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
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Parents are asked to contact the Parish Office to make arrangements for attending a Baptismal Preparation Session and booking a Baptism date.
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 names to the Parish Office. We have a group of parishioners who are part of the Care and Concern Group who are willing and able to provide some backup and support to them. Unfortunately, because of privacy issues, the Parish Office is not able to give out details unless prior permission has been given.
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Eucharistic Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction with Adoration - Devonport: First Friday of each month.
Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Monday evenings 7pm – 9:30pm Community Room Ulverstone
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
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.
Weekday
Masses 13th - 16th March
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 11:00am
Mt St Vincent 12noon Ulverstone - Funeral Mass late Joan Hiscutt Next Weekend 17th & 18th March
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 17th & 18th March, 2018
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week – Third Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-6, 19-23
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
PREGO REFLECTION:
I pay attention to where I
am drawn, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I could pray this Gospel
scene by imagining that, like Nicodemus, I approach Jesus in the darkness of
night.
How does it feel to sit with him?
What am I looking for?
And how does
Jesus appreciate my being with him, my seeking him out?
In the scene, Jesus is
alluding to the salvation he will accomplish through his Passion ... that
‘generous mercy’ of the Second Reading.
And all of this because God loves the
world, because God loves me …
What is it like to be the recipient of this
wonderful free gift?
Jesus also speaks of light and darkness.
He desires us to
live in the light … perhaps, too, that we reveal the dark places within
ourselves so he can heal us.
How would I like to respond to him?
What can I do
this week to ensure I am trying to live by that light?
Trusting in his
goodness, I end my prayer by asking the Lord to help me live my life for his
greater glory. Our Father …
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Joy Kiely, Vic Slavin, Rex Bates, Phil Tuckett, David Welch & …
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 7th – 13th March
Next Friday, 16th March, Br Cris Mendoza will be
ordained to the Priesthood in Cebu, Philippines. Archbishop Julian will be the
Ordaining Bishop and I will be in attendance to celebrate this special moment
in Cris’ life. Please keep him in your prayers in this week and for the future.
After his ordination his application for a visa will continue and when
finalised he will return to Tasmania to work as a Priest in our
Archdiocese. I will be away after Masses
on 11th and returning on 19th March.
On behalf of the Parish I would like to congratulate Fr
Paschal who will be conferred with his Masters of Theology Degree next Friday
evening in a ceremony in Melbourne – well done.
The next steps in developing our Parish Vision will be the
two events mentioned in the Bulletin last weekend – the Introduction to
Hospitality on 15th April and the Ongoing Training for Lectors on 22nd April – both session starting at 2pm in the Community Room at Ulverstone. I am
extremely grateful and appreciative of all those who already assist in these ministries
– I am hoping to encourage a few more people to become involved as well as
helping to further develop the skills of those already serving as Hospitality
people and Lectors. Please make a note of the date and I ask that you might
make this a priority in your forward planning.
A reminder about next Wednesday at Latrobe – after the
9.30am Mass the School Community is inviting any and all parishioners to join
the children for Morning Tea in their Hall. Please add your name to the list at
the rear of St Pat’s Church so that they have an idea of numbers.
Also on St Pat’s – The School Fair is on next Friday evening
16th from 4pm It is always a great night so Be There or Be Square –
hard to say that in Irish!
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
Amen.
Weekday
Masses 13th - 16th March
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 12noon Devonport
Friday: 11:00am
Mt St Vincent 12noon Ulverstone - Funeral Mass late Joan Hiscutt Next Weekend 17th & 18th March
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 17th & 18th March, 2018
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye
10:30am: A Hughes,
T Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion: Vigil:
T Muir, M Davies, M Gerrand, D Peters, J Heatley
10:30am: B & N Mulcahy, L Hollister, K
Hull
Cleaners. 16th March: K.S.C. 23rd March: M & L Tippett, A Berryman Mower Roster: Tony Ryan.
