The Proclaim Conference

This week a dozen of us from the parish - myself, Deacon Paul, Mary, Mayo, Mary, Mike, Sue, Leigh-Anne, Eric, Charles, Kathy and Sarah took part in the Proclaim Conference hosted by our diocese. It was focused on evangelisation in the parish context.

Guest speakers Bishop Nicholas Hudson from the UK and Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Mrs Susan Timoney from the US joined local presenters to explore a number of ways in which parishes can be the place where the good news  of Jesus is spoken of and lived out. I felt affirmed that much of what they taught we are already doing in our parish: having a dedicated faith formation team, having 'mercy events' like the community dinners, making sure sacramental programs are explicitly evangelical, and working towards the Alpha program as an outreach beyond existing parishioners. I feel like we don't need to adjust the steering wheel, rather, we just need to keep the accelerator pressed to the floor.


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