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Here is the latest announcement from the press room: Strong demand for airline seats into Australia for World Youth Day Sydney
2008 (WYD08) has led to at least 36 extra flights being scheduled next
month. Sydney Airport Corporation Ltd has confirmed that 35 new airline
flights and one dedicated charter have been booked to bring passengers into
Sydney in the lead-up to WYD08.
"World Youth Day is bringing international visitors into Sydney in
droves," said Chief Operating Officer Danny Casey. "Our information is
that almost every flight into Sydney is fully booked in the lead-up to the event
and 36 more flights have had to be added so far. " Sydney is going to come
alive this winter with 125,000 young people from more than 170 nations arriving
here to celebrate their faith with 100,000 young people from all over Australia
."
Two students involved with WYD hosted a radio show the other night. It is a bit long (45 min), but worth the listen. However, I have also included highlights from the transcript below. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/encounter/Ruth Powell: The funny thing that's happening in the Australian church at the moment is that it's going through this massive transition period. What you have in some churches is the pain and grief of older attenders saying what happened, where did the young people go, how do we continue, what's our future, when we don't have any young people - there's that pain of that - and at the same time you've got these growing churches characterised by having heaps of young people in them and young people who not only are there but having chosen to come to church, because these days you don't go because you were born a Anglican, a Catholic, whatever, you choose whether you're going to have faith, you choose whether you're going to go to church...So young people who are going to church are actually intentionally going and finding places that fit with their hopes and their needs and finding a form of spirituality that connects with them. So they are some of the most enthusiastic, keen, motivated, committed attenders around.
Guy Mason: Yeh well I think we've got you know truth, and we don't want to negotiate on truth and what the bible says and who Jesus was, but I think how we do church and what church looks like can be a little bit moveable and so we want to use things from our culture like media, like music, like drama, like preaching that engages where people are at, things like that. We don't want to negotiate on truth but we want to connect with people where they're at.
Ruth Powell: We know from our research on healthy churches across Australia, but also the US, New Zealand and the UK, one of the most powerful predictor of a healthy church is whether the church has a clear and owned vision for the future. So if the people say I know why I'm here, I know what we're about and I know what we're trying to achieve, that is a powerful thing and I think churches that can pull that off, they can be any faith tradition, any size, any context. If you can say we know why we're here, that is a very attractive church and that is as I said a predictor of growth, newcomers, belonging, growing faith, all sorts of things.
Tom McIlroy: Young people respond really well when they're given a challenge, certainly our experience here in the school is that social justice is one of the best ways to get young people involved in their faith. Give them a good cause to raise money for or an event to put on or whatever and they'll really respond. Drawing the connection between that and their responsibility as Catholics and as Christians is important and we try and do that a lot. Parishes are getting really good at that. Parishes that have vibrant and active youth groups are giving them good projects and giving them leadership roles. The other way of course is music and music ministry within the church, within the mass on the weekends having young people play their instruments and putting their own kinds of music into the old institutions of the church is great it means they have a seat at the table.
Paul Culliver: World Youth Day. A phenomenal, life changing experience where the young Catholics of the world unite and discover they are not alone. They are reinvigorated with a passion for their faith and their beliefs. That's the vision. So, what happens though when the bubble bursts, when World Youth Day ends and all the pilgrims head back to the same local Parish they've been attending all their lives, only to find it at status quo?
Luke Van Grieken: You come back becoming increasingly frustrated with your Parish, or at least I did personally. You go over there; I had some of the best liturgical experiences of my life. You'll have a room of 2000 people with probably ten, fifteen different nationalities represented in that congregation everyone is is singing along to the same hymns at the top of their lungs these really modern progressive songs and all the feelings and emotion and the depth of faith is very clear to everyone there and everyone sharing in it.
And then you come back to mass in Melbourne and often it's comparatively more dreary and the sermons aren't inspiring and the liturgy itself is not exuberant and the people come almost out of obligation and that's disappointing. And because you have that memory of such wonderful liturgy you really want that, you really expect that every week. Maybe it's unrealistic but you certainly have a different, perhaps increased expectation.
