April 2022 - Happy Easter from the Pastoral Services Team of the Diocese of London. We hope you're enjoying this newsletter and that you find the content uplifting, empowering, and relevant. Good News Notes is now available on a dedicated web page if you would like to access it at a later time or share it.
The Four Verbs of Hospitality: Welcome, Protect, Promote & Integrate
In his Message for the 104th World Day of Migrants and Refuges 2018, Pope Francis introduces to the four verbs of hospitality. These same four verbs can be seen as the four steps of hospitality as we encounter people who are on the journey of faith and life. The four steps are not necessarily distinct; at times, they run concurrently.
A member of our team was reading the Story of the Road to Emmaus. In the story, we recognized the same themes. We've included the story here for you to reflect on as well.
Welcome: Welcoming includes greeting those returning to the parish and reaching out to others. We listen to them, validate their experience and respond in love and care. The parish offers “entry level” opportunities for people to witness the faith and charity of the parish community.
Protect: This step of Protecting can include taking those initial steps that will ensure that the material and spiritual needs of all are being addressed. This starts with building relationships based on trust and discerning when to (re)introduce people to Jesus Christ. Focusing on human development and care, and spiritual care, we promote a culture of meeting parishioners where they are at and accompanying them on their faith and life journey.
Promote: Promoting means we are empowering all parishioners to achieve their potential as members of the Church (i.e., the People of God). Helping all parishioners understand the call to holiness. Inviting all parishioners, especially those new to the parish, to discern their gifts and connecting them to parish initiatives that will help them address their faith and life questions.
Integrating: Knowing that each person brings their own gifts and charisms, we seek ways to integrate them into the life of the Church. True integration is not assimilation. Instead, integration is a reciprocal action that leads to new life in all people and in the parish community itself.
The Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?”… Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.
They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Tips for Effective Church Communication
As our church calendars fill back up with liturgies, events, and meetings we need to share the information with our communities or no one is going to show up. Communication is vital for a mission-oriented church. With so much available and so much to share we wanted to share some tips for effective communication:
1.Simple Messages - There is so much information out in the world for people to consume and people's attention spans are only getting smaller. Giving brief, clear messages is important to capture attention. If you have more information or detail, put it on your website and provide a link.
2.Repeat - We have so many forms of communication available to us in 2022: bulletins, websites, email newsletters, social media, Mass announcements, bulletin boards. Basic marketing research tells us that people need to hear things more than once. It's also important to consider your audience. Regular Mass attenders will be more likely to read the bulletin and hear Mass announcements, but parents of children receiving sacraments may be better to reach through social media or a targeted email newsletter.
3. Invite and Inspire - It is important to not only share information but also to invite people to participate in things and inspire them. By sharing why we are doing something, we can help people recognize the value in their lives and invite people in to participate with us. Which draws you in more: Serve with Joy. We need your gift!or Volunteers Needed? We can also share prayer and faith inspiration even if it does not pertain to an event.
4. Share Good News Stories - Sharing photos and testimony from things that have already happened brings value to our Families of Parishes by connecting people from different parishes and allowing people to see the goodness that is happening even when they are not present. Consider adding a section to the bulletin to share about something that has already happened or taking and sharing photos of celebrations on social media and on your website.
Whether you have a dedicated staff member, volunteer, or a team of people working on your communications, it is important to be intentional and dedicated to our communications to be a mission-oriented church.
Important Dates in May 2022
Click the links for more information about the saint or occasion.
If you'd like to learn more about Church Communication Strategies, we invite you to watch this webinar replay which was offered by the Archdiocese of Toronto last year.
Please note YOUTHLEADER, originally scheduled for July 29 - Aug 1 has been postponed
YouthLeader is a unique opportunity to grow your parish or school's ministry with high school aged youth - to connect, share ideas, and pray with other Catholic youth, all while having fun! Click here to find out more!
"By engaging young people in active discipleship through a model of apprenticeship, the Church incarnates its certainty that young people are not only the Church of Tomorrow, they are the Young Church of Today." - You Give Them Something to Eat, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
We'd love to hear from you. Any good news you'd like to share with Pastoral Services? Read a good article lately? Send it our way: pastoralservicesadmin@dol.ca
March 2022
March 2022 - Things around our parishes look a little different than the last time we sent a Good News Notes Newsletter. We decided to focus our content this month on welcoming people back after restrictions have lifted. This is not all we have in the works to support you on this topic, but we hope this is good start and is relevant to your work right now!
