Evangelisation Team

Our Vision Statement
To spread the love of God through our words and actions and to become a parish of missionary disciples.
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​For more information please contact
Peter Dimambro
mdimambro@hotmail.co.uk  01926 428399

For General Parish leaflet see:-
2019.doc

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 Contents
1) FORMATION
2) MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
3) DIVINE RENOVATION
4) SHARING MY FAITH JOURNEY
                                      1) FORMATION 

St Peter’s Parish Evangelisation Team, Leamington Spa came about after a training day on evangelisation in St Chad’s Birmingham in 2009. It was suggested that all parishes should have a Team.
 
Although evangelisation is basically bringing the Good News of Christ to others, it covers many areas such as sacramental preparation and support, social activities, parish missions and retreats, welcoming new parishioners, etc. The main methods of evangelisation include witness of life, preaching, liturgy of the Word, the mass media, personal contact and the Sacraments. All Catholics have a duty to evangelise and it is a task not just for the Clergy or the Team. 
 
The purpose of the Team is to promote evangelisation by:-
a) praying for the evangelisation work of the parish,
b) suggesting creative ways for the parish to reach out to the local community,
c) developing their understanding of Church teaching on evangelisation, and
d) ensuring that evangelisation enjoys a high profile within the parish so that all can be involved to some extent.
 
We are basically a small planning team and have identified many areas of evangelisation and undertake parish visiting, promote RCIA sessions for interested non-Catholics and encourage all parishioners to be more active in helping non-churchgoing Catholics back to our community. In line with our Archbishop’s suggestion for a priority focus on non-churchgoing Catholics, we also see this as the main area to concentrate on. We have been involved in a number of initiatives over the years - see our notes of meetings below. Together with the support of the Evangelisation Fieldworker from Maryvale, Birmingham and our Parish Priest, we continually discern the way the Holy Spirit wants us to proceed.

The Team has expanded to include the parishes of the Warwick deanery so we are now known as the Warwick Deanery Evangelisation Team. We meet every other month in St Peter’s parish centre. If you feel drawn to help us, or just want to come and see, please contact Peter Dimambro. 

2) MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
​​Warwick Deanery Evangelisation Team
Minutes of meeting Monday 2nd Sept 2019 7.30pm St Peter’s Parish Centre
Prayers to the Holy Spirit and for Non-churchgoing Catholics
1 Welcome and apologies
Present: Peter Dimambro, Paul Northam, Deacon David Palmer, June Palmer and Lewis Scarpellino.
Apologies: Peter Shiels and Jenny Warr.
2 Matters arising from last meeting
Peter advised that he had a meeting with Fr. John on 28th August where many aspects of the work of the Team were discussed.
a) Leaflet: ‘Sharing the Joy of the Gospel’
This is for churchgoing Catholics about the basic areas of evangelisation.
The 2,000 for Catholic Leamington are stored in St Peter’s sacristy. Some are in the display stand at St Peter’s to replace the old style leaflets. See also 7a).
b) Other leaflets ‘Catholic Faith Life-Long Saver’ and ‘What is the Catholic Faith?’
Peter J had amalgamated them into a new leaflet for visiting and church display. This is to be discussed at the next meeting.
c) Leaflet for new housing
See minutes of last meeting. Peter had started posting them to the new estate of eventually 212 homes the other side of Leamington railway station and noted the addresses.
Fr. John had asked if there had been any feedback and if there was scope to meet up with anyone. Deacon David said no one had been in contact yet.
Paul thought that this was a good initiative and would pass on the idea to other parishes in the Birmingham archdiocese. June is to email the leaflet to Paul in a format so that it can be adapted.
3 ALPHA
See minutes of last meeting.
Sessions are to start at Trinity School Thursday 10th October at 7.30pm.
i) Advertising
Fr. John had asked the Team to push everything into ALPHA and advertise it as widely as possible including:
a) Families who have had their children baptised in recent years:
After discussion it was decided to only invite those who had been visited in recent years as many other families will have moved address. Peter will action and arrange delivery of the ALPHA invitations.
b) Parish visiting records including the lapsed and non-Catholics who showed some interest in recent years: Peter is to give out the invitations and some had already shown an interest in ALPHA.
c) Schools: Fr. John requested that information should go into The Trinity School twice- monthly newsletter. Deacon David and June will look into this
d) Leamington Information Office, Warwick District notice boards, Supermarkets, etc Deacon David and June had much experience of holding ALPHA and said they were concerned over being able to cope with possible large numbers coming to this series following the promotion at the Masses. They preferred to do this sort of extended advertising at the next ALPHA when more group leaders and helpers would be present. This was agreed.
ii) Organisational issues
Deacon David and June are to speak about ALPHA at the Masses of the three churches on the weekends of 7th/8th September and 14th/15th September. This will include testimonies and invitations will be given out.
On 12th September at Our Lady’s church hall there will be a meeting for helpers and facilitators.
iii) ALPHA Follow-up January 2020:
a) For non Catholics interested in the Catholic church Margaret is to follow-up these.
b) For other Christians and Catholics
There were a number of ideas such as ‘Nurturing the seed’ and various DVD’s but it was decided to wait until the next Team meeting to see what was the make-up of those coming and what would be the best. One idea was to have a social get together in January. It was noted that St Joseph’s hall was normally free on Monday evenings for meetings.
4 Divine Renovation UK (DR19)
ALPHA covers this area at present.
5 Evangelisation Fieldworker Paul Northam
a) Extraordinary Missionary month October 2019
Paul gave out information and the links with the diocesan website. There is a diocesan prayer for the month and Peter will check to see if this is to be said for Catholic Leamington. The various events were noted.
b) Year of the Word 2020
Paul said that the launch is to be on 30th September the feast of St Jerome. The Year starts on the first Sunday of Advent. Paul is to send links to the Team to give information on the Bishops’ Conference, The God who speaks, the Corpus Christi event at St Chad’s, Birmingham etc.
6 Reports from parishes/churches.
a) St Peter’s Leamington i) RCIA
Those who were received into the church at Easter are invited to monthly meetings to build on their experience of being a catholic. The next RCIA series was due to start on 11thSeptember but Margaret had only received two enquiries, one a non-churchgoer and another Christian. Fr. John had said to hold-off RCIA for this year and put them onto ALPHA. They could then have some sort of follow-up with Margaret in January 2020 if appropriate.
ii) Visiting Team
Peter was currently doing census visiting on his own in the centre of Leamington. Other ALPHA inspired visiting will now take place. House to house visiting at the estate near St. Anthony’s school is to start that week but a new person on the team is needed as the current person is sick.
iii) Welcoming Group
No new parishioner cards had been received since the last meeting. Fr. John had suggested that a form should be used when a home is to be blessed and Peter will arrange this.

b) Our Lady’s Lillington
June said that the children’s liturgy was thriving. More people are attending Eucharistic adoration on Fridays and the tea/coffee after Mass on Wednesdays.
Deacon David said there is to be a feasibility study on the building a new parish hall.

c) St Francis Kenilworth
Peter Shiels had said he was no longer on the parish council and was not aware of any evangelisation initiatives. Five from the parish went on pilgrimage to Harvington the day before.
d) Other Warwick Deanery parishes No reports.
7 AOB
a) Home Mission Sunday 15th September
As the stock of the leaflet ‘Why come back - An invitation’ had not been traced in St Peter’s office, Peter proposed that the other leaflet ‘Sharing the Joy of the Gospel’ could be used in its place and given out with a revised A5 handout ‘A mission to our fellow Catholics’.
Fr. John suggested that we needed to share with the parish what our mission is and what we are doing. This would include a prepared statement that the clergy could read from at Mass. The draft had been sent to the Team and this is to be followed up.
It was decided that in view of ALPHA and the canonisation of Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman on 13th October that action could be postponed until 20th or 27th October. Peter is to action accordingly.
A Columban priest is to do a mission appeal on 7th/8th Sept at St Peter’s.
b) Extraordinary Missionary month October 2019 Covered by 5 a).
c) Catholic Leamington parish council
June, as secretary, attended the meeting on 27th June. She said that she talked about ALPHA and would send the minutes to Peter although they were also on the Catholic Leamington website when approved.
d) Personal testimony/sharing my faith journey
It was thought this can be promoted at the end of ALPHA and perhaps combined with a social.
e) Lent 2020
Fr. John thought that the parish should hold sessions on faith education, as there was an increasing ignorance of basic knowledge especially morality.
Some ideas such as something from The Year of the Word, having a series of speakers, various DVD resources were aired and this is to be discussed at the next Team meeting.
Next meeting - Davenport Room 7.30pm 4th November
Closing prayers
Our Lady of Fatima – Pray for us
Blessed Dominic Barberi – Pray for us
Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman (canonisation on 13th October) – Pray for us​.


