Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney
Mob: 0417 279 437
Mob: 0417 279 437
Assistant Priest: Fr Paschal Okpon
Mob: 0438 562 731
paschalokpon@yahoo.com
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack
Mob: 0437 521 257
Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: merseyleven@aohtas.org.au
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
Mersey Leven Parish Team
Would like to thank all those who helped with the preparation of all Easter Liturgies,
and we wish everyone a very safe and happy Easter.
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Amen.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Mersey Leven
Parish Office will re-open on Wednesday 4th April at 10am
Weekday
Masses 2nd - 6th April
Monday: 12noon Devonport
Ministry Rosters 7th & 8th 2018
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Latrobe:
Port Sorell:
Readings next week – Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord
PREGO REFLECTION:
I begin my prayer by becoming still in the presence of God.
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me enter more fully into the joy of the Risen
Jesus on this Easter morning. Reading this familiar Gospel, I may like to place
myself in the story, going with Mary of Magdala to the garden tomb at dawn;
noticing the early morning colours, sounds and smells; sensing all that Mary is
carrying in her mind and heart.
What am I holding in mine?
Arriving at the
tomb, the stone is rolled away.
I see Mary’s shock and surprise as she looks
in.
Quickly she runs to find Peter and John. Perhaps I run with her, or maybe I
stay there quietly taking in all that is happening.
I notice how I am feeling.
The two disciples come running and I watch as the truth slowly dawns on each of
them: He is risen. Gradually, I become aware of another presence; my risen Lord
Jesus is gazing at me, calling my name. Perhaps I speak with him. Or maybe,
there are no words;
I simply rest in the wonder of his presence, allowing his
joy to fill my whole being.
After a time, I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks
...
Readings next week – Second Sunday
of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Joy Kiely, Vic Slavin, Rex Bates, & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: David
Welch, Brian Corbett, Katy Freeman,
Phil Tuckett, Joan
Hiscutt, Joseph Healy, Nina Griffiths, Keith Menzie, Julie
White, Margaret Symons
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 28th March – 3rd April
May they Rest in
Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Please take care on the roads if you are out and about over these days
and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
OUR LADY OF
LOURDES: OLOL Readers
rosters are available to be collected from the Sacristy.
Margaret
Breen would like to pass on her thanks to parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes
Church for their care, concern and support when she was unwell during Mass last
weekend. Margaret is home and feeling much better!
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 1(Friday 23rd March) Essendon defeated
Adelaide by 12 points –
winners; R Locket, MLCP (unsold ticket)
The 2018 AFL season has well and truly started. For a
little bit of fun each week why not help support our Parish fundraiser, buy a footy
margin ticket (or two) $2.00 each from Devonport, Ulverstone or Port Sorell.
There are three prizes of $100.00 each week.
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
The
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s PROCLAIM Conference on Parish Renewal
and Evangelisation: Will be held in Brisbane, 12-14 July, 2018. Focus areas:
Leadership, Culture Change, Young People, Belonging and Evangelisation. Early
bird registrations available until 22 April. For information: http://proclaimconference.com.au/
For those with limited finances, partial sponsorship is available via the
National Centre for Evangelisation, email: director@nce.catholic.org.au
Believers and non-believers alike have been arguing about the resurrection since the day Jesus rose. What really happened? How was he raised from the dead? Did an actual dead body really come back to life and step out of the grave or was the resurrection a monumental life-changing event inside the consciousness of Jesus’ followers? Or was the resurrection both, a real physical event and an event inside the consciousness of believers?
Obviously nobody was there to see what actually happened. Those who claimed Jesus was alive again didn’t see him rise and emerge from the tomb, they met him only after he had already risen and, immediately, believers and sceptics began to divide from each other, persons who claimed to have touched him and persons who doubted that testimony.
There have been sceptics and believers ever since and no shortage of persons, professional theologians and non-scholarly Christians alike, who believe in the resurrection of Jesus as a faith event but not as a physical event, where an actual body came out of a grave. The faith event is what’s important, they claim, and it is incidental whether or not Jesus’ actual body came out of the grave.
Was Jesus’ resurrection a faith event or a physical event? It was both. For Christians it is the most monumental event, faith and otherwise, in history. Two thousand subsequent years cannot be explained, except by the reality of the resurrection. To understand the resurrection of Jesus only as a literal fact, that his body rose from the grave, is to cut the resurrection off from much of its meaning. However, that being admitted, for Christians, the resurrection must also be a radically physical event. Why?