The Fog is Lifting
The COVID restrictions are beginning to lift and we can finally see a light at the end of a very long tunnel. We are hoping there will be lots of sunshine and rainbows at the other end, but the reality is probably a little more bleak. There will likely be a lot of fog and drizzle and even some storms on the other side of the tunnel. But you know what they say, there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.
So let’s explore some tools we need to implement in our parishes to get us through crappy weather until we experience some brighter sunshine.
Welcome, welcome, welcome: People must feel like they are coming back ‘home’. Here are a few simple ideas to explore. You may also consider asking an impartial person to visit your parish and/or website and report back to you what they experienced (think ‘secret shopper’).
Do the pastoral team and greeters have name tags so people know who they are?
Do guests know where to find the bathrooms, offices or other important locations in the church?
Is there a sense of joy and hope when people walk into the parish for mass or meetings?
What are you doing to ensure that children and families feel like they belong here?
Does your parish websites include the names and photos of the pastor, associates, deacons and pastoral teams?
Does your parish website include your mass times and the addresses of your churches? And how many clicks does it take to find this information?
Assessing the situation: this is the perfect time to assess all of our programs, activities and ministries to determine how they fit into the vision for your Family of Parishes. This should be done through a prudent discernment process so we aren’t dismissing activities that, in the past, have been valuable in creating missionary disciples. See the message below about the discernment tool.
Strengthening the Core: while we might be tempted to jump right into full evangelization mode coming out of the tunnel, this is the time to focus on those people who are already on the train, or at least those who used to be on the train, to reengage them to be missionary disciples.
Focus on inviting those people back into pews and encourage those who are there to invite others.
Ensure that those who are doing ministry or re-entering ministry are well trained and prepared.
Acknowledge those people who have stepped up to help throughout the pandemic, make sure they feel appreciated.
Marcel LeJeune, who is the founder and president of Catholic Missionary Disciples, says, “Catholic leaders need to stop asking, ‘How do we get back to pre-COVID days?’ … Our job has never been to maintain institutions. It is to make disciples."
We look forward to working with you as you maneuver through fog and drizzle, and weather the storms that will sometimes derail us because we know that our final destination is worth the struggle and we want to bring as many people on the journey with us as possible.
Planning for the Future, Discerning for Now: A Discernment Tool for Ministry
“This is a moment to dream big, to rethink our priorities—what we value, what we want, what we seek—and to commit to act in our daily life on what we have dreamed of.” Pope Francis, Let Us Dream
Planning for parish teams is more than just planning, it requires discernment. This discernment tool is intended to help parish teams to clearly see the plan before them, choose the best way forward, and put those plans into action. Before starting or re-starting a program, event, or project, take some time in prayer and then use this tool to discern if what you're planning fulfills the vision and dream.
The tool will walk you through several practical and creative planning questions. By thinking through critical planning questions, you will be able to better decide if the plan is in line with your current needs and values as a Parish or Family of Parishes. This can be used to review current or new programs, events, guest speakers, or other projects.
You can access the discernment tool on the LEM Resources page on our website. (This is a password protected site for DOL staff. If you cannot access that page but would like more information, please contact us!)
Important Dates in April 2022
Click the links for more information about the saint or occasion.
NOTE: As we place our attention on Holy Week, Triduum, and Easter, there are some saint feast days that we will not celebrate this year, notably St. Kateri Tekakwitha on April 17.
OM = Optional Memorial
Some Interesting Things Around the Internet this Month about welcoming back:
Focus of Concern from Catholic Leaders - Great tip for leaders trying to handle it all.
Parish Content - Free Catholic Social Media images and resources (This used to be a paid service and is now available for free.)
Sensory Friendly Mass Tips for Kids - Kids may have been away from Mass and not used to sitting quietly in the pew. Here are some suggestions you may be able to incorporate into your welcome back plan.
We'd love to hear from you. Any good news you'd like to share with Pastoral Services? Read a good article lately? Send it our way: pastoralservicesadmin@dol.ca
Family Gatherings for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. (This is a password protected site for DOL staff. If you cannot access but would like more information, please contact us!)
Joe Bezzina - Director of Pastoral Services Claire Bondy - Director of OngoingFormation & Lay Ecclesial Ministry Chrisandra Skipper - Pastoral Services Coordinator Alexandria Fung - Family and Youth Ministry Specialist Olwyn Supeene - Administrative Assistant
Outreach Ministries: Refugee Office Migrant Ministry Ministry for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Holy Family Retreat House