Paul Culliver: What happens when the bubble bursts?
Bishop Anthony Fisher: That's a very reasonable fear. And I have been saying to priests all around the country and to bishops that it would be a terrible let down for young people if they come home excited about their faith, wanting to learn more about it, wanting to lead and to serve to be more actively engaged and they come home to a dead parish or to people that just aren't interested in them or who say to them look we'll let you speak for a minute after communion to tell people about your experience but then we want to get back to normal please. That would be deadly, and we really have to get across to people that we're not going to go back to normal, as it were, after World Youth Day.
So there are a number of programs of preparation for young people and also for the rest of the Church, suggesting to them how to get ready for a post World Youth Day Church. There's a program called Activate For Witness which will be coming out next month and going to all the parishes in Australia, which will challenge them to look at have you got youth groups, youth masses, places for young people perhaps to be on your parish council to give a lead, ways for them to deepen their faith, opportunities for them to tell you as a local parish or community what they'd like to see happening rather than just being giving the menu that older people have written and told to fit into it? Again I'm not naïve. I think there'll be places that just stay much the same and then young people will gravitate to places where there is more life or more opportunity to express
themselves spiritually and to lead and to serve.
I had a bit of time to write some of my own thoughts this weekend, in light of our work here. They are (as always) working conclusions, and simply represent my own view, but I thought I would share some of the more pertinent snippets. If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear them.
"In light of WYD, I would like to narrow the question and the scope. How to we get as many people as possible to participate in the event? No doubt, the first visit of Pope Benedict to Australia is a major draw, as he is respected among the churched and non-churched alike. Not surprisingly, much of the marketing has seemingly followed this idea; but I question such a focus.
It seems the advertising have arrived at a consensus that the un-churched and non-Catholic will not be able to relate to ideas and images of the Holy Spirit as much as they might relate to the Pope, youth, fun, or any other idea that speaks to the dynamics of WYD. Certainly, these are important components of WYD and the marketing campaign, but I believe there is a very fine line which must not be crossed concerning the focus of any church-related campaign.
My personal conclusion (in progress), is that people are attracted to anything that is bigger than reality. Major events, concerts, movies, theme parks, and the alike, all share a similar attraction – they allow our imagination room to expand. If this conclusion is accepted, it would seem that the Church, which represents the creator of universe, as the greatest “attraction” of all.
Make no mistake, the Gospel as told through the lens of the Catholic Church has been the most enduring, successful message ever communicated. It has captured the imaginations of artists, politicians and thinkers for almost as long as human history has been recorded. It is not that the message isn’t relevant; rather that too many people rarely given the opportunity to see the Church and the Gospel communicated without distractions that dilute their message.
In the end, the only truth in advertising is the product itself -- and people know this. As the Church continues to embrace communications and marketing strategies (as it should, for the very essence of the Church is evangelization or marketing) we must be true to what we represent. The very best marketing campaigns center around simplicity and curiosity.
If we are to be effective promoters of the Gospel, we must stay true to the simple ideas and images it contains, resisting any temptation to camouflage the Word of God with inevitably shallow appeals. As we move forward in this new millennium, we must be reassured that the message of the Gospel is attractive enough if we allow people to see and hear the real thing – untainted, unembellished, and uncensored. The world is longing to see what is authentic; longing to understand the subconscious feelings that tell them there is something bigger than what they have experienced. This is what we are to present – the big picture in all its glory and its appeal. "
Morgan's birthday is once again upon us. . . and once again, he is celebrating it in another exotic part of the world! And as only Morgan would have it, his birthday fell on the same day the long-term volunteers were invited to Bishop Anthony's house in Watson's Bay for a BBQ.
You can see that Watson's Bay is a very scenic place, but be warned, if you have to be there for 9 am mass (as we did), the buses out there are limited. This was especially frustrating for us since we live on the opposite side of the bay -- that would be 10 minutes by boat and an hour and a half by bus!
