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PREPARING TO BE STEWARDS
Emrys Hughes - Carlisle
“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace”, wrote St Peter. “This is a call to us”, said Simon Stewart, the diocesan Education Officer, speaking to members of the ten parishes of St Herbert’s Deanery, the six city parishes and the outlying parishes of Wigton, Penrith, Warwick Bridge, and Appleby with Kirkby Stephen. In all about there about thirty parishioners had gathered at St Augustine’s in Carlisle on Saturday 29 January to learn more about Parish Stewardship. The meeting had been arranged by the Deanery Pastoral Council, which is now completing its first year.
St Augustine’s was one of the five parishes in the Diocese of Lancaster that had prayerfully and thoroughly piloted the “Stewardship” scheme, with the help of the Diocesan Education Team. Now within the deanery St Edmund’s, St Bede’s and St Cuthbert’s are “clustering” ever closer and are putting into practice a different model of Stewardship. First of all Simon outlined the development and principles of Stewardship. The vision is that of a parish transforming itself through careful leadership. It would move from the passive, largely priest-dependent participation in the sacraments that so often characterised our Catholic life in the last century. It would become an active community, where ministry was a responsibility accepted and welcomed by the entire parish. In turn that responsibility would enrich the parish both spirituality and communally.
Members from St. Augustine’s parish then described the two years in which they had prepared for Stewardship and the ways in which lay leaders had led the laity from the pulpit in identifying the ministries in which they could serve. Among these were, Eucharistic Ministers, Ministry of reading, CAFOD support, Catachesis, Church maintenance, Administration, Marriage guidance, Church cleaning. Some of the drive had come from the diminishing number of priests. Facing this reality had led to a reappraisal of the role of the laity by the laity. It was seen too as an opportunity to redress the balance of responsibilities within the life of the clergy.
We heard how St Bede’s, St Edmund’s and St Cuthbert’s were recognising that the usual arrangements for Mass could not continue. But it gave them an opportunity to restore the Community Mass as the central act of the parish. In turn this was creating a greater sense of community leading more sharing of the responsibilities of a Catholic parish. The next stage is for the Deanery Pastoral Council to see how each of its ten parishes see Stewardship, gaining from each other’s experience.
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