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                                                      3) Divine Renovation
A two day conference called Divine Renovation 19 was recently held in West Bromwich. There were several hundred people there, including laity, Priests and Bishops from around the UK (including Archbishop Bernard Longley and Bishop David McGough). Three representatives from the Catholic Leamington Evangelisation team were among those who attended.
 
Divine Renovation is, with the grace of God,  designed to radically transform parishes from maintenance to mission. It grew out of the experience of St Benedict's Parish in Nova Scotia, Canada where Fr James Mallon had a vision for his parish to be filled with faith-filled Catholics, who would naturally go out and share the Good News with those around them. He shares his experience in the Book 'Divine Renovation - Bringing your parish from maintenance to mission.' An easy to read and informative book. 
 
Pope Francis in The Joy of the Gospel said that through their Baptism, all Catholics are called to be missionary disciples. He describes how the Church must “go forth,” boldly taking the first step to draw near to those who do not know or live the Gospel, by building bridges, supporting others, taking on the “smell of the sheep” and patiently seeking to accompany them on their journey. True missionary disciples have the desire and heart to serve the parish and the wider community and are so in love with God that they are  not frightened to speak about Him to others.
 
The conference drew on the experience of some of the parishes in the UK who have already started the process. Their testimonies were very encouraging, particularly the Parish Priests who had found new zeal and purpose in their ministry. They had started by gathering a small faith-filled team around them to pray and draw up a vision statement for the parish. This small team then worked with the Priest to drive the process forward.
 
When he arrived at St Benedict's parish Fr Mallon found that many people were not fully evangelised and had never had the opportunity to personally accept the Good News of the Gospel and so they did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. This meant that they did not have a missionary outlook that wanted to share the Good News with others. The best tool that the Canadians found to help people both inside and outside the church to full conversion is the Alpha Course, which when run properly gives people a personal encounter with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and this transforms their  lives. Many people, including Deacon David and June Palmer can testify to this 
 
God is the vine and we are the branches and He asks us to be fruitful by taking his love to others. Parishes can be so busy serving their parishioners that they have no time for evangelising. The culture of a parish should be outward looking, going out to the wider community to draw people in. Events and ministries should be designed  to attract those outside the Church, who would be welcomed and supported.
As it was said at the conference, “Remember, Jesus told us to go out into the deep to catch fish, not to sit around on the quayside waiting for the fish to  jump into our boat!"
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                                 HAVE YOU DRAWN UP YOUR JOURNEY OF FAITH YET?

testimony_faith_journey_oct_2018_________________.pdf PARISH TRANSFORMATION
                                               The Text is also below
Sharing your faith journey (also called a testimony)  is a simple sharing of a part of your journey of faith, to give witness to Christ. 
Things to consider:-
What has God done in your life, in the past?
How is God present in your life today?
Why are you a Catholic?
What does your faith mean to you personally?
Answering one of these, or similar questions, will give you an outline to share your faith journey.                                                   It is powerful because it demonstrates to others that God is real and that he cares about our lives.
Sharing our journey of faith is something that we can all do. ​
For guidance on how to get started please see below.