Piety Shop 17th March:
H Thompson 18th March: O McGinley
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: S Lawrence Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, M Barry
Cleaners: V Ferguson, E Cox Hospitality: S & T Johnstone
Penguin:
Greeters: A Landers, P Ravaillion Commentator: J Barker
Readers:
T Clayton, M
Murray
Ministers of
Communion: S Ewing,
A Guest Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing
Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Port Sorell:
Readers: L Post, T Jeffries Minister of Communion: V Duff Clean/Flowers/Prepare: V Youd
Readings this week – Third Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: 2 Chronicles 36:14-6, 19-23
Second Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gospel: John 3:14-21
PREGO REFLECTION:
I read the Gospel prayerfully.
I pay attention to where I am drawn, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I could pray this Gospel scene by imagining that, like Nicodemus, I approach Jesus in the darkness of night.
How does it feel to sit with him?
What am I looking for?
And how does Jesus appreciate my being with him, my seeking him out?
In the scene, Jesus is alluding to the salvation he will accomplish through his Passion ... that ‘generous mercy’ of the Second Reading.
And all of this because God loves the world, because God loves me …
What is it like to be the recipient of this wonderful free gift?
Jesus also speaks of light and darkness.
He desires us to live in the light … perhaps, too, that we reveal the dark places within ourselves so he can heal us.
How would I like to respond to him?
What can I do this week to ensure I am trying to live by that light?
Trusting in his goodness, I end my prayer by asking the Lord to help me live my life for his greater glory. Our Father …
I pay attention to where I am drawn, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I could pray this Gospel scene by imagining that, like Nicodemus, I approach Jesus in the darkness of night.
How does it feel to sit with him?
What am I looking for?
And how does Jesus appreciate my being with him, my seeking him out?
In the scene, Jesus is alluding to the salvation he will accomplish through his Passion ... that ‘generous mercy’ of the Second Reading.
And all of this because God loves the world, because God loves me …
What is it like to be the recipient of this wonderful free gift?
Jesus also speaks of light and darkness.
He desires us to live in the light … perhaps, too, that we reveal the dark places within ourselves so he can heal us.
How would I like to respond to him?
What can I do this week to ensure I am trying to live by that light?
Trusting in his goodness, I end my prayer by asking the Lord to help me live my life for his greater glory. Our Father …
Readings
next week – Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B
First Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Second Reading: Hebrews 5:
7-9
Gospel: John 12:20-33
Your prayers
are asked for the sick:
Joy Kiely, Vic Slavin, Rex Bates, Phil Tuckett, David Welch & …
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Gottfried Winkler, Nina
Griffiths, Joan Hiscutt, Keith Menzie, Julie
White, Margaret Symons, Rose Ackerly, Neil Beamish, Joan
Mansour, Colin McKay, Philomina Mathew, Desmond Peters, Joseph
Thi, Henry Arnold, Judy Carpenter, Beatrice Zuluaga, Narelle Ravaillion
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs
about this time: 7th – 13th March
Doris
Roberts, Betty Waldon-Cruse, Graham Nicholson, Sybil Dobinson, David Gibbens,
Patrick O’Brien, Betty Boskell, Bob
McCormack, Leonie Heron, Kevin Sheedy, Ken Bates, Max Fulton, Betty Hocking,
Ernest Collings, Amaya Stevens, Edna
Chatwin, Nancye Callinan, Bernie & Frances O’Sullivan.
May they Rest in
Peace
Weekly
Ramblings
Next Friday, 16th March, Br Cris Mendoza will be
ordained to the Priesthood in Cebu, Philippines. Archbishop Julian will be the
Ordaining Bishop and I will be in attendance to celebrate this special moment
in Cris’ life. Please keep him in your prayers in this week and for the future.
After his ordination his application for a visa will continue and when
finalised he will return to Tasmania to work as a Priest in our
Archdiocese. I will be away after Masses
on 11th and returning on 19th March.
On behalf of the Parish I would like to congratulate Fr
Paschal who will be conferred with his Masters of Theology Degree next Friday
evening in a ceremony in Melbourne – well done.
The next steps in developing our Parish Vision will be the
two events mentioned in the Bulletin last weekend – the Introduction to
Hospitality on 15th April and the Ongoing Training for Lectors on 22nd April – both session starting at 2pm in the Community Room at Ulverstone. I am
extremely grateful and appreciative of all those who already assist in these ministries
– I am hoping to encourage a few more people to become involved as well as
helping to further develop the skills of those already serving as Hospitality
people and Lectors. Please make a note of the date and I ask that you might
make this a priority in your forward planning.
