North Belconnen parish explores community, evangelisation, and outreach in Parish Assembly

Parishioners from Our Lady of Perpetual Help in North Belconnen gathered at St Michael’s Primary School in Kaleen on Sunday to share Conversations in the Spirit and discern a vision for the parish’s future.

Modelled on the Archdiocesan Assembly held in October last year, Fr Mick MacAndrew said the Parish Assembly was a wonderful and successful event.

“We prayed, we listened to each other, and we listened to the Holy Spirit speaking through each of us,” he said.

“We had a good range of ages and people, and we have come up with, I’m sure, the material we need to discern the future of the parish for the next three years.”

Parishioner Frank Brassil said many great ideas had been shared through the enthusiastic engagement of parishioners.

“We could welcome people to our parish better, and one thought was that we could keep our church open,” he said.

“We could let people in our broader community know that churches are places for peace, and they can come here for half an hour of peace. If we could do that, maybe the understanding of our church in the community could improve.”

Parishioner Gabrielle Sullivan said her group had talked about evangelisation.

“We think our mission is to take the word of God seriously and spread it to as many people as we can,” she said.

“There are also some immediate goals we can aim for – we should know people’s names, we should welcome people to the parish, and we should foster groups and activities that are relevant to our mission.”

Paul Sykes noted the idea of evangelising with parents at the two parish schools.

“Often, there are lots of families who aren’t closely connected with the actual parish,” he said.

“How do we get those parents wanting to bring their children into the sacraments of the church? How do we get them more involved? How do we reach out and encourage them to stay involved in parish life?”

Damian Gamlath said there was need for a sense of community.

“A strong-knit community where we know each other’s names and know each other as Christian brothers and sisters,” he said.

“We came to a consensus that in addition to doing all these things that have been mentioned; we need to cater to ourselves – we need to help each other and embolden each other in our own faith.”

“Another point is outreach – the very nature of our faith,” Mr Brassil added.

“There are many ways this could be done – we could focus on groups in need in our area, homelessness in Canberra, or people with disabilities. We could reach overseas and focus on education or health in other countries.”

Fr. Mick said reading material had gone out a month before the assembly, so people had time to think about the questions that would be addressed.

“There were a lot of dedicated people, who prepared so beautifully for the day,” he said.

“Conversations in the Spirit is a wonderful method – we do that at our Pastoral Parish Council (PPC) and even the financial committee. We are all united through the power of the Holy Spirit, and each of us is gifted by the Holy Spirit to contribute to our parish life.”

Fr. Mick said the PPC would sift through the material gathered at the Assembly over coming sessions.

“The council will come up with a vision statement to present to the whole of the parish,” he explained.

“And then, we will start implementing the vision, step by step.”