The only way is Pastoral!
Small Numbers.
Responses have come from a small group of Catholics. Overall the engagement levels have been disappointing and indicative of a larger movement within the Church.
We could blame Covid for the low response.
Covid
The Covid experience is partly responsible for the fatigue we have and the low engagement and difficulty in communicating the synod’s purpose. But Covid is not an “anti-Church” or an “anti-synodal” actor; it’s a virus, so it’s linked more to biology than communication, theology or faith.
Covid didn’t seek to destroy the Church as some think, and not all the responses to it supported the life of the Church or built up the Body of Christ. Nevertheless, the opportunity to learn from the experience of liturgical and social lockdown should not be ignored.
The impact of the Covid social and liturgical lockdown has shown us that our presumptions of church life, liturgical and sacramental worship, and parish communication pre-Covid need to be changed for the post-Covid world. Our habitual patterns have been broken.
Post-Covid Pastoral Life
This newsletter, its links to CathNews, the appointment of Lay Pastoral Workers and greater interaction between our parishes are part of the Post-Covid shift.
Our parishes are now operating as one group, though canonically separate. We have three different pastoral faces with one administration.
The focus from the beginning of Covid has been to streamline our administration, finances and communication and to turn all these in the direction of pastoral outreach and contact.
We have one online newsletter aiming to feed people through what is written and the links to CathNews. Most are grateful, and few are not, but that is the reality of life.
The purpose of the newsletter is to communicate with a larger number of people than we can do through notices at the end of Sunday Mass.
It is our decision to move away from paper and printing and the huge wastage this brings. Before Covid, we printed nearly 700 newsletters across the parishes, now, we print 100.
Kotahi Ano, our newsletter, is where the voices of various parishioners are heard! We have invited many different people to write for the Pastor’s Desk because we all pastor to each other at some level. Indeed, we are all called to be pastors to each other in the image of the divine pastor, Christ.
We have also developed with others Flashes of Insight .
Flashes of Insight is an opportunity to consider local and international questions, including synodality. It attempts to communicate with Catholics about issues of importance to Catholics.
Action for Others
One of the best actions during social and liturgical lockdown was the telephone tree with parishioners calling each other. I would like to see this happen again as a regular ministry and invite you to consider taking this ministry on in collaboration with others. All you need is a phone and a desire to telephone a few people weekly.
Most respondents to the synod process were older European New Zealanders and, in our parishes, older women. Why is that?
Where are the blokes and members of our growing migrant or New, New Zealanders church? Here is an outreach opportunity for you!
A Synodal Church
If a Synodal Church has the characteristics of hospitality and formation for all, especially embracing those hurt by the Church, then it must change.
If it is a listening Church that reaches out to the young and to people of other denominations and faiths that is needed, then we need to intentionally live as a church of priests, prophets and kings (our baptismal anointing). If we all take stock of our baptismal call and the commitment it brings to the community of faith and the community of the world, perhaps more members will step-up and do something for others.
The change in us is for all of us!
It is easy to blame others for services not delivered where the service-me mentality is strong. It is much more rewarding to devise an idea for outreach to the needy and the city and see it become a life-giving service to others.
Synodal Call
Part of the synodal call is to get out into the world.
The final words of the Mass are “Go, the Mass is ended, to love and serve the Lord”, to which everyone answers, “Thanks be to God” that we are sent.
There is nothing after this but to follow the missionary command of the Sacred Liturgy itself; People, where are you going next to take the word of God?
Who will hear the Good News from you as a result of your having been at Mass, hearing the scriptures and nourished by communion?
Liturgical Changes
All respondents spoke about a key element of Catholic life, the liturgy. Some want to change the liturgical language to make it less sexist and exclusive, others want better homilies from the clergy or the laity; most want greater participation by the laity in worship; still, others want to honour local culture and the varieties of cultural expressions; finally, some want music in a style, language and theological content to serve them better, and some want a return to the pre-conciliar rite and its thinking and function. All of this is good, but none of it is sufficient. Much of it leads to a deficient understanding of The Liturgy and its role and purpose because we tend to focus on our personal devotional needs and wants. All these requests, in essence, refer to ritual and miss the point of Liturgy.
A ritual is a tool we use liturgically, but Liturgy is much bigger than just its components; it is the call to deeper participation as a COMMUNITY in the life of God, not as individuals.
Liturgy is more than me and my wants; liturgy is the work of the people, which means the community, and becoming part of a community is different than demanding the community serve me and my needs. Liturgy is much harder to “do” than ritual, and it is harder to engage in when personal needs, likes, dislikes and such drive our thinking.
Turning the ritual needs into liturgical expression includes looking at ourselves and who we are in this place and time as inheritors of a tradition of faith and practice. It is hard work and there are few short-cuts.
Welcome
Much is made of welcome, especially welcome to all.
“Welcome” includes building bicultural relationships and multicultural relationships. Welcome embraces those hurt through exclusion, especially the divorced and remarried, LGBTQ2+ people, laicised priests, and people who are not Christians or Catholics.
In the Christchurch diocese, welcome would include blessing the unions of same-sex couples.
Welcome is the antidote to hierarchy.
Hierarchy is the problem that shows itself in clericalist thinking and acting; it is there where power is exercised without recourse to a conversation. Hierarchy sums up everything that is not participatory, lacks consultation and is the antithesis of listening.
Welcome gives the laity a place to start and from which to serve the community of the world and the community of faith. You’re all welcome to get involved!
Laity is already involved in service to others and reaching out to those on the fringes of society, so why is this not seen by the contributors to the synod? Is it possible that wanting more from fewer people or the same people is the problem?
Perhaps the problem is that the laity doesn’t see themselves as part of the church’s apparatus and therefore doesn’t see their place in it.
Abuse
The abuse of minors is a key factor in the present history of the Church and the failure of the hierarchy.
This is another reason why welcome is the antidote to hierarchy.
Where hierarchy has failed to protect the most vulnerable, welcome gives victims a place to speak.
From this experience, we cannot step back from this shame, we must step into it and allow it to teach us.
We need to take on the shame of the victim, to share it in the hope that this is the pathway to healing because it is also the door to The Liturgy.