A reminder about next Wednesday at Latrobe – after the
9.30am Mass the School Community is inviting any and all parishioners to join
the children for Morning Tea in their Hall. Please add your name to the list at
the rear of St Pat’s Church so that they have an idea of numbers.
Also on St Pat’s – The School Fair is on next Friday evening
16th from 4pm It is always a great night so Be There or Be Square –
hard to say that in Irish!
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
Project Compassion- Fourth Sunday
of Lent
Evangeline in the Northern Territory, featured in Project
Compassion 2016. She was employed by the Caritas Australia supported Djilpin
Arts and quickly rose to the role of Senior Artsworker. Her career has
flourished. Her work at Djilpin Arts contributes to its success, whilst
providing training and opportunities for other young people in the community.
Please donate to Project Compassion 2018 and help provide
employment and training for First Australians. The work of Evangeline and
Djilpin Arts is creating opportunities for first Peoples to remain on country
and keep their culture alive. This work is essential for a just future. You
can donate through Parish boxes and envelopes or by phoning 1800 024 413 or
visiting www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion.
FEAST OF ST
PATRICK:
SACRED
HEART CHURCH ROSTER:
FOOTY
TICKETS:
Footy margin tickets for season 2018 will be sold at OLOL Church
Devonport, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone and St Joseph’s Mass Centre Port
Sorell for $2 each. For regular
participants (or anyone new who would like to join) you can purchase your
tickets for the year for $54 (all games and finals) plus $10 for the grand
final ticket (total $64) Payments can be made in cash to the Parish Office or
Direct Deposit into Parish Account (you will need to contact the Parish Office
to arrange). People who choose this option will be given their tickets for the
whole season.
FEAST OF ST
PATRICK:
Following the 9:30am Mass at St Patrick’s Church on Wednesday
14th March, parishioners are warmly welcomed for a tour of St Patrick’s School,
followed by morning tea in the school hall. If you would like to attend, please
indicate on the registration form at the back of St Patrick’s Church or phone
the school on 6426:1626 for catering purposes. Hope to see you there!
SACRED
HEART CHURCH ROSTER:
Rosters will be renewed soon! If
you are able to assist with Sunday morning hospitality, cleaning of the Church,
arranging flowers, reading, or a Minister of Communion, please contact Barbara
O’Rourke 6428:2723 or the Parish Office 6424:2783 (also if you are no longer
able to continue on the roster).
FOOTY
TICKETS:
Footy margin tickets for season 2018 will be sold at OLOL Church
Devonport, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone and St Joseph’s Mass Centre Port
Sorell for $2 each. For regular
participants (or anyone new who would like to join) you can purchase your
tickets for the year for $54 (all games and finals) plus $10 for the grand
final ticket (total $64) Payments can be made in cash to the Parish Office or
Direct Deposit into Parish Account (you will need to contact the Parish Office
to arrange). People who choose this option will be given their tickets for the
whole season.
ST BRENDAN-SHAW COLLEGE OPEN INFORMATION NIGHT:
Tuesday 27th
March, 7 – 9pm. Year 7 (2019) and all prospective students welcome! If you
would like to attend please contact St Brendan-Shaw College on 6424:7622 or
email admin@sbsc.tas.edu.au
MacKillop
Hill Spirituality Centre
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
16th March: Stations of the Cross - 7.00pm at both OLOL and Ulverstone
16th March: Ordination to Priesthood of Brother Cris –
Cebu, Philippines (10pm our time)
Creation Reflects God's Glory
The universe itself can be understood as the primary
revelation of the divine. —Thomas Berry [1]
[1] Thomas Berry, The Christian Future and the Fate of the
Earth, eds. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
2009), 67.
THE PASSING OF A GOOD SHEPHERD
This is an article from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
No community should botch its deaths. Last month a wonderful leader within the faith community in Canada died and it could profit us all to more fully receive his spirit. How do we do that? It can be helpful for us, I believe, to highlight those places where his life, his energy, and his leadership more particularly helped steady us in our faith and helped us to use our own gifts more fully to serve God. Who was this man? Joseph Neil MacNeil, Emeritus Archbishop of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I was lucky enough to have had him as my bishop for the first eighteen years of my priesthood. He was a good mentor and I needed one. I had just finished seminary and, not unlike many a naïve young man just turned loose in ministry, I had overly-rigid views on what was wrong with the world and how to fix that, views rooted more in personal immaturity than in prudence, views in need of a lot of leveling out. He was a guiding hand, not just for me but for many others.
