A church event filled to capacity with engaged lay people, all willing to play their part, is every bishop’s dream. As Open House opened the doors of its June conference, that dream became reality. ‘New Directions’ was sold out to laity seeking to bridge the ‘gap’ we all sense in our current model of Church.
Priests are frustrated when the lay don’t ‘step up’. The lay are frustrated because often we don’t know how. Passive, we’ve waited for practical guidance on how to build the co-responsibility of Vatican II.
‘New Directions’ offered such guidance.
Asked to move both psychologically and physically towards each other, attendees were invited to ‘go for the dance’, rotating from table to table, telling our stories and allowing ourselves to be inspired by the Holy Spirit in each other.
And the Spirit was clearly at work. A year in the planning, Open House’s chosen questions echoed the ideas at the very heart of Predicate Evangelium, Pope Francis’ soon-to-appear apostolic constitution. Our speakers picked up its core themes.
Bishop Leahy of Limerick shared, with admirable humility, his own learning experience of synodality, describing the prayerful process of elected parish delegates labouring in God to create a concrete plan for their diocese. How, though difficult, they had learned in that process to ‘love one another’.
Next we were given a new lens on subsidiarity by parishioners from the Galloway diocese. They had prayed their way to a dedicated lay Pastoral Committee with actual decision-making powers. Community discernment meant laity were being trained to lead funerals, and a new hospitality centre offering skills for young people had brought new life.
The third ‘new direction’ focus was Divine Renovation, a theological and pastoral approach developed by Scots Canadian Fr. James Mallon. To begin, a priest/parishioner team from Glasgow described their hopes starting out on the Divine Renovation journey. Then the Leadership Team of South East Edinburgh inspired us with stories of Spirit-filled
lay/clergy collaboration as they lived out Divine Renovation’s principles in their Cluster.
https://www.divinerenovationuk.org/
After every input we listened to the Spirit, and to each other. How might we apply what we were learning in our home parishes?
In the cross pollination of ideas I watched emerge new energy and possibilities, recognising the ‘polyhedron’ model of church Bishop Leahy had described. In it, the hierarchical and prophetic meet, co-equal and co-essential. This was the creativity and collaboration prophesied by Vatican II.
That co-responsibility necessarily means bishops trusting us, like Brendan Leahy, as they learn to share power and authority. My take home message from ’New Directions’ came from a bright-eyed, seasoned priest. ‘You have the church you have due to passivity,’ he asserted, and not too gently. Then, with love, he went on: ‘You were given those rights by God. Don’t let the hierarchy take them away from you.’