2013-04-30       John W                       John W's previous articles

                Dividing a parish into zones

On last Sunday's menu there was an article Catholics try their hand at old fashioned evangelization

In passing we can note with surprise and regret that so many of the comments on this article were hostile to the idea of Catholics going from door to door to spread the Good News

One of many practical ideas suggested in the article: 
"divide a boundary map of their parish into geographical sections"

This was done when I was in the parish of Lantau Island in Hong Kong, the largest parish, area-wise, in HK.
For both small rural communities and large city communities in the parish, we had "area groups", each with their  own "co-ordinators"

The co-ordinators' jobs were to pray for the people in their group, to be a contact person for the group, to lead the group in a weekly activity such as Bible sharing or common meal (or a combination of both), to show special concern for people in the group who were sick, in hospital, out of work, newly arrived etc,  and to encourage the group to reach out to "non-Christian" neighbours and welcome them to group and parish activities

Each year there were meetings for the co-ordinators themselves to animate and encourage them, and to hear their ideas for serving the people

In two parts of the parish there were dozens of high-rise buildings....of 30 to 50 floors. In each building there was a co-ordinator

When typhoons hit HK on a weekend, and parish Masses were cancelled, sometimes the area group had a Bible service in their building!

Priests in the parish tried to have a home Mass in each area group whenever could be arranged. Two group had a weekly Mass, on a Wednesday night, since many of their members had to work on weekends. Other groups had a home Mass several times a year. The priests made a special effort to be in regular contact with the co-ordinators

Our parish council was largely made up of area group co-ordinators.

Such a system has been in place in parishes in many parts of the world for decades and is most effective in helping a parish have a family spirit, a spirit of togetherness

It is excellent for caring and sharing and communication....and evangelization. It is not unlike the Communist cell or commune system that still operates in China and is so successful for "communication" with a huge population.

Such a system is really a version of Basic Ecclesial Communities (BEC)

Such a system makes possible a better imitation of the earliest Christian communities in the New Testament...small groups that "remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to a life of sharing and caring, to the Breaking of Bread, and to prayer"

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