And this was a time as well where the church as a whole was struggling for a deeper maturity. The church was just engaging the reforms of Vatican II, wondering whether it was going too far or not far enough, and reeling at the same time from the radical cultural and sexual changes of the late 1960s. Change was everywhere. Nothing, church-wise or otherwise, was as before. We were a pioneer generation ecclesially in need of new leadership.
He led us well, nothing too daring, nothing reactionary, just good, steady, charitable leadership that helped us, among other things, be more pastorally sensitive, more ecumenical, less self-absorbed, less clerical, more open to lay involvement, and more sensitive to the place of women. He kept things steady but inching forward, even while properly honoring the past.
Among his many gifts, three qualities of his leadership, for me, particularly stand out as a challenge for us all to live out our own discipleship more deeply.
First, he could live with ambiguity and not panic when tension seemed everywhere. He was not frightened or put off by polarization and criticism. He sorted them through with patience and charity. That helped create space for a more-inclusive church, one within which people of different temperaments and ecclesiologies could still be within the same community. He kept his eyes on the big picture and not on the various side-shows, skirmishes that so easily deflect attention away from what’s important. Good people carry tension so as to not let it spell over unnecessarily onto others. Good leaders put up with ambiguity so as to not resolve tensions prematurely. He was a good person and a good leader. He could be patient with unresolved tension.
Second, he understood the innate tension that comes from our baptism wherein we are perennially torn between two loyalties, that is, the tension between being loyal to the church and its dogmas and rules on the one hand, and being loyal at the same time to the fact that we are also meant to be universal instruments of salvation who radiate God’s compassion to everyone within all the churches and within the world at large. Here’s one example of that: In the face of a very messy and painful pastoral situation, I once phoned him asking him what I should do. His answer properly interfaced law and mercy: “Father, you know the mind of the church, you know canon law, you know my mind, and so you know what ideally should be done here … but you also know the principle of Epikeia, you are standing before the pain of these people, and God has put you there. You need to bring all of this together and make a decision based on that. Tell me afterwards what you decide and then I’ll tell you whether I agree or not.” I did make a decision, phoned him afterwards, he didn’t agree with me, but he thanked me for doing what I did.
Finally, as a faith leader he understood the difference between catechesis and theology and he honored and defended the special place of each of them. Catechesis is needed to ground us; theology is needed to stretch us. He understood that. As a former President of a University who had done graduate work at the University of Chicago, he wasn’t threatened by theologians and generally came to our defense when we were attacked. One of his pet sayings when one of his theological faculty came under scrutiny or attack was simply: “They’re theologians! They speculate. That’s what theologians do. They aren’t catechists.” He offered an equal defense for his catechists.
In church parlance, a bishop, an archbishop, a cardinal, or a pope is considered A Prince of the Church. He was that, a Prince of the Church … not because the church anointed him as such, but because he had the intelligence, grace, and heart of a leader.
MacKillop
Hill Spirituality Centre
MARGARET SILF
One of the most renowned and accessible spirituality
writers of our time returns to Tasmania in May 2018. She will be presenting 2 sessions – come to
one or both!
Ulverstone Thursday 24th May, 7pm – 9pm – “The Stories that Shape Us” –
reflecting on the precious gift of imagination which enables us to shape
stories and narratives in our search for meaning and understanding in our
lives. Some are life-giving, some
control and seduce us and others endure and grow as we grow.
Devonport Friday 25th May 10am – 12noon – “Born to Fly” – how we, too,
like the caterpillar’s metamorphosis, are in the process of transformation –
invited to be co-creators of a different kind of future for humanity. Bookings
now open. Phone 6428:3095 or email: rsjforth@bigpond.net.au. Cost $20.00 per session.