First, because the Gospels are pretty clear in emphasizing that the tomb was empty and that the resurrected Jesus was more than a spirit or ghost. We see, for instance, in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus invites a doubting Thomas to verify his physicality: “Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me. Touch me. You can see that I have a living body; a ghost does not have a body like this.”
As well, and very importantly, to cut the resurrection off from the literal fact that there was real physical transformation of a once dead corpse is to rob it of some of its important meanings and perhaps of the deepest root of its credibility. For the resurrection of Christ to have full meaning it must, among other things, have been a brute physical fact. There needs to be an empty tomb and a dead body returned to life. Why?
Not as some kind of miracle proof, but because of the incarnation. To believe in the incarnation and not to believe in the radical physical character of the resurrection is a contradiction. We believe that in the incarnation the Word was made flesh. This takes the mystery of Christ and the reality of the resurrection out of the realm of pure spirit. The incarnation always connotes a reality that’s radically physical, tangible, and touchable, like the old dictionary definition of matter as “something extended in space and having weight.”
To believe in the incarnation is to believe that God was born into real physical flesh, lived in real physical flesh, died in real physical flesh, and rose in real physical flesh. To believe that the resurrection was only an event in the faith consciousness of the disciples, however real, rich, and radical that might be imagined, is to rob the incarnation of its radical physical character and to fall into the kind of dualism that values spirit and denigrates the physical. Such a dualism devalues the incarnation and this impoverishes the meaning of the resurrection. If the resurrection is only a spiritual event then it is also only an anthropological one and not also a cosmic one. That’s a way of saying that it’s then an event only about human consciousness and not also about the cosmos.
But Jesus’ resurrection isn’t just something radically new in terms of human consciousness; it’s also something that’s radically new in terms of atoms and molecules. The resurrection rearranged hearts and minds, but it also rearranged atoms. Until Jesus’ resurrection, dead bodies did not come back to life; they stayed dead, so when his came back to life there was something radically new both at the level of faith and at the level of the atoms and molecules. Precisely because of its brute physicality, Jesus’ resurrection offers new hope to atoms as well as to people.
I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, literally. I believe too that this event was, as the rich insights within contemporary theology point out, highly spiritual: an event of faith, of changed consciousness, of new hope empowering a new charity and a new forgiveness. But it was also an event of changed atoms and of a changed dead body. It was radically physical, just as are all events that are part of the incarnation wherein God takes on real flesh.
Evolving the Contemplative Tradition
This article is taken from the daily email series from Fr Richard Rohr OMI. You can subscribe to receive the emails here
Living School alumna Teresa Pasquale Mateus rightly observes
that the contemplative tradition needs to evolve. When Western Christianity
revived contemplation in the 1970s, it did so primarily through the lens of
white, upper-middle class, celibate men. Contemplation became synonymous with
solitude and silence. Yet there are many, many ways to enter into non-dual
consciousness and presence with God, self, and others. The contemplative
tradition should reflect the diversity of the divine image. Teresa shares why
this change is so important:
Teresa Pasquale Mateus, “Mystic Love, Unbound: A Reclaimed,
Reframed, and Evolving Love Story between God and the World,” “Evolutionary
Thinking,” Oneing, vol. 4, no. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2016),
48-51.
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Arrangements are made by contacting Parish Office. Parents attend a Baptismal Preparation Session organised with a Priest.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: Ulverstone - Fridays (10am - 10:30am), Devonport - Saturday (5:15pm– 5.45pm)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is sick or in need of assistance in the Parish please visit them. Then, if they are willing and give permission could you please pass on their name to the Parish Office. We have a group of parishioners who are part of a Care and Concern Group who are willing to provide some backup and support to them.
Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration Devonport: First Friday each month.
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Mondays 7pm Community Room Ulverstone
Mersey Leven
Parish Office will re-open on Wednesday 4th April at 10am
Weekday
Masses 2nd - 6th April
Monday: 12noon Devonport
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone
12noon Devonport
7th & 8th April, 2018
Saturday Mass: 9:30am Ulverstone
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield 5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 7th & 8th 2018
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil M Stewart, B Suckling, A Stegmann 10:30am: A Hughes, T Barrientos, P
Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton
10:30: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S
Arrowsmith
Cleaners. 6th April: M.W.C. 13th April: F Sly, M Hansen, R McBain
Piety Shop 7th
April: R McBain 8th April:
T Omogbai-Musa
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: M & K McKenzie
Ministers of Communion: E Reilly, M & K McKenzie, M
O’Halloran
Cleaners: M McKenzie, M Singh, N Pearce Flowers: C Mapley Hospitality: Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator:
Readers: M & D Hiscutt Ministers of Communion: J Barker, T Clayton
Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: M Eden Ministers of Communion: P Marlow Procession of Gifts: J Hyde
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, T Jeffries Minister of Communion: T Jeffries
Clean/Flowers/Prepare: C Howard
Readings next week – Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord
First Reading: Acts 10:34. 37-43
Second Reading: Colossians 3: 1-4
Gospel: John 20:1-9
PREGO REFLECTION:
I begin my prayer by becoming still in the presence of God.
