STEWARDS OF THE GOSPEL
DIOCESAN QUESTIONNAIRE
FEEDBACK
This week’s feedback focuses on Question 3 of the Questionnaire: ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT OF PEOPLE: It
explores and explains the balance between the work that needs to be done for the parish to be a social,
spiritual and pastoral community and the human resources available to provide these services.
PERCEPTION: The general perception is that there is an active ‘core’ group of parishioners who
work hard at organising events and encouraging others but most of them seem to be of ‘retirement’ age. Some
younger people have stepped forward recently but it is not enough. This means those who serve are not truly
representative of our parish community.
Number of People Serving
Actively in our Parish
Pastoral Parish Council
Finance Committee
Eucharistic Ministers
Ministry of Welcome
Lectors
Altar Servers
Children’s Liturgy Team
Youth Group
First Holy Communion
Confirmation
Musicians and singers
Total
11
4
17
9
19
18
4
2
1
1
12
98
However, all is not what it looks!
In fact, we have only 40 people
serving in all the different
ministries and groups across the
three churches. Half of them are
60 years old or over!
18 of them serve on 2 or more
ministries/groups.
And 10 people are serving on 3- 5
different ministries!
FACT: Our parish needs at least 8 basic ministries or groups to
function properly: Finance, Eucharistic Ministers, Welcome, Lectors, Altar
Servers, First Holy Communion, Confirmation and Music. However, to
provide spiritual growth, pastoral support for parishioners and reach out
to dormant Catholics and non-believers we need other groups like the
Parish Pastoral Council, Adult Formation, Evangelisation, Visiting,
Social/Fundraising, Youth Group, Children Ministries, Sunday Tea Rota,
and others for which we need more human resources.
Keeping the parish running can be an onerous task specially when it is the
same small number of people undertaking the work. To make our parish
and diocese grow needs commitment not from the few but from most if
not all! At diocesan level, we have a decreasing number of priests, most
of them approaching retirement age with very few young priests being
ordained. This means that in the future churches might have to be closed
and parishes could be merged with less priests serving more parishes and
people. Under these circumstances, lay people will need to undertake
new and more varied responsibilities and tasks to support our priests.
Do you want to help?
We are constantly asking for new volunteers to join our teams through
Mass announcements, newsletter, social media and personal invitation.
Most of the ministries require very little knowledge or training. However,
training is always given when necessary. Being part of a group can be
rewarding and fun. But more importantly, it will free more experienced
people to provide more opportunities for spiritual growth and pastoral
care. If you would like to help keep our parish growing, please contact Fr
Gordon or one of your Stewards for a friendly chat.
Angie Hart ([email protected]) & Pat Ezra ([email protected])