus is directing our Consultation Process – as we heard Jesus say in the Gospel last weekend, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mark 13:31). Thank you, once again for the positive way you are approaching this conversation. While I would never choose this for our parish, we are all in this together, and so I am confident that God will and already is revealing positive opportunities for our future amidst the challenge of change.

Peace and blessings, Fr Josh