A Future Full of Hope - From our Bishop
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Bishop Declan is encouraging our Faith with his diocesan vision helping us to think about our parishes and our roles and mission within them. His Vision document, inspired by Pope Francis, emphasises a ‘more outward focus’ and sets out a roadmap for the next three years.
This document which sets out a roadmap so that we may use the many resources the Lord has given us in order that we might build up the life and work of our parish communities.
Each of our parishes is different and so this plan does not seek to impose uniformity but offers, rather, an overall framework within which each community might be able to respond. It doesn’t seek to add a further work-load to the good things that are already happening so creatively and abundantly in our parishes. It seeks to deepen our understanding of what we already do and offers ways in which that can develop and grow. Each of the three years ahead of us will focus on one aspect of the bishop’s threefold vision of Mission, Prