Martin Kennedy gathers together a series of reflections on his own experience of ministry in contemporary Irish culture, offering practical approaches to evangelisation, justice and working together with others. He writes from a context of working with others honestly and respectfully, convinced that the Spirit is alive and active in many people. His reflections are offered as a basis for further discussion.
174 pp. Veritas Publications 2006. To purchase this book online, go to www.veritas.ie .
CONTENTS
Introduction
Part One: Ministry Perspectives
1. Stories to start
2. A spirit hopeful and troubled
3. Down in the valley
4. ‘Find the traces of the Spirit’
5. Travellers together
6. The Spirit among the ‘A’s
7. The Spirit among the ‘B’s
8. The Spirit among the ‘C’s
9. Mission impermanent – not impossible!
10. Status anxiety
Part Two: Ministry Approaches
Section 1: Evangelisation
11. Into the deep
12. A pastoral structure for evangelisation
13. Horses for courses
14. Evangelisation as dialogue
15. Sunday mass
16. Our music of the gospel
17. An evangelisation moment with parents
18. Evangelising pre-teens
Section 2: Justice
19. Works as well as words
20. Reaching out to the young
21. Listening at the margins
Section 3: Communion
22. The priest and managing ministry
23. Parish leadership groups
24. Structure and spirituality for communion
25. Organising for action
26. Employing pastoral workers
27. ‘Expectant’ leadership
References
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Review |
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INTRODUCTION
This book is mainly a collection of short pieces that I have written over the years for Intercom and other magazines. The pieces are reflections ‘on the move’ where I try to describe and think out loud about ministry in the midst of my involvement. They come out of a context of working with others and are intended to go back into that context, not as finished articles, but as contributions to an ongoing story of pastoral trial and error.
I hope they provide some raw material for ministry and theology, in that they are the honest reflections of a layman at the coalface of ministry in this turn-of-century Irish church. That leaves plenty of room for mistakes!
Even though they are personal reflections I believe they do represent something of the sensus fidelium, the common sense of the people of God. I have used this material a good deal in working with people across the country and, generally, I found it resonated with them.
The chapters are grouped in two main sections. The first offers a general perspective on ministry in contemporary Irish culture. Its fundamental thrust ‘{both in terms of church and culture) is hopeful, and I try to give a reasoned account for that hope. However, it is also troubled. I see the issue of child abuse and our response to it as a sign of a deep malaise in the church, requiring fundamental repentance and conversion.
The second section looks at some practical approaches to ministry and is in three parts. This section takes its structure from Pope John Paul’s letter ‘At the Beginning of the New Millennium’, where he identifies three pastoral priorities for the local churches at this time. Holiness (fostering our experience of God), charity (a commitment to justice for marginalised people at local and global levels) and communion (all in the church working together in a way that cherishes our mutual giftedness).
In part one of this section I look at approaches to evangelisation which I believe can be effective in this time and place. In part two I look at some approaches to the work of justice. In part three I look at concrete ways of people working together with a particular emphasis on the workings of parish leadership groups. The treatment of the different areas is very uneven. I was surprised at how little material I had for the section on justice. At a time of fundamental (and I think welcome) social change in regard to wealth and population there is a great deal more to be addressed in this area.
I am conscious that I am only one among a great many involved in ministry action and reflection. We do not all share the same convictions and approaches, but I do think we need to talk to each other honestly and respectfully. Somewhere among us now the Spirit is active. Some among us are digging in the pastoral fields where we will find gold; others are digging where we will not. I cannot know for certain which group I belong to but this I do know: there are at least some areas I am pointing to, claiming gold is to be found there, that will be proven wrong. There are some people digging where I think there is nothing to be found who will likewise prove me wrong. So, I think it makes sense that we diggers talk to each other. To use another metaphor, we are beggars searching for bread. We can tell one another where we have found it and where we have not. That way we might all have a chance to eat!
CHAPTER ONE
STORIES TO START
There were just two of us in the hotel meeting room: the parish priest and I. We had organised a talk for young parents on the Primary School religion programme. Our purpose was evangelisation – we wanted the parents to get a sense of the good news of the gospel for their children and for themselves. A written invitation had gone out to hundreds of homes. The night had been promoted at all the weekend masses. And nobody turned up. The hotel manager came in to us as we surveyed the empty rows of seats. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘I won’t charge you for the room.’
Looking back now we can laugh at that moment, but it didn’t feel funny at the time. Our hearts were down in our boots – and it wasn’t for the first time. Some months earlier we organised a similar night in the day chapel as part of our regular theology programme. With sixteen hundred Primary School children in the parish we had a very big target group of parents. On the night, very few of our regular participants turned up for the talk – they told us afterwards that they had felt the night wasn’t for them – and just three parents came out of a possible three thousand. One tenth of one per cent!
