{"id":5438,"date":"2022-06-08T08:45:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T08:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.parochiespiritualiteit.org\/?p=5438"},"modified":"2022-10-07T09:01:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T09:01:09","slug":"verslag-conferentie-over-de-missionaire-parochie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.parochiespiritualiteit.org\/?p=5438","title":{"rendered":"Verslag conferentie over de missionaire parochie"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stafmedewerker van het CPS, Tim Schilling, schreef een brief in zijn moedertaal naar aanleiding van zijn ervaringen op een conferentie over parochievernieuwing (op 24 en 25 maart jl gehouden in Breda). Deze brief met als titel ‘A sign of hope. A letter from the Netherlands’ conference’ werd geplaatst op de website van Divine Renovation<\/a>. Hieronder is de tekst ook opgenomen (in het Engels). (Foto door Ramon Mangold)<\/em>
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\n\"\"<\/a>I am not an event person and I tend to be cautious in my pronouncements, so when a friend asked me how the \u201cMissionary Parish<\/a>\u201d conference went and I said, it was \u201cfantastic!\u201d<\/p>\n

She looked at me, surpised, and said, “Really?”<\/p>\n

Really.<\/p>\n

It was, I told her, the most hopeful development I\u2019ve seen in the Church in the Netherlands in the last twenty years: a thousand people from around the country and from Flanders, all eager bring on better days in their parish.<\/p>\n

The lead speaker for the Missionary Parish conference was the Canadian priest James Mallon, author of Divine Renovation<\/em>:\u00a0Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission<\/em><\/a>. Fr. Mallon\u2019s book and Fr. Michael White and Tom Corcoran\u2019s book Rebuilt<\/em>, another guide to parish renewal, were both published in Dutch in 2019. Both have since been embraced by parishes around the country, together with Sherry Weddell\u2019s book Forming Intentional Disciples<\/em>, as helpful guides to pastoral and spiritual revitalization.<\/p>\n

Though pastoral leaders here do not believe any of these books offers the<\/em> answer to the troubles parish face, it is heartening to see how certain key insights common to all three books are being embraced here, namely:<\/p>\n

1) Parish renewal must be grounded in a living relationship with God, and God must lead;<\/p>\n

2) Parishes do not exist for themselves but are called to proclaim Christ and serve the world in the name of Christ; and<\/p>\n

3) We need to be clear about our vision and make sensible choices (i.e., a degree of \u201cworldly wisdom\u201d is welcome in our leadership and organizational practice).<\/p>\n

Exciting for me to realize during the March conference, was just how far we have come in the Netherlands over the last twenty years. I started visiting this country regularly from Seattle in the 1990\u2019s (my wife is Dutch), and we moved here in 2001. My work for the Center for Parish Spirituality<\/a> (CPS) has taken me into parishes in every diocese and so often in my first years here I would look around on Sunday and think, \u201cMan it\u2019s dead here!\u201d A listlessness prevailed. Typically I asked myself, \u201cDoes it feel like people here believe God is truly present and can work miracles?\u201d Usually the answer was \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

I quickly realized that a lot was going to have to happen to make parishes come alive again. So our Center started focusing on the God question (Do we still believe? Where can we find God? How can one have a relationship with God?) and emphasizing how important it is that when you\u2019ve tasted the goodness of God that you don\u2019t just keep savouring it yourself, but that you share that saving wine with others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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