EVANGELIZING
PARISH — From left: faciliators Catherine Ecker
of Barrie, Ont. and liturgist Nick Wagner of San Jose, Calif. joined
director of the Western Conference for the Catechumenate Rev. Michael
Koch of Saskatoon in a conference about the evangelizing parish May
28-29, which attracted some 80 participants from across Western Canada
and the north. (Yaworski photo)
Evangelization
involves right relationship with God
By Kiply Lukan Yaworski
SASKATOON — The call
to be an evangelizing parish was the theme of the annual Western Conference
of the Catechumenate (WCC) gathering, held May 28-29 at Holy Spirit
Parish in Saskatoon.
Some 80 participants from
across Western Canada gathered for the conference organized this year
in collaboration with the North American Forum on the Catechumenate,
which is dedicated to the full implementation of the Rite of Christian
Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in every parish.
The conference was chaired
by Rev. Mike Koch of Saskatoon, the founder and director of the WCC,
which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Workshop facilitators included
co-ordinator Catherine Ecker and liturgist Nick Wegner.
Ecker opened the conference
with a reflection on the vision of the evangelizing parish, and continued
the next day by examining the theme in more detail within the scriptural
context of the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. She also
spent time over the two days exploring the apostolic letter of Pope
Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, “On evangelization in the
modern world.”
In one session, Wegner modelled
an experience of “mystagogy” in going deeper into the mystery
of faith by presenting a reflection on one of the prayer services held
during the weekend. Participants delved into the meaning of an experienced
liturgy that focused on the meaning of baptism and gave thanks for the
gift of baptism.
At the start of the conference,
participants were asked to define evangelization and share why they
decided to attend a workshop on the subject. “If we are going
to be evangelize in RCIA, the whole parish is the evangelizing agent,”
said one participant. Another spoke about the struggle to reach out
to those who turn away or are not interested in hearing about faith.
“We are missing at
least one if not more generations in the pews,” said another participant
of the urgent need to evangelize within the faith community itself.
“I think I need to
be filled with passion again and to fill the people that I minister
to with hope, because of the things that have been happening in the
church,” said another.
Ecker admitted it is dangerous
to try to define evangelization in a few words, “because we are
speaking about a mystery of God, an encounter with God. There is always
one more way to say it, or a slightly different nuance.”
Jesus evangelized and sent
his disciples out in pairs to evangelize, she observed. “We also
know that Jesus proclaimed the coming of God’s kingdom.”
He proclaimed salvation from all that oppresses us, and what oppresses
us is sin.
Just as a person cannot teach
math unless they understand the subject, we cannot evangelize if we
have not first been evangelized, Echer pointed out, “because the
message will lack integrity and credibility: we’ll be saying one
thing and walking differently.”
Evangelization is not a single
moment in time, but is ongoing, Ecker said. “We are called to
be evangelizers and to be evangelized. We are at a different point in
our life each and every Sunday when we gather for eucharist and each
and every Sunday there is a potential for us to be evangelized anew.”
Baptism calls us to be a
witness to the Lord, she stressed. “As the baptized we are called
to live in a way that fosters the growth of the kingdom of God. We don’t
do it on our own. We are kingdom builders because the Spirit of God
empowers us to do that.”
Evangelization means being
in right relationship with God, with all people and with creation, Ecker
continued. It is personal, but never individual.
Evangelization means there is transformation, she said, quoting Evangelii
Nuntiandi: “For the church, evangelizing means bringing the
Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence
transforming humanity from within and making it new.”
Evangelization is not exclusive,
but inclusive, stressed Ecker. “The purpose of evangelization
is interior change of both the personal and the collective.”
In order for parishes and
RCIA programs to become evangelizing, shifts in understanding are needed.
“We need to move away
from bringing outsiders into the church to a movement of proclaiming
Jesus Christ and his message,” she said. “We need to move
from a picture of membership to an understanding of conversion, a change
of direction, a new orientation in our life.”
It is also necessary to move
away from thinking that evangelization is the vocation of priests and
religious to a much broader understanding that it is the vocation and
task of all the baptized, Ecker added.
Evangelization is not peripheral
in the church, or the responsibility of this or that group, she said,
calling for a renewed understanding that evangelization is the mission
of the whole church.
“Paul VI is clear:
the church exists in order to evangelize,” she said, stressing
that evangelization touches every part of life, and all the rights and
duties of every human being. “There is absolutely no part of life
that the Gospel does not touch.”
For instance, we cannot proclaim the Gospel without promoting care for the environment, or justice and peace. “The destiny of the whole world depends on the People of God being who and what we are called to be.”
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