Thursday
Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down
7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 15th
March, Merv Tippett & Alan Luxton.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
16th March: Stations of the Cross - 7.00pm at both OLOL and Ulverstone
16th March: Ordination to Priesthood of Brother Cris –
Cebu, Philippines (10pm our time)
17th March: St Patrick’s Church Feast Day – see
celebration above
Creation Reflects God's Glory
This article has been collated from the daily email series from the Center for Action and Contemplation and Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe and receive the emails by clicking here
The universe itself can be understood as the primary
revelation of the divine. —Thomas Berry [1]
The Divine Presence is happening in, through, and amidst
every detail of life. . . . [It] penetrates all that exists. Everything in
virtue of coming into existence is in relationship to this Source. —Thomas
Keating [2]
The incarnation of God did not only happen in Bethlehem two
thousand years ago. It began approximately 14 billion years ago with a moment
that we now call “The Big Bang” or what some call “The Great Radiance.” At the
birth of our universe, God materialized and revealed who God is. Ilia Delio
writes: “Human life must be traced back to the time when life was deeply one, a
Singularity, whereby the intensity of mass-energy exploded into consciousness.”
[3] This Singularity provides a solid basis for inherent reverence, universal
sacrality, and a spiritual ecology that transcends groups and religions.
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) stated, “The immense
diversity and pluriformity of this creation more perfectly represents God than
any one creature alone or by itself.” [4] However, most Christians thought
humans were the only creatures that God cared about, and all else—animals,
plants, light, water, soil, minerals—was just “food” for our own sustenance and
enjoyment. I do not believe that the Infinitely Loving Source we call God could
be so stingy and withholding, and only care about one species—unless that care
would lead to care for everything else too, which I would call full
consciousness. That is the unique human gift.
God created millions of creatures for millions of years
before Homo sapiens came along. Many of these beings are too tiny for us to see
or have yet to be discovered; some have seemingly no benefit to human life; and
many, like the dinosaurs, lived and died long before we did. Why did they even
exist? A number of the Psalms say that creation exists simply to reflect and
give glory to God (e.g., Psalm 104). The deepest meaning of creation and
creatures is their naked existence itself. God has chosen to communicate God’s
very Self in multitudinous and diverse shapes of beauty, love, truth, and
goodness, each of which manifests another facet of the Divine. (See Job 38-39,
Wisdom 13:1-9, Romans 1:20.) Once you can see this, you live in an enchanted
and spiritually safe world.
Christians have gotten ourselves into a muddle by not taking
incarnation and creation as the body of God seriously. As theologian Sallie
McFague writes, “Salvation is the direction of creation, and creation is the
place of salvation.” [5] All is God’s place, which is our place, which is the
only and every place.
I hope that our very suffering now, our crowded presence in
this nest that we have largely fouled, will bring us together politically and
religiously. The Earth and its life systems, on which we all entirely depend,
still have the potential to convert us to a universal maturity. We all breathe
the same air and drink the same water. There are no Native, Hindu, Jewish,
Christian, or Muslim versions of the universal elements. The periodic table is
the same in every country, or as Shakespeare and musician Mandisa expressed it,
we all bleed the same. Animals do not care whether they are on the Mexican or
the American side of our delusional wall.
[1] Thomas Berry, The Christian Future and the Fate of the
Earth, eds. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
2009), 67.
[2] Thomas Keating with Carl J. Arico, God Is Love: The
Heart of All Creation Guidebook (Contemplative Outreach: 2016), 23,
https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/product/god-love-%E2%80%93-heart-all-creation-guidebook.
[3] Ilia Delio, The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God,
Evolution, and the Power of Love (Orbis Books: 2013), 180.
[4] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 1.47.1.
[5] Sallie McFague, The Body of God: An Ecological Theology
(Fortress Press: 1993), 180.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Creation as the Body of God,” in
Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, ed. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (The Golden
Sufi Center: 2013), 235-241.
THE PASSING OF A GOOD SHEPHERD
This is an article from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here
No community should botch its deaths. Last month a wonderful leader within the faith community in Canada died and it could profit us all to more fully receive his spirit. How do we do that? It can be helpful for us, I believe, to highlight those places where his life, his energy, and his leadership more particularly helped steady us in our faith and helped us to use our own gifts more fully to serve God. Who was this man? Joseph Neil MacNeil, Emeritus Archbishop of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I was lucky enough to have had him as my bishop for the first eighteen years of my priesthood. He was a good mentor and I needed one. I had just finished seminary and, not unlike many a naïve young man just turned loose in ministry, I had overly-rigid views on what was wrong with the world and how to fix that, views rooted more in personal immaturity than in prudence, views in need of a lot of leveling out. He was a guiding hand, not just for me but for many others.
