Opportunities to Serve

Last night, the parish hosting us confirmed 120 young people between two of the four churches that make up the "parish." After the confirmations, the parish organizers came to the house for dinner to discuss the past year and think about what needs to be done for next year. It was a great opportunity for Morgan and I to learn about the sacramental preparation that occurs in the parishes here. For example, the Confirmation preparation that occurs for these 12 year olds occurs over four weeks, meeting, at most, two times per week.

The overwhelming concern for everyone present was the inability to find enough people to help teach and prepare the lessons. The parents who are willing, do so because it is their own children going through the program; thus, there is a high turn-over rate and very little ability to form any kind of team or consistency in the program.

After absorbing the conversation for a while, I finally asked if they had ever considered involving the youth who have recently gone through the program? To my surprise (and in fact their own), they had never considered the option.

Fast forward to the next morning at the office: I was speaking with one of my colleagues at the office about a number of things -- mostly the usual coffee-pot morning topics of discussion. The opportunity arose for me to ask her about her own hopes for WYD. Among the many she mentioned, more involvement from young people in the life of the parish was a big one. In Sydney at least, the reality of most parishes is that there are no young people in any kind of leadership role. Even the altar servers are retired gentlemen. Not surprising in such an environment, there are no youth ministry programs of any kind, nor are there any communities or movements that offer youth a place in the life of the Church.

During both conversations, I asked why young people are not considered for ministry in the parish. In both conversations, there was no response, just a bewildered look. As I would imagine, it is not intentional -- it just never occurred to them. So the real question will be what happens post WYD?

Many, many of my discussions about my WYD experience has stressed the importance of cultivation in the parishes, stating how important it is for the parishes to offer opportunities for ministry and a means to share their new found joy and excitement. Let us pray for that.

As for the Australian Word of the Day: "Chocies", that is chocolate. It is a common thing here in Australia to ad "-ies" to things in shortened form. "Sunnies" is another example, which are sunglasses. Nor is it just being cute, but the way they call things here.

Blessings and G'Day!