In the frustration and humiliation of these moments our first questions were about the parents: ‘What is wrong with them that they won’t come to what we have organised for them? Have they any religious sense at all? Have they any care for their responsibilities as parents?’
However, when we regrouped to review and plan, we knew in our hearts these were not the right questions. The real questions were: ‘What was wrong with what we were offering or with how we were offering it that we didn’t succeed in attracting the parents? What is it that we need to do differently?’
A few years later and we were back to the day chapel with the same target group of parents and for the same purpose. By this time we had developed a series of programmes, one of which was for the parents of junior infants. On this occasion our problem was that we did not have enough chairs. So, what was different? Why did one initiative flounder while another flourished? Describing the difference is easy; explaining it will take the rest of this book. Basically we shifted the focus of the night from formal education to celebration. We invited the parents and families to come along to a Christmas prayer service and celebration marking the Junior Infants’ completion of their first ever term in school. The celebration included:
The invitation to a religious celebration to mark their children’s first term in school sparked the imagination of the parents. The invitation to a religious talk did not. I am deeply struck by the two contrasting images here – the empty room and the packed room. What is it saying to us? Is it something about the parents that turns them from evangelising moments, or is it something about how we imagine and organise these moments?
* * *
Another story. I was at a parish meeting of ministry group representatives. We were discussing a common problem – the scarcity of volunteers for our various activities. We had tried different strategies of recruitment but these had not worked. We were bemoaning people’s lack of energy and enthusiasm for what we were doing. Sometime later I was working with the parish adult religious education group. We had a visiting homilist at the weekend liturgies – one of a number booked over the year. At all the masses she spoke on the issue of domestic violence and posed the challenge – ‘What is the Christian community in this town doing to care for women who experience violence in their own homes?’ Normally there would be a short meeting after each mass in the day chapel, providing an opportunity for a group conversation with the homilist. But the folk who came back this time weren’t looking for a conversation. They wanted action. They had a quiet but powerful energy for the issue raised and they wanted to be part of a response to that issue. They challenged us on what we were going to do in the parish.
Of course, we hadn’t a clue! We had not expected this kind of response and had no plans for follow-up. We took their names and promised to get in touch. The questions we were left with initially were: ‘What are we going to do with these people? We don’t know anything about this issue – what can we do?’ We were feeling helpless until we changed the question to: ‘Who can we bring in to equip these people to engage in the kind of activities they are looking to be part of?’ A telephone call to a crisis support agency clarified that they could identity a support programme that could be run in our town and, further, that they could provide the training for the volunteers willing to run that programme. Our task from there was simple. We brought together the people who had energy for providing a support programme with those who had the resources to equip them. The programme took off from there and is still running ten years later.
Again I am struck by the contrasts. In the first scenario with the ministry groups our underlying question was, ‘Where do we find energy for the programmes?’ In the second scenario, after the weekend homilies, our question was very different: ‘Where do we find programmes for the energy?’ In the first case we were looking for people to fit our systems, in the second systems to fit our people.
* * *
A third story. After the visit of the relics of St Therese our pastoral council decided that it would be a good time to initiate an annual Novena to St Therese. The plan was to call a public meeting open to anyone who had energy for the Novena. Their task would be to imagine and plan the features and organisation of the Novena – to take responsibility to make it happen. Because of the huge interest that the visit had generated we were confident of a very good response. Yet on the night only six people turned up. ‘The same old faces!’ they said, and they looked seriously at the question of whether they should abandon the task and go home.
But they didn’t go home. Instead they set about organising the Novena in a way that created practical tasks for a range of volunteers – hand-delivering invitations into neighbours’ homes, ushering at the different services, preparation of church decor and so on. A few weeks later at the weekend masses a volunteer stand was erected at the back of the church. People were invited to sign up for a task of their choice. About one hundred did.
On the first night of the Novena a man and his son were walking to the session. ‘I suppose there won’t be a big crowd at this,’ said the father. When they arrived they had to push their way through the crowds. Fifteen hundred people had packed the church. By the second night people were coming half an hour early to get good seats!
Again I find the contrasts striking and evocative. Six people found a way of gathering one hundred who in turn gathered fifteen hundred. Only a few had the energy or the confidence to sit with the question of the Novena, to start with a blank sheet and create something. A larger group had the energy to work with practical tasks, once those tasks were defined. And a much larger group again had the energy to participate in the event itself.
Over the years I have stumbled into many experiences like these. I have found them deeply heartening. They have left me with a strong conviction about the possibilities of mission in contemporary culture. But they have also challenged me to re-examine a lot of my assumptions; to look at the possibility that difficulties in ministry might have more to do with how we ministers go about it than with the people we seek to minister to.
