‘Things are working’

By now, most of the parishes in the Archdiocese would have put in train their action plans for the successful delivery of implementation of Synod resolutions.

Some parishes, however, are still experiencing some difficulty in getting things off the ground: they are being urged to continue making every effort to ensure implementation takes place.

The Synod Implementation Team is advising that the following steps be taken:

• Convene a meeting of all people involved in parish ministry;
• Create three clusters, one around each pastoral priority;
• Study the DVDs which explore the three pastoral priorities; and
• Begin working the parish plan assiduously.

The SIT is also advising that the need for resources in the parish for successful implementation should be made known, so that assistance can be arranged.

In addressing the last meeting of the SIT at Archbishop’s House on June 18, Monsignor Jason Gordon, who chairs the committee, described the overall position of Synod implementation as “things are working”. He also found that in most instances people were “very positive” about Synod and its implementation.

He disclosed that in early July the SIT would be undertaking a survey via the Internet, specific to Synod Implementation. He also requested that vicars talk to the parish priests in their vicariates relative to Synod and he also encourages parish priests to use the medium of their homilies to keep the interest in Synod alive.

Apart from the two brochures, which have been distributed as inserts in the Catholic News, there soon will be large banners emblazoned with the theme Called to be Catholic available to all parishes.

Meanwhile parish ministries are asked to read and discuss the brochures with their membership as the groundwork for better understanding of the work that has to be done by the Church. The third and final brochure will be distributed in two weeks.

Good response to brochures

Roman Catholics in the archdiocese have responded positively to the brochures which have been distributed as an insert in the Catholic News over the past two weekends. The well-designed, full-colour brochures have provoked much discussion in several parishes.

The Archdiocesan Synod Implementation Team (SIT) sees the brochures as one of the tools by which the mandates of the Synod can be vigorously pursued. Parish Implementation Teams and pastoral ministries are encouraged to engage parish groups, and the parish community as a whole, in discussing the contents of the documents. It is hoped that the brochure will also be discussed at home, school and even at workplaces, where possible, so all may be able to benefit from the instructions.

Because there is so much to discuss and digest in the two brochures and recognising the challenge that arranging discussion sessions may pose initially, Camsel (Catholic Media services Ltd) with the approval of SIT has decided to delay the distribution of the third brochure until July.

It is hoped that this two to three-week respite will allow everyone enough time to properly deal with the first two documents, “Our Freedom as Believers” and “Conversion and Discipleship”. A limited quantity of these brochures are available from Camsel, 31 Independence Square, Port of Spain.

Look out for brochures

The suburban vicariate held its implementation meeting at the Church Hall of Our Lady of Fatima parish in Curepe last Saturday. Representatives from all the parishes in the vicariate were focussed on the power point presentation by Msgr Allan Ventour.

One area which generated discussion dealt with some of the smaller parishes who had members serving on both the Pastoral Council and the Parish Implementation Team.

Fr Ventour promised to raise the issue at the next meeting of the Synod Implementation Team. The last meeting of this kind will be in the Eastern vicariate on Saturday, June 27. Meanwhile the implementation process is moving ahead with the distribution last weekend of the first of three brochures prepared by Catholic Media Services Limited (CAMSEL).

The full colour brochures are condensed versions of three articles written by Archbishop Edward Gilbert and published in the Catholic News last March.

The first brochure titled “Our freedom as believers” was distributed as an insert in last weekend’s paper. The second one – “Conversion and discipleship” will go out in this weekend’s Catholic News. The final brochure “Rediscovering the vocation”, will be distributed in this paper on Father’s Day, June 21.

In this weekend’s brochure, a look is taken at the present journey of the archdiocese. The document explains that implementation of the Synod resolutions would provide a practical test for the people of the archdiocese. “It will help them discern where they find themselves on the conversion/discipleship scale.”

In a sense, the Synod was a peak experience in which, once the people arrived, they participated with energy. Implementation will be a conversion/discipleship experience – much longer and complicated, much more demanding. It will require the participation of the majority of and all categories of the archdiocesan community.

An exhortation: The archdiocese needs your participation to implement the Synod and build up the Church.

NB: The Synod Implementation Team is requesting that the brochures be fully discussed by families, ministries and groups in all the parishes in the archdiocese in an effort to fully understand the implementation process.

Preparing parishes for mission

With one vicariate still to meet on Synod Implementation, it means that by month’s end, the first phase of implementation would have been completed.

The Eastern Vicariate will convene its meeting on Saturday, June 27 at Sangre Grande from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. This follows the meeting of the Surburban Vicariate, which was due to be held Saturday, June 6 at the Parish Hall, Our Lady of Fatima, Curepe.

