Thursday, August 23, 2012

National Pastoral conference to aid Church’s renewal and reform



A three-day national pastoral conference to be held in Athlone in September is aimed at supporting the Irish Church’s renewal and reform according to organisers.

Communion and Co-Responsibility in the Church will take place from September 13 to 15 and is being organised by the Council for Pastoral Renewal and Adult Faith Development, whose Chairman is Bishop Séamus Freeman, in association with the Council for Justice and Peace under Bishop Ray Field.

According to organisers, the aims of the three-day event are:
  • To mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II and look ahead to the Year of Faith
  • To enhance the capacity of participants to work for renewal and reform in their own contexts
  • To further the work of renewal and reform in the Catholic Church in Ireland at this time
The keynote address will be given by Richard Gaillardetz, Joseph McCarthy Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College in the US.  Professor Gaillardetz is a widely published author and an internationally acclaimed speaker at theological and pastoral conferences.

The process will be facilitated by Sr Colette Stevenson and her team.  

The Presentation Sister is a marriage and family therapist who works in child safeguarding for the Church. She has been on staff of many Tavistock-type conferences and teaches Group Process in All Hallows College.

Those attending the conference will also have an opportunity to attend evening workshops / conversations on Thursday and Friday in relation to key areas of ministry such as faith development (Share the Good News), the work of justice and peace, youth and young adult ministry, marriage and family ministry, and pastoral development (Grouping Parishes and Living Communion).

The publication, Living Communion: Vision and Practice for Parish Pastoral Councils in Ireland Today will provide the focus for a workshop at the conference.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference published, Living Communion: Vision and Practice for Parish Pastoral Councils in Ireland Today in December 2011. It is a revised and enlarged edition of its 2007 framework document for parish pastoral councils (PPCs) in Ireland. The new edition is based on wide consultation among those actively involved in PPCs, as well as research and reflection in the wider Church.

In an interview posted by the Catholic Bishops Communications Office, Sr Anne Codd, pbvm, Resource Person for the Council for Pastoral Renewal and Adult Faith Development in Maynooth, recommends the publication to those involved in PPCs and those committed to ongoing faith formation.

According to Sr Codd, a PPC is like a microcosm of the parish, in that the PPC is representative of the total parish community. The council’s role is to share leadership for the sake of the parish’s mission or purpose.

“There is a lot of experience around now. This work has been going on for decades and it is gaining momentum,” Sr Codd commented.  

“This document repeats the vision of the Church and of the parish as living communion, a community of people together; a community of the baptised. It spells out that the PPC is a leadership body and a major new thing in this document is that it works on the basis of the consultative status of the pastoral council,” she explained.

She added that the document promotes the approach of the parish pastoral council as the representative of the community, the total parish team and the parish priest together in a dialogue - seeking consensus through dialogue.