Our Shared Responsibility

I feel incredibly blessed to be appointed as your Parish Priest – I really mean that. It’s not the surf, nor the sun, but the people and places that make this parish home. Thank you for the way you consciously contribute to making our parish a wonderful community of vibrant people who, regardless of age, are filled with life and energy as they grow in faith. Having the privilege of walking alongside you is something I do not take lightly, nor for granted. In fact, I wish I had more time to spend with you. While I’m probably the kind of priest who works hard to avoid loneliness (not the healthiest approach, I know), I have a wonderful team of people on whom I rely heavily – my Senior Leadership Team and closest friends, comprised of Beth Davies, Steve Kay, Vivienne Cooper and Fr Gerard – and who have accepted the responsibility of being my primary support structure.

Just outside that primary level of support, however, is a huge group of people whom I don’t so much as rely upon in a personal sense but depend upon to carry out our Mission – and they are each of you. I am incredibly grateful for the way you give, serve, worship, and participate in parish life. Each and every baptised person in our parish carries a God-given and privileged responsibility to be active and engaged members. While this responsibility will look different for each person (see 1 Cor 12:12-27 and Eph 4:11-12), the responsibility is given to all.

As Pope Paul VI wrote in 1975, a message later reinforced by Pope Francis, “The Church exists to evangelise” – as do all Catholic parishes in the world; this is our primary reason for existence. Evangelisation is the process by which existing and new people come to know, love and follow Jesus. Exactly how that takes place in each parish is dependent upon the creation of a leadership structure to support people’s growth in faith. My hope is that you can already see this beginning to happen. Growing new and existing followers of Jesus, however, takes both time and resources. While we are seeing significant fruit from our five-year investment in Kingdom Youth, it is utterly necessary to invest in the growth of all age groups. I need your help to build a structure that allows us to grow in faith while attracting and accompanying new followers of Jesus.

While we are blessed to have a full-time Mission Coordinator in Beth Davies – whose most important role is to facilitate Alpha, our primary tool for evangelisation – we need to hire a second full time employee. This has never been clearer to me than now; the effects of losing Fr Francis are far greater than changes to our Mass times. Losing a priest has reduced my capacity to invest time and energy into existing communities as well as significant growth areas (the Notre Dame Launch Team, the development of key leaders such as Fr Gerard and Beth, not to mention school ministry, preaching preparation, the celebration of Masses, funerals, weddings, baptisms, etc). I see this new hire as someone to support and actively accompany us all, and to come alongside and train the new Pastoral Leaders of each community and their (eventual) leadership team. To enable this to happen, we would need to increase our income significantly.

One of the challenges the Parish Finance Council and I currently face, however, is not knowing how many givers we have in our parish, nor how many people give by cash and Tap-Machines. This is key, and so while we depend heavily on each giver in our parish to accept responsibility in this area (automated giving allows me to budget much effectively), I am also asking you to become an identified giver as a sign of your commitment in this year of engagement.

Next weekend, pledge cards will be available in all church pews. These cards will ask you to identify yourself as a giver, the amount you give, the frequency of your giving, and the way you currently give (DD, CC, PG envelopes, Parish Giving App, Bank Transfer, Tap Machines, or Cash). I realise that I am being incredibly bold in asking for this information, but knowing these things (with the greatest respect to your privacy) will allow us to budget and invest our collective resources into our Mission far more effectively. Friends, I am thoroughly committed to the responsibility of growing our parish. Will you share this responsibility with me? 

Peace and blessings, Fr Josh