At the end of this round of meetings, all parishes should have their Parish Implementation Teams in place and ready to move into the next phase, which will mean the pursuance of the strategies discussed and adopted to carry out the mandate of Synod 2009.

The parish teams will play an integral role in satisfying the Synod mandate since it has the responsibility of co-ordinating the ministries of the parish and finding the best ways to prepare the parish for mission.

Brochure on freedom

The vicariate meetings, dealing specifically with the implementation of the resolutions of Synod 2009 and the work required of the parish implementation teams, are continuing. So far three of the five vicariates – Central, Southern and Northern – have held their discussions and from all reports enthusiasm and determination have featured in all the gatherings. It would seem therefore, that Synod Implementation is well in hand.

To ensure that implementation remains in the full glare of the Church, Catholic Media Services Ltd. (Camsel) – the communications arm of the Church - has prepared three brochures – adaptations of the Archbishop’s columns published in March. The first will be distributed as an insert in the Catholic News on June 7. The other two will follow on consecutive weekends, June 14 and 21.

The first brochure, titled “Our Freedom as Believers”, talks about the concept of freedom and states: The freedom of a human person can be understood:

• negatively – to be free from coercion, not being forced physically or psychologically; or
• positively – to be free to act, to be in possession of oneself, self-sufficient and to be in control of one’s actions.

“No person is totally free,” states the document, “Our freedom is conditioned by heredity, environment and personal history. But we must avoid the implications of determinism, i.e. that we cannot rise above heredity, environment and personal history, so why even try.”

Ultimately freedom is about our life with God, says the Archbishop: “Freedom, properly understood, is directed to a basic and profound relationship with God, who is the ultimate purpose of our lives. It enables us to act in the positive ways.”

Freedom, he says, “deepens under the influence of the Spirit. It helps us to become free in areas of our lives where we must humbly admit, at this point in our lives, that we are not free.”

The document speaks of freedom as a gift to be cherished: “Similar to many valuable gifts, it is delicate. It must be developed, protected and welcomed as a friend in making moral decisions, no matter how complex.

Freedom is so essential in our lives that the issues of merit or blame only become relevant when we have made free choices.”

Central delegates discuss strategies

Synod Implementation launched its first real offensive last weekend in the Central vicariate when efforts to carry out the mandate of the last Synod in January were accelerated.

More than two dozen representatives from the five parishes which make up the Central vicariate met at the Max Murphy Centre in the courtyard of the Chaguanas RC Church to discuss strategies for the way forward.

Vicar for the area, Fr Christopher Lumsden described the two and a half hour session as “very informative” and was punctuated with a lot of interaction as the delegates sought a way forward.

In examining the possible strategies, there were several proposals covering the various methods in which the actions needed to be taken could be effectively pursued.

Fr Lumsden pointed out there was a very distinct intention and willingness of the group to “work together and move the resolutions forward”. He added that this was the overall feeling of the group.

The meeting also revealed that the parishes had all established its implementation teams and were moving ahead with the job of ensuring successful implementation.

Major role of the Parish Implementation Team (PIT) is to ensure that the Synod mandate is successfully implemented. The team also has the responsibility of co-ordinating the ministry of the parish and finding the best ways to organise the parish for mission.

The second meeting of this series was carded for Saturday, May 23 at La Romaine and four days later on May 27, the Northern vicariate will convene its PITs’ meeting, while the Suburban vicariate will hold its session on Saturday, June 6.

VICARIATE MEETINGS

Northern and Suburban
Northern –Wednesday, May 27 6.00 p.m. St Finbar’s
Suburban – Saturday, June 6 9.00 a.m. Curepe Parish Hall

Functions of PIT

A strong and result-driven Parish Implementation Team (PIT) will go a long way towards ensuring a successful implementation of Synod resolutions.

This week’s column focusses on the functions of the PIT, and its relationship with the Parish Pastoral Council.

The major role of the PIT is to ensure that the Synod mandate is successfully implemented. In addition, however, the Team has to coordinate the ministry of the parish and find the best ways to organise the parish for mission. It directs ministry, deals with administration, and seeks to find the most effective ways to achieve the aims of the various themes and pastoral priorities. The PIT coordinates the individual parts into a whole and focusses on monthly planning.

The Pastoral Council, on the other hand, exerts leadership of the parish with emphasis on overall direction and vision, focussing on the whole and ensuring the cohesiveness of the various parish ministries.

The parish work plan for this year is built around the theme – “The Vocation to be Catholic” – which is intended to prepare the parish, its people, groups, ministries, administration and structure to align with, embrace and live the mission.

This year’s theme requires two specific sets of action that are inter-related:

• Facilitating all Catholics to rediscover the vocation to be Catholic so that the practice of the faith and parish involvement will lead to a deeper discipleship and commitment to Church;
• Realigning the structures of the parish to implement the threefold mission of the Synod.