Nevertheless, it was worth it as we never miss the opportunity to spend time in prayer and in a meal with many good friends. Of course, some friends we know better than others -- yes, it is our fellow Canadians, the Kantors, with Bishop Anthony -- coming to a Salt and Light bulletin board near you.
And pictured is Sr. Anna, the other half of the International Liturgy Group, who works with Morgan.
As for the Australian Word of the Day, Indigenous -- not that it is a word unfamiliar to North Americans, but because the situation of the Indigenous is particularly difficult here. I spent a bit of time speaking with Fr. Matt who works with us and has spent a great deal of time working with them in Northern Australia. It is a situation that commands great sensitivity with the Church here, perhaps because the situation is still quite fresh. The Indigenous are the fastest growing population in Australia, yet they were only given citizen's rights in 1972. Not until the late 1960's did the country ever recognize them as "people" Many come from families with multiple generations of no formal education of any kind and the problem continues to persist. Of course, this little narration hardly tells the full story, but it does give you the idea.
Not to leave the day on a down note, we took the ferry home (so much better) just before the rain came. As you can see, God has blessed Morgan on his happy day!
Blessings and G'Day!
During another beautiful Saturday afternoon, Morgan and I joined up with some of the other long-term volunteers for an excursion around Manley Beach and North Sydney. Though there were some trails, we found ourselves exploring up around the cliffs that are some of the highest in the Sydney area!
Overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Though you cannot see them in this picture, the humpback whales have started their migration North along this route.
Oops! A wrong turn. At this point we were off the trail wandering our way through the bush-country and came across a strange wall. We followed it and determined that we could go no further! As it turns out, this was probably all part of a defense structure, as we would later stumble onto command posts and gun pits.
We had been told that North Sydney, being the piece of land that extends the furthest into the Pacific was a defensive position during WWII -- we just didn't think we would see so much evidence!
Morgan and I are joined by Paul, from France, and Alana, from (can you believe it) Austin, Texas!
Hmmm. . . is this a premonition?!?!
Stay tuned for more of the weekend's adventures -- coming soon!
As Chris mentioned, I got into work early enough to actually access Outlook and my files, thus enabling me to have quite a productive day. I had no internet or email access, so much of the day’s work was carried out face-to-face. The feeling in the office was like Sister Anna described—much like a snow day when things move a bit more slowly. People were limited in what they could do. Some people could not log on to their computers; others could not print. Despite these obstacles, most people were surprisingly relaxed. (Probably not the IT folks!)
Could the computer problems of today have been a result of divine intervention? Could it have been a way to force us to take a break? Whether or not it was, people were given a chance to breathe and collect themselves. From what I saw, most took advantage of the gift that resulted from a sort of helplessness. Perhaps we learned an important lesson in humility. With only 46 days to go, we shall need to keep that lesson in mind so that we rely less on what we can do by ourselves and more on what the Holy Spirit can do with our cooperation. Come Holy Spirit!
Australian word of the day: savoury. Yes, it sounds quite ordinary, but the Aussie definition is much different than the common North American one. This definition from merriam-webster.com captures the Aussie meaning: “pungently flavorful without sweetness.” For example, biscuits (that is, cookies) can be either of the sweet type or the savoury type.
We all know things are getting busier at the office, but today it all came to standstill when the server went down just before everyone arrived at work. I hung around until lunch as there was quite a bit of reading that needed my attention, but when lunch had passed and the server was still down, I looked out my window at the beautiful Friday afternoon and decided I had spent enough time in the office.
I mean seriously, this is what laptops are for! So I packed up my computer and found myself a shady spot on the beach. I managed to get some good writing in and even had a little company here and there (see above).
And just in case your wondering, Morgan got in before the server crashed so he was able to work productively at the office . . .
Blessings and G'(Fri)day!
Here is the latest announcement from the press room: 