And this was a time as well where the church as a whole was struggling for a deeper maturity. The church was just engaging the reforms of Vatican II, wondering whether it was going too far or not far enough, and reeling at the same time from the radical cultural and sexual changes of the late 1960s. Change was everywhere. Nothing, church-wise or otherwise, was as before. We were a pioneer generation ecclesially in need of new leadership.
He led us well, nothing too daring, nothing reactionary, just good, steady, charitable leadership that helped us, among other things, be more pastorally sensitive, more ecumenical, less self-absorbed, less clerical, more open to lay involvement, and more sensitive to the place of women. He kept things steady but inching forward, even while properly honoring the past.
Among his many gifts, three qualities of his leadership, for me, particularly stand out as a challenge for us all to live out our own discipleship more deeply.
First, he could live with ambiguity and not panic when tension seemed everywhere. He was not frightened or put off by polarization and criticism. He sorted them through with patience and charity. That helped create space for a more-inclusive church, one within which people of different temperaments and ecclesiologies could still be within the same community. He kept his eyes on the big picture and not on the various side-shows, skirmishes that so easily deflect attention away from what’s important. Good people carry tension so as to not let it spell over unnecessarily onto others. Good leaders put up with ambiguity so as to not resolve tensions prematurely. He was a good person and a good leader. He could be patient with unresolved tension.
Second, he understood the innate tension that comes from our baptism wherein we are perennially torn between two loyalties, that is, the tension between being loyal to the church and its dogmas and rules on the one hand, and being loyal at the same time to the fact that we are also meant to be universal instruments of salvation who radiate God’s compassion to everyone within all the churches and within the world at large. Here’s one example of that: In the face of a very messy and painful pastoral situation, I once phoned him asking him what I should do. His answer properly interfaced law and mercy: “Father, you know the mind of the church, you know canon law, you know my mind, and so you know what ideally should be done here … but you also know the principle of Epikeia, you are standing before the pain of these people, and God has put you there. You need to bring all of this together and make a decision based on that. Tell me afterwards what you decide and then I’ll tell you whether I agree or not.” I did make a decision, phoned him afterwards, he didn’t agree with me, but he thanked me for doing what I did.
Finally, as a faith leader he understood the difference between catechesis and theology and he honored and defended the special place of each of them. Catechesis is needed to ground us; theology is needed to stretch us. He understood that. As a former President of a University who had done graduate work at the University of Chicago, he wasn’t threatened by theologians and generally came to our defense when we were attacked. One of his pet sayings when one of his theological faculty came under scrutiny or attack was simply: “They’re theologians! They speculate. That’s what theologians do. They aren’t catechists.” He offered an equal defense for his catechists.
In church parlance, a bishop, an archbishop, a cardinal, or a pope is considered A Prince of the Church. He was that, a Prince of the Church … not because the church anointed him as such, but because he had the intelligence, grace, and heart of a leader.
8 REASONS YOUR CHURCH NEEDS A SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original blog here
Although Canon Law dictates that each parish is placed under the leadership of a pastor, appointed and installed by the bishop, there are dozens of different types of church leadership structures. There are pastors who are “one man shows” and hold the reigns tight when it comes to decision making. There are “absentee landlords” who more or less leave it to someone else. And there are “delegators” who divide up the pastoral pie and pass out the pieces to others who, oftentimes with lack of accountability, create silo ministries.
In small parishes, the leadership structure or style matters less: there’s less staff to lead, less money to manage, less people and programs to guide. But for midsize churches (500+ weekend attendance) and large churches (1,000+) there is a better model that needs to be employed if the pastor and the parish are going to be healthy: a team approach.