“Collaboration is the new way to be Church”, which means – from the point of view of the parish – that unlike in the past when each group did what it thought was best, parish groups and ministries must collaborate to achieve the Church’s mission.

Preparing for mission…

Be it resolved that every parish and ecclesial community appoint a Synod Implementation Team. – Resolution #2 adopted by Synod 2009.

This can be regarded as the most important resolution of the Synod, if for no other reason than it encompasses the entire archdiocese and its success depends on every member of the Roman Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago.

To guarantee its success, the Archdiocesan Synod Implementation Team (SIT) has planned a series of vicariate meetings to ensure that the parish implementation teams are prepared and ready for mission.

The first of these meetings will take place on May 16 and will involve all parishes in the Central vicariate and on May 23 it will be the turn of the Southern vicariate to meet with the members of the SIT. Dates for the remaining vicariate meetings will be announced later.

All members of the Parish Implementation Teams, which by now should have been selected and ready to carry out the Synod mandate, are expected to attend these vicariate meetings, bearing in mind that the role of the parish implementation team is to ensure the Synod mandate is successfully implemented; to co-ordinate the ministry of the parish and to find the best ways to organise the parish for mission.

Parish teams should consist of six to nine persons, with each gender being represented by at least a third of the team. All teams must include one young adult and where possible should include persons with project management skills and also individuals with public relations and communications skills.

In instances where parishes have multiple communities, the team should comprise members from each community or a full team in the main community supported by mini teams (three persons) from each of the other communities.

Agenda of the vicariate meetings will include an introduction to the Synod mandate; mission of the Church; the three pastoral priorities; the role of the parish teams as well as the role of the parish pastoral council.

The three pastoral priorities are – The New Evangelisation, which will deal with evangelisation, family life, youth and Catholic education; Revitalising Catholic Culture and Identity, which will handle catechetics, liturgy and stewardship; and Regenerating the moral and spiritual values of our society dealing with issues of social justice and communications.

The mission of the Archdiocese as articulated at the Synod reads: “We are the People of God in Trinidad and Tobago, building the civilisation of love through the three pastoral priorities.

In this first year of implementation – Easter 2009 to December 2009 -  the parish work plan is built around the theme – The Vocation to be Catholic – and the purpose is to prepare the parish, its people, groups, ministries, administration and structure to align with, embrace and live the mission.

To accomplish this goal requires two specific sets of actions that are inter-related:
*1) Facilitate all Catholics to rediscover the vocation to be Catholic so that the practice of the faith and parish involvement will lead to a deeper discipleship; and
*2) To realign the structures of the parish to implement the threefold mission of the Synod
In Year 2, which runs from December 8, 2009 to December 7, 2010, the theme of the Pastoral Priority the New Evangelisation is Christian Family. Become What you are. Year 3 (December 8, 2010 to December 7, 2011) will deal with the Pastoral Priority –Catholic Culture and Identity with its theme - My Church, My Parish, My Family.

Theme of Pastoral Priority #3 – Moral and Spiritual Values - will be dealt with between December 8, 2011 and December 7, 2012, with its theme Trinidad and Tobago, a Community of Families.

SIT embarks on its mission

The Synod Implementation Team (SIT) is wasting no time in getting down to its task of ensuring that the resolutions of Synod 2009 are implemented.

When Archbishop Edward Gilbert named the seven-member team and approved its mandate, its purpose and objective were identified as “to oversee, facilitate and evaluate the process of implementation of the Resolutions of the Third Sitting of the Archdiocesan Synod”. As with the Synod process itself, SIT functions under the authority and in union with the Archbishop.

For the period Easter to December 7, this year, the Team has set some specific targets – all to be accomplished within particular time frames.

To ensure that these targets are reached and that the Archdiocese is informed about achievements, the Head of the SIT and Vicar for Administration Fr Jason Gordon will schedule meetings of the Team and the Council of Vicars, every six weeks to report on the progress of Synod implementation.

The Implementation Team, however, has the right to request a meeting with the Archbishop and the Council of Vicars at any time the need arises.

Normally, the Department Heads of the Archdiocese relate directly with the Vicar for Administration, who in turn briefs the Archbishop daily on archdiocesan business. But Archbishop Gilbert has said he will continue to meet with each department Head approximately every six weeks. As with SIT, meetings can be arranged when and if the need arises.

While it is understood that each department of the archdiocese will remain independent, in that each department has its own mission and responsibilities, His Grace expects that departments will dialogue with SIT and with one other, to collaborate or cluster on issues, which, by their very nature, touch the mission of the Church or the goals and objectives of more than one department.

SIT continues to meet regularly at Archbishop’s House as it pushes ahead to accomplish its mandate.