By Rev. Josh McDermid
Fire. This is the image that best describes the first day of our annual summer school program. With the focus on parish renewal, we were privileged to be joined by Jeff Zaher and Kevin Bailey AM from Divine Renovation Australia, Fr Richard Rosse, parish priest of St Catherine of Siena Parish, Caroline Springs, and Bishop Rene Ramirez RCJ, one of the two new auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Between them they lit a fire within us to give priority to evangelisation and to lead parishes in moving from maintenance to mission.
The day begun with Jeff providing us with the scriptural and magisterial foundations for Divine Renovation’s approach to parish renewal. He explained to us that the founder of Divine Renovation, Canadian priest Fr James Mallon, provides three keys to parish renewal:
· the primacy of evangelisation,
· the power of the Holy Spirit, and
· the best of leadership.
These three keys, Fr James says, are linked by the Eucharist, which is at the heart of the mission.
Kevin then elaborated on these three keys, challenging us to alter our thinking about what a parish does. A parish, he explained, is like a club, but instead of existing for its members like any other club would, it exists for its non-members, those who are yet to encounter Christ or who have lapsed in their faith. Hence, the Church and the parish both exist to evangelise. Kevin went on to impress on us the importance of leadership, and in particular, the importance of having a leadership team, as the priest himself cannot simply act alone. Finally, he emphasised prayer and the role of the Holy Spirit, reminding us that the desire for evangelisation needs to be burning in our hearts.
After lunch, we received practical examples of how the work of parish renewal, and Divine Renovation in particular, has been implemented in Victoria. Fr Richard talked to us about his own experience of setting up and leading a parish leadership team in Caroline Springs. He introduced us to the five systems of the Church: worship, evangelisation, fellowship, discipleship, and service. Bishop Rene then shared his own difficulties of moving parishes in the midst of parish renewal and of having to close a church during his ministry in the Diocese of Sandhurst. He also spoke of how the Alpha program helped those whose church had been closed down to deepen the faith despite the closure.
Finally, Jeff and Kevin sent us away with some helpful tips about change management and how we can recognise skillsets in ourselves and in others. It was both a challenging and invigorating day, and we thank our presenters for a lighting a fire within each of us to leave the seminary as priests, and to take on the work of evangelisation and renewal in the parishes of our dioceses.