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me enter more fully into the joy of the Risen Jesus on this Easter morning. Reading this familiar Gospel, I may like to place myself in the story, going with Mary of Magdala to the garden tomb at dawn; noticing the early morning colours, sounds and smells; sensing all that Mary is carrying in her mind and heart.
What am I holding in mine?
Arriving at the tomb, the stone is rolled away.
I see Mary’s shock and surprise as she looks in.
Quickly she runs to find Peter and John. Perhaps I run with her, or maybe I stay there quietly taking in all that is happening.
I notice how I am feeling.
The two disciples come running and I watch as the truth slowly dawns on each of them: He is risen. Gradually, I become aware of another presence; my risen Lord Jesus is gazing at me, calling my name. Perhaps I speak with him. Or maybe, there are no words;
I simply rest in the wonder of his presence, allowing his joy to fill my whole being.
After a time, I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks ...
I ask the Holy Spirit to help me enter more fully into the joy of the Risen Jesus on this Easter morning. Reading this familiar Gospel, I may like to place myself in the story, going with Mary of Magdala to the garden tomb at dawn; noticing the early morning colours, sounds and smells; sensing all that Mary is carrying in her mind and heart.
What am I holding in mine?
Arriving at the tomb, the stone is rolled away.
I see Mary’s shock and surprise as she looks in.
Quickly she runs to find Peter and John. Perhaps I run with her, or maybe I stay there quietly taking in all that is happening.
I notice how I am feeling.
The two disciples come running and I watch as the truth slowly dawns on each of them: He is risen. Gradually, I become aware of another presence; my risen Lord Jesus is gazing at me, calling my name. Perhaps I speak with him. Or maybe, there are no words;
I simply rest in the wonder of his presence, allowing his joy to fill my whole being.
After a time, I end my prayer slowly, giving thanks ...
Readings next week – Second Sunday
of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday)
First Reading: Acts 4:32-35
Second Reading: 1 John 5:1-6
Gospel: John 20:19-31
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Joy Kiely, Vic Slavin, Rex Bates, & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: David
Welch, Brian Corbett, Katy Freeman,
Phil Tuckett, Joan
Hiscutt, Joseph Healy, Nina Griffiths, Keith Menzie, Julie
White, Margaret Symons
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 28th March – 3rd April
Robert Charlton,
Mary Marshall, Paul Banim, Horace Byrne, Eileen Murfet, Beris McCarthy, Fred
Harrison, Ada Davey, Jane Dutton, Paul Lowry, Duncan Fox, Daphne Wills and
Kevin Barber. Also Glen
Clark, Henry & Madeline Castles and Deceased relatives and friends of the
Clark, Hawes, Marshall, Speers, Woodhouse, White, Ockwell and Willis families.
May they Rest in
Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
A Happy Easter to
everyone as we rejoice and share in this most wonderful of times.
Many years ago
there was a large movement that sort to bring the message of Easter to the
community – it was called Easter Awakening. It grew out of an awareness that
for many people Easter was a great long holiday and so the question was asked -
how could we (the Churches) bring the story of the Resurrection to the wider
community. Like all activities overtime it lost some of its traction and
attraction but the need to make known the story of the saving death and
Resurrection of Jesus is as real today as ever.
So, I am
encouraging you to celebrate the Resurrection, if not in the broader community
then at least with your families and friends, and give thanks for the great love
that God has for each one of us.
On behalf of Fr
Paschal and Fr Phil I would like to express my thanks to everyone who is a part
of our Parish Community and who help us to be a community of faith. Many things
happen in our Parish because of the generosity of individuals and groups who
assist with our various ministries or who work behind the scenes, frequently
unacknowledged, to make us who we are – thank you.
Please take care on the roads if you are out and about over these days
and we look forward to seeing you next weekend.
