CIC to focus on BEC, family and youth

Nov 22, 2019

By Vincent D’Silva
“The growth of our BECs, Youth, Young Adults, Formation — through our efforts, we experienced the reality of Jesus’ presence as the Heart and Perfector of our families.”

Fr Edward Rayappan, parish priest of the Church of the Immaculate Conception (CIC) made this opening remark at the start of the Parish Pastoral Assembly (PPA), Nov 10.

He paid tribute to the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) members who had been instrumental in paving the way for the parish to successfully achieve all the plans that were set.

“The members have been personally involved in all the pastoral initiatives and their guidance and advice has helped us focus on our vision and mission.”

The PPA then went on to review all the events of 2017-2019 and plan ahead for 2020.

Close to 100 parishioners, representing various ministries and BECs, attended this four-hour assembly which was moderated by Henry Utoi from the Church of the Holy Family, Ulu Tiram.

The Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) Chairman then welcomed all members and introduced the agenda for the assembly.

Fr Eddie said that the year 2019 was hectic. The good response shown towards the formation programmes was an indication of the hunger of the parishioners for the Word of God.

The last session of the Assembly was devoted to questions and answers. The main issue of contention was the poor showing in the various BECs activities and greater participation in Church activities.

The lively question and answer session brought the proceedings to a  conclusion, with Fr Eddie deftly deflecting the more provocative questions with answers that made for consensus-building.

The delegates took the opportunity to pose questions regarding their concerns about the affairs of the parish. The questions covered a wide range of topics.

In closing, Fr Eddie hoped the PPA would reach a consensus  on how to address three key pastoral challenges of the present time: engaging with young people in the Church, the celebration of sacraments in a secular culture and engaging with people on the margins of the Church.

“I will try to offer broad directions which the PPC will then develop into a more detailed pastoral strategy,” he elaborated.

Fr Eddie pointed out that in the planning for this Assembly, the PPC and the Steering Committee were conscious of the importance of hearing the views of the people in the parishes, and particularly those on the margins of the Church.

He pointed out that there be a serious effort to reach out to those who would not normally come to Church.

However, he said the sessions in the parishes give a context of how many people live out their lives in our society today and the context in which we must try to preach and live out the message of Jesus.

He made it clear that the next session would provide a summary of the findings of that consultation process, followed by an opportunity to discuss these in small groups.

He went on to say that the goal of our discussions and reflection would be to discern what the pressing issues are for our parish at present and how we would go about engaging with those issues in the years ahead.

“We have initiatives ranging from adult faith formation courses to pre-sacramental programmes, from pastoral area planning to youth programmes that had their seeds in the Assemblies of recent years.”

He also mentioned that CIC’s top priority for 2020 is to revitalise the BECs, family ministry, youth ministry and on-going formation for all leaders and ministries.

He called on the people to fully take part in the life of the parish in the coming years.