WelCom June 2017: Over the past two months almost 300 parishioners from Sacred Heart Cathedral Thorndon, Star of the Sea Marlborough, and Ohariu parishes and school representatives, have taken up Cardinal John Dew’s invitation to experience and take part in a Stewardship Day in their local area.
After Cardinal John’s presentation about Stewardship – ‘a Disciple’s Response’ – parishioners took part in three stimulating conversations. They explored what it means to be an intentional disciple of Jesus Christ on a daily basis, in our homes, in our neighbourhoods, in our faith communities, in our workplaces, in every aspect of our lives.
At evening sessions, the leaders from the parishes and schools worked with the material gathered from the parishioners’ conversations to create pastoral goals, for parishes and schools to realise together going forward.
The people attending the Stewardship days spoke of the joy of getting together as one community, instead of separate Mass communities, meeting new people, listening to teachers from the schools and their hopes for their students, and aligning those positive hopes with their own. An overarching response was, ‘the treat for parishioners of spending a day with their Archbishop’. In turn, Cardinal John acknowledged the energy created was a joy for him.
Lorraine McArthur