OUR LADY OF
LOURDES: OLOL Readers
rosters are available to be collected from the Sacristy.
Margaret
Breen would like to pass on her thanks to parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes
Church for their care, concern and support when she was unwell during Mass last
weekend. Margaret is home and feeling much better!
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 1(Friday 23rd March) Essendon defeated
Adelaide by 12 points –
winners; R Locket, MLCP (unsold ticket)
The 2018 AFL season has well and truly started. For a
little bit of fun each week why not help support our Parish fundraiser, buy a footy
margin ticket (or two) $2.00 each from Devonport, Ulverstone or Port Sorell.
There are three prizes of $100.00 each week.
You’ve got to be in it to win it!!
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 5th
April – Rod Clark & Graeme Rigney.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
TASMANIAN CATHOLIC YOUTH
FESTIVAL:
The inaugural “Tasmanian Catholic Youth Festival” (TCYF)
will be held on 16 and 17 May 2018 in Launceston and Hobart respectively with a
fantastic line-up of speakers and performers. They include US singer/songwriter
and ACYF performer Steve Angrisano, entrepreneur and Oneplate charity founder
Therese Nichols, and many more! The festival will consist of a day session
which will be open to all school students from years 8-12 followed by a night
rally that will be open to all young people until 30 years of age. More
information on the festival will be out shortly. If you have any questions,
please email youth@aohtas.org.au
The
Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s PROCLAIM Conference on Parish Renewal
and Evangelisation: Will be held in Brisbane, 12-14 July, 2018. Focus areas:
Leadership, Culture Change, Young People, Belonging and Evangelisation. Early
bird registrations available until 22 April. For information: http://proclaimconference.com.au/
For those with limited finances, partial sponsorship is available via the
National Centre for Evangelisation, email: director@nce.catholic.org.au
THE EMPTY TOMB
This article is by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original of the article can be found hereBelievers and non-believers alike have been arguing about the resurrection since the day Jesus rose. What really happened? How was he raised from the dead? Did an actual dead body really come back to life and step out of the grave or was the resurrection a monumental life-changing event inside the consciousness of Jesus’ followers? Or was the resurrection both, a real physical event and an event inside the consciousness of believers?
Obviously nobody was there to see what actually happened. Those who claimed Jesus was alive again didn’t see him rise and emerge from the tomb, they met him only after he had already risen and, immediately, believers and sceptics began to divide from each other, persons who claimed to have touched him and persons who doubted that testimony.
There have been sceptics and believers ever since and no shortage of persons, professional theologians and non-scholarly Christians alike, who believe in the resurrection of Jesus as a faith event but not as a physical event, where an actual body came out of a grave. The faith event is what’s important, they claim, and it is incidental whether or not Jesus’ actual body came out of the grave.
Was Jesus’ resurrection a faith event or a physical event? It was both. For Christians it is the most monumental event, faith and otherwise, in history. Two thousand subsequent years cannot be explained, except by the reality of the resurrection. To understand the resurrection of Jesus only as a literal fact, that his body rose from the grave, is to cut the resurrection off from much of its meaning. However, that being admitted, for Christians, the resurrection must also be a radically physical event. Why?
First, because the Gospels are pretty clear in emphasizing that the tomb was empty and that the resurrected Jesus was more than a spirit or ghost. We see, for instance, in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus invites a doubting Thomas to verify his physicality: “Look at my hands and my feet. It’s really me. Touch me. You can see that I have a living body; a ghost does not have a body like this.”
As well, and very importantly, to cut the resurrection off from the literal fact that there was real physical transformation of a once dead corpse is to rob it of some of its important meanings and perhaps of the deepest root of its credibility. For the resurrection of Christ to have full meaning it must, among other things, have been a brute physical fact. There needs to be an empty tomb and a dead body returned to life. Why?
Not as some kind of miracle proof, but because of the incarnation. To believe in the incarnation and not to believe in the radical physical character of the resurrection is a contradiction. We believe that in the incarnation the Word was made flesh. This takes the mystery of Christ and the reality of the resurrection out of the realm of pure spirit. The incarnation always connotes a reality that’s radically physical, tangible, and touchable, like the old dictionary definition of matter as “something extended in space and having weight.”
To believe in the incarnation is to believe that God was born into real physical flesh, lived in real physical flesh, died in real physical flesh, and rose in real physical flesh. To believe that the resurrection was only an event in the faith consciousness of the disciples, however real, rich, and radical that might be imagined, is to rob the incarnation of its radical physical character and to fall into the kind of dualism that values spirit and denigrates the physical. Such a dualism devalues the incarnation and this impoverishes the meaning of the resurrection. If the resurrection is only a spiritual event then it is also only an anthropological one and not also a cosmic one. That’s a way of saying that it’s then an event only about human consciousness and not also about the cosmos.