At Nativity we consider our entire staff leaders, and together they are our leadership team. But we also have a “senior” leadership team, we call it our “Strategic Leadership Team.” This is a council of advisors to me, selected by me. We meet once a week for as long as we need to meet, typically about 2 ½ hours over lunch (this, by the way, is the only meeting I chair). Our agenda is whatever we decide at the outset and our purview is everything in the life of the parish.
By definition, an SLT is a gathering of 3 to 7 or 8 (any less isn’t a group and any more too big a group for everyone to fully participate) who meet with the Pastor to help set direction, plot strategy and, when necessary, dip into the details. But, this is not a nuts and bolts group—they don’t spend much time working on details of how—but rather stay up at the why level, determining the purpose and parameters of new initiatives.
This past week our Team undertook our annual multi day off site to plan for the coming year (2018-2019). Next we’ll take the priorities we established there and bring them to our entire leadership team at our May off site.
If your church staff doesn’t currently have a Senior Leadership Team, here are 8 reasons why Church-staffing expert William Vanderbloemen argues you should:
- It forces the pastor to raise upand invest in high-capacity leaders who can work alongside him and thereby increase his capacity.
- Rather than bottlenecking decisions through one leader, it brings in additional leaders to help shoulder the load.
- It keeps your church from making spontaneous or stupid decisions. If a team member can’t sell the others of their proposal or position it’s probably not anything you should invest time or money in.
- Decisions will be better and stronger because they will be made in a broader context with more information and different perspectives and concerns.
- It will give your congregation and the rest of your church staff more confidence in the leaders of the church—not everything is wrapped up in one individual or divided up in an incomprehensibly piecemeal way.
- It increases good communication among the staff and volunteers. Every key leader will have the most important information and can help disseminate that to his or her teams.
- It provides an already-established counsel of advisors when tragedy or scandal hits the church or opportunity knocks.
- Churches that have a healthy and cohesive SLT will have or eventually shape a healthy parish.
Taken from the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original blog here
Although Canon Law dictates that each parish is placed under the leadership of a pastor, appointed and installed by the bishop, there are dozens of different types of church leadership structures. There are pastors who are “one man shows” and hold the reigns tight when it comes to decision making. There are “absentee landlords” who more or less leave it to someone else. And there are “delegators” who divide up the pastoral pie and pass out the pieces to others who, oftentimes with lack of accountability, create silo ministries.
In small parishes, the leadership structure or style matters less: there’s less staff to lead, less money to manage, less people and programs to guide. But for midsize churches (500+ weekend attendance) and large churches (1,000+) there is a better model that needs to be employed if the pastor and the parish are going to be healthy: a team approach.
At Nativity we consider our entire staff leaders, and together they are our leadership team. But we also have a “senior” leadership team, we call it our “Strategic Leadership Team.” This is a council of advisors to me, selected by me. We meet once a week for as long as we need to meet, typically about 2 ½ hours over lunch (this, by the way, is the only meeting I chair). Our agenda is whatever we decide at the outset and our purview is everything in the life of the parish.
By definition, an SLT is a gathering of 3 to 7 or 8 (any less isn’t a group and any more too big a group for everyone to fully participate) who meet with the Pastor to help set direction, plot strategy and, when necessary, dip into the details. But, this is not a nuts and bolts group—they don’t spend much time working on details of how—but rather stay up at the why level, determining the purpose and parameters of new initiatives.
This past week our Team undertook our annual multi day off site to plan for the coming year (2018-2019). Next we’ll take the priorities we established there and bring them to our entire leadership team at our May off site.
If your church staff doesn’t currently have a Senior Leadership Team, here are 8 reasons why Church-staffing expert William Vanderbloemen argues you should:
- It forces the pastor to raise upand invest in high-capacity leaders who can work alongside him and thereby increase his capacity.
- Rather than bottlenecking decisions through one leader, it brings in additional leaders to help shoulder the load.
- It keeps your church from making spontaneous or stupid decisions. If a team member can’t sell the others of their proposal or position it’s probably not anything you should invest time or money in.
- Decisions will be better and stronger because they will be made in a broader context with more information and different perspectives and concerns.
- It will give your congregation and the rest of your church staff more confidence in the leaders of the church—not everything is wrapped up in one individual or divided up in an incomprehensibly piecemeal way.
- It increases good communication among the staff and volunteers. Every key leader will have the most important information and can help disseminate that to his or her teams.