                                             4) Sharing my faith journey
Sharing your faith journey (also called a testimony) is a simple sharing of a part of your journey of faith, to give witness to Christ.
Consider:-
What has God done in your life, in the past?
How is God present in your life today?
Why are you a Catholic?
What does your faith mean to you personally?
Answering one of these, or similar questions, will give you an outline to share your faith journey. It is powerful because it demonstrates to others that God is real and that he cares about our lives.
                               It is also something that we can, and really should, do.
                     So, to begin.......
Before you start take time to still yourself and ask the Holy Spirit to gently lead you down memory lane to see where God has helped you over the years.
Using the following outline, reflect upon your own faith story and pick out significant stages in your life from childhood to present. Write it down for you to keep and update as needed.
Select one significant event and reflect on the change God brought about in your life.
Consider the following possibilities:
From
Fear, Hatred, Weakness, Despair, Sickness, Anxiety, Aimlessness, Loneliness
To
Courage, Love, Strength, Hope, Health, Peace, Purpose, Community
Arrange into three parts:-
Beginning – Set the scene and share briefly what was your life was like before this event.
Middle – How did God intervene?
End – What has your life been like since?
Remember to focus on God rather than yourself
If you are not able to recall a significant event, consider some of those gradual steps where God has helped your faith journey.
        Top Ten Tips for sharing your faith journey – Speaking about faith, in your own words.
1) Become increasingly aware of ‘moments of encounter’ with God
We know that God is with us, but how often do we pause in the day to actively become aware of God’s closeness? Some people have dramatic stories of personal conversion, but, for most of us, God is present in the ordinariness of our daily lives, such as an answered prayer, or experiencing a moment of peace in the midst of anxiety. God speaks to us through a timely word of wisdom, or encouragement, from a loved one, or through the sacraments of the Church. It may help to keep a prayer journal and at the end of each day to write a few lines about how you encountered God throughout that day.

2) Be open to the Holy Spirit
We can pray each morning for an opportunity to share our faith with someone in the day ahead. Pray also, that in that moment you will be given the right words to speak. Through prayer, when we are talking with someone, we may feel a prompting from the Holy Spirit to share a particular part of our story at a particular time. It is amazing what the Holy Spirit can bring to mind, that can be of great help to someone.

3) Consider who you are speaking to and use simple words
Are they a Christian, or a Catholic, or not? If not, then try to avoid very religious words and phrases that they may not understand, such as: The parish, the sacraments, and conversion. If you do need to use religious words, try to explain what you mean by them. Talk personally and avoid telling others what to do. We do not all have the same faith experience and people are at different stages in their journey. So, respect this and try to avoid ‘preaching’ to others about what they must do, as this can make people feel defensive. Stick to talking about your own story and leave them with something to think about. Avoid arguments. Sharing faith is about winning hearts, not winning arguments.

4) Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable
It is hard to relate to someone whose life appears to be perfect and without struggles. As Pope Francis put it so beautifully; “The thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful.....I see the church as a field hospital after battle." 
Let’s be honest, we all have our struggles. When appropriate, sharing how God has helped you, or is helping you, through a difficulty (perhaps facing an illness, or a financial or relationship crisis) can bring great consolation and hope to people in their own struggles. Often in times of difficulty people are most open and aware of their need of God.

5) Take responsibility for your level of sharing
Don’t share something deeply personal if you are uncomfortable about doing so and avoid sharing something about someone else without their permission. There is a time for sharing from the depths of our souls, but usually in close relationships, or if you have been asked to speak to a specific group of people about a specific topic. Once again, keep it simple and ordinary.
6) Be aware of the response of the other person
Notice if they seem engaged and keen to know more, or if they seem distracted, or perhaps need to get to an appointment somewhere else. If that’s the case, they may not be ready to receive your testimony so, out of respect for them, bring your sharing to a close.

7) Be yourself and speak naturally
We are different and God uses us to reach out to different people in different ways. There is nothing more off-putting than insincerity, so just be yourself and share from your heart.

8) Listen
Yes, this is about sharing your faith but the word 'sharing' is important. If you want to have genuine communication with another person, let them speak too. Let them ask questions, or even disagree with you. People have a real need to be heard and listening is an act of charity.

9) Be a witness to the Joy of the Gospel
There may be things about the Church, or our parish priest, or another member of the parish that we find difficult. But avoid moaning or complaining about your faith. A joyful person is much more attractive than a moaner! And we can always find something to be joyful and thankful about. As Pope Francis says: “An evangeliser must never look like they have just come back from a funeral”. Let your love for Jesus show in your face, in your words and in your genuine care for the person with whom you are speaking.

10) Keep Praying
Remember to keep the person in your prayers. We may never know the impact of sharing our faith and telling our story, but, when we do, it has the power to change hearts!
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                            Some final points to note when sharing with others
Please do: Trust God, be natural and yourself, speak of relationships, share positive benefits, use language that will relate to others, beware of jargon and be interesting, but
Please do not: Preach or lecture, generalize all is perfect, give travelogues, get too bogged down with detail speak negatively, labour past sins or exaggerate...........
Try to keep to only three minutes!! 


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