But Jesus’ resurrection isn’t just something radically new in terms of human consciousness; it’s also something that’s radically new in terms of atoms and molecules. The resurrection rearranged hearts and minds, but it also rearranged atoms. Until Jesus’ resurrection, dead bodies did not come back to life; they stayed dead, so when his came back to life there was something radically new both at the level of faith and at the level of the atoms and molecules. Precisely because of its brute physicality, Jesus’ resurrection offers new hope to atoms as well as to people.
I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, literally. I believe too that this event was, as the rich insights within contemporary theology point out, highly spiritual: an event of faith, of changed consciousness, of new hope empowering a new charity and a new forgiveness. But it was also an event of changed atoms and of a changed dead body. It was radically physical, just as are all events that are part of the incarnation wherein God takes on real flesh.
Evolving the Contemplative Tradition
This article is taken from the daily email series from Fr Richard Rohr OMI. You can subscribe to receive the emails here
Living School alumna Teresa Pasquale Mateus rightly observes
that the contemplative tradition needs to evolve. When Western Christianity
revived contemplation in the 1970s, it did so primarily through the lens of
white, upper-middle class, celibate men. Contemplation became synonymous with
solitude and silence. Yet there are many, many ways to enter into non-dual
consciousness and presence with God, self, and others. The contemplative
tradition should reflect the diversity of the divine image. Teresa shares why
this change is so important:
There are so many . . . people deeply yearning for what the
contemplative path has to offer—but often there is a great divide between the
prayer circles and the activists, the people of faith in communities of color
and the contemplative retreats. The spaces seem remote and inaccessible to many
who need them the most: those suffering from poverty and homelessness; those on
the frontline of protests and marches for justice; those who sit in
non-contemplative church contexts. . . . Further, members of each group carry
practices from their own traditions and cultures that could serve the current
contemplative containers—rituals of healing from street protests, mantras of
lament and hope from those in the margins, and prayers and songs from African
and indigenous cultures. . . .
For people existing in the margins—who desperately need
contemplative wisdom—a path of contemplation without action . . . doesn’t have
meaning. Because their struggles are for survival, for themselves, their loved
ones, and their communities, these struggles cannot be set aside in pursuit of
an individual spiritual journey. The journey is inherently communal. . . . It
necessitates action, but desperately seeks contemplation. The current
contemplative container was not built for them and cannot contain their hurts,
their actions, their needs, their identities.
When the container is too small for the contents, it must
expand. It must evolve. . . . God’s great love story with us calls us into
discomfort—the gateway to evolution. For the majority culture, this call is to
be in the margins, alongside marginalized persons, and learn what is needed to
authentically walk beside them in their suffering. It calls for the discomfort
of being in spaces where the mystical path may not look like your own. . . . It
calls for the discomfort of hearing God’s voice through the woman of color, the
queer teen, the under-heard and under-seen . . . and to reorient perspectives
and actions according to the lessons taught through deep listening. . . . For
people of color, like myself, and others in the margins (women, LGBTQI, and
beyond), it is also a time to let our voices rise and join this conversation as
vital partners in the unfolding of this new evolution in the collective soul of
contemplative faith. In the process, together, we co-create the contemplative
evolution and the mystical revolution. . . . In a world in pain, we are in the
crescendo of birthing ourselves for this place and time. Only together can we
push through to the next phase of our spiritual evolution.
Teresa Pasquale Mateus, “Mystic Love, Unbound: A Reclaimed,
Reframed, and Evolving Love Story between God and the World,” “Evolutionary
Thinking,” Oneing, vol. 4, no. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2016),
48-51.
3 THINGS YOU CAN DO
TO MAKE YOUR CHURCH MORE WELCOMING
TO VISITORS THIS EASTER
These ideas are from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. you can find the original blog here
Easter is here and we know that our churches will be filled with visitors and new comers and lots and lots of unchurched people. This can be a golden opportunity to make a connection with them…or not. Whoever you are, whatever your role at your parish, whatever kind of parish you have, there are at least 3 things you can do to make your church more welcoming to visitors this Easter.