- It provides an already-established counsel of advisors when tragedy or scandal hits the church or opportunity knocks.
- Churches that have a healthy and cohesive SLT will have or eventually shape a healthy parish.
The living desert of Lent
This article by James Hanvey SJ introduces the desert as a living memory within the Christian tradition – what does it mean to be people of the desert, and why might there be a heightened awareness of that during Lent? The whole of this article can be found on the ThinkingFaith Website by clicking here
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Negev while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I was completely unprepared for its severe beauty and grandeur, which touched the soul as well as the body. I also realised that far from being a place of sterility, the desert was alive: not just because it contained life in so many different forms, but it was somehow itself alive. Such an environment does not make many concessions to human needs and living there must be as precarious as the shifting sand itself. Yet, somehow it has the power to call; to offer some sort of hard freedom, learning to live on the edge of survival in vastness that cannot be secured or controlled. The desert is an environment that haunts us and manages to inhabit our inner space as much as it defines a place. In its own way, the desert forces us to be nomads, for the only way to live there is to journey, making use of the sparse resources without exhausting or destroying them. These landscapes cannot be shaped by our hands to fit some image in our mind; they sculpt us as their sands, now still, now driven, mould us into forms the desert itself prefers. The demands the desert makes upon all its nomadic inhabitants soon erode any romantic illusions and teach us the preciousness, the simplicity, the fragility and resilience of life.
One cannot be a Christian without the desert entering into one’s life in some way. It is integral to the Old Testament and the very way in which Israel comes to know itself and its God. The desert is not only a physical presence, it becomes the locus of knowledge and encounter. Above all, it is experienced as a place of purification when Israel not only repents of its idolatry but experiences the desert pedagogy of God’s loving mercy. In the symbolic 40 years in which it wanders in the desert, Israel comes to experience God’s hesed, God’s loving care that provides water and food. The nation comes to know in a way that goes beyond codes and rituals that it truly is God’s people – this God, a living god, who is Lord of the desert and of history. Israel learns that it is only this God who can be trusted, and so grows in loving, faithful dependence. Out of the desert comes purification, knowledge and, above all, freedom. In the desert, Israel comes to know God in a new way, by living the covenant which the law itself cannot fully express or contain. In the desert, Israel’s journey of repentance is uncovered as a journey of love, a journey of lived holiness. The solitude is not emptiness but consecration, and the wandering not a lostness but a path of faith. In a different key and in a different way, the desert is a new theophany without which the covenant of Sinai would have been broken and impossible to regain. For Israel, the desert is a place of renewal, not only through the rediscovery of God’s power and majesty but through the realisation of the greater glory of God’s merciful loving faithfulness. Even when the physical journey ceases in the new land of promise, the inner journey always remains because we can never be done with the need of forgiveness and the wisdom of the desert. The experience is inscribed upon Israel’s heart and in its memory, which becomes a well of hope and vision against destruction and despair. The prophets renew it, for they recover this desert time as a time of love; it is even echoed in the Song of Songs.
This article by James Hanvey SJ introduces the desert as a living memory within the Christian tradition – what does it mean to be people of the desert, and why might there be a heightened awareness of that during Lent? The whole of this article can be found on the ThinkingFaith Website by clicking here
Some years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Negev while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I was completely unprepared for its severe beauty and grandeur, which touched the soul as well as the body. I also realised that far from being a place of sterility, the desert was alive: not just because it contained life in so many different forms, but it was somehow itself alive. Such an environment does not make many concessions to human needs and living there must be as precarious as the shifting sand itself. Yet, somehow it has the power to call; to offer some sort of hard freedom, learning to live on the edge of survival in vastness that cannot be secured or controlled. The desert is an environment that haunts us and manages to inhabit our inner space as much as it defines a place. In its own way, the desert forces us to be nomads, for the only way to live there is to journey, making use of the sparse resources without exhausting or destroying them. These landscapes cannot be shaped by our hands to fit some image in our mind; they sculpt us as their sands, now still, now driven, mould us into forms the desert itself prefers. The demands the desert makes upon all its nomadic inhabitants soon erode any romantic illusions and teach us the preciousness, the simplicity, the fragility and resilience of life.
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