#1. Park Off Campus
The whole church experience for most people at most church begins in the parking lot. If it is chaotic and confused, or worse, if there are no parking spaces, visitors will feel like they made a mistake in coming. They might very well give up at that point and go home. If, on the other hand, regulars park off campus, creating greater availability, you’ve already started to shape an environment the unchurched will appreciate. I always say the “homily” begins in the parking lot.
#2. Give Up Your Seat
Here at Nativity it was always the case that our regulars would be sure and come super early on Christmas and Easter and fill up all the best seats first. Visitors were left to stand where they could or congregate in the Lobby. It makes sense, insiders know how to work the system for their own advantage. But if a visitor is forced to stand, and, in the process, can’t really see or hear anything, the experience is largely worthless to them. How about if you flip this arrangement? If you’re a regular, give up your seat this Easter, leave it open for an unchurched visitor who will probably arrive later than you. When they do arrive, and there’s a seat for them, they’ll feel like you were expecting them. And that’s a nice feeling.
#3. Smile
Often the number one reason unchurched people say they don’t like church is because of the unfriendly appearance of the church people. That can be easily resolved with a smile. How about if we all smile this Easter…you know, like it’s a celebration.
Your church can definitely make a connection with the unchurched this Easter. But you have to put a little effort into it.
These ideas are from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. you can find the original blog here
Easter is here and we know that our churches will be filled with visitors and new comers and lots and lots of unchurched people. This can be a golden opportunity to make a connection with them…or not. Whoever you are, whatever your role at your parish, whatever kind of parish you have, there are at least 3 things you can do to make your church more welcoming to visitors this Easter.
#1. Park Off Campus
The whole church experience for most people at most church begins in the parking lot. If it is chaotic and confused, or worse, if there are no parking spaces, visitors will feel like they made a mistake in coming. They might very well give up at that point and go home. If, on the other hand, regulars park off campus, creating greater availability, you’ve already started to shape an environment the unchurched will appreciate. I always say the “homily” begins in the parking lot.
#2. Give Up Your Seat
Here at Nativity it was always the case that our regulars would be sure and come super early on Christmas and Easter and fill up all the best seats first. Visitors were left to stand where they could or congregate in the Lobby. It makes sense, insiders know how to work the system for their own advantage. But if a visitor is forced to stand, and, in the process, can’t really see or hear anything, the experience is largely worthless to them. How about if you flip this arrangement? If you’re a regular, give up your seat this Easter, leave it open for an unchurched visitor who will probably arrive later than you. When they do arrive, and there’s a seat for them, they’ll feel like you were expecting them. And that’s a nice feeling.
#3. Smile
Often the number one reason unchurched people say they don’t like church is because of the unfriendly appearance of the church people. That can be easily resolved with a smile. How about if we all smile this Easter…you know, like it’s a celebration.
Your church can definitely make a connection with the unchurched this Easter. But you have to put a little effort into it.
A fresh look at the Last Supper
The Easter Triduum begins on the evening of Holy Thursday, with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The first reading of that liturgy puts us in mind of the Passover lamb, whose blood became a sign of God’s fidelity to his people. Gerard J. Hughes SJ suggests that our understanding of Jesus’s actions at the Last Supper should be informed by this tradition and by the account of God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Gerard J. Hughes SJ is a tutor in philosophy at Campion Hall, Oxford. He is the author of Aristotle on Ethics, Is God to Blame? and Fidelity without Fundamentalism (DLT, 2010).
The Last Supper is a key event in Holy Week; our commemoration of it in our Maundy Thursday liturgy sets the tone and is the background for everything else. If we think carefully about what Jesus did at that Passover meal we shall discover how important it was, and so have a better understanding of what he was trying to do on that fateful night and on the day of his death.
You can read the complete article by clicking here
The Easter Triduum begins on the evening of Holy Thursday, with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. The first reading of that liturgy puts us in mind of the Passover lamb, whose blood became a sign of God’s fidelity to his people. Gerard J. Hughes SJ suggests that our understanding of Jesus’s actions at the Last Supper should be informed by this tradition and by the account of God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Gerard J. Hughes SJ is a tutor in philosophy at Campion Hall, Oxford. He is the author of Aristotle on Ethics, Is God to Blame? and Fidelity without Fundamentalism (DLT, 2010).
The Last Supper is a key event in Holy Week; our commemoration of it in our Maundy Thursday liturgy sets the tone and is the background for everything else. If we think carefully about what Jesus did at that Passover meal we shall discover how important it was, and so have a better understanding of what he was trying to do on that fateful night and on the day of his death.
You can read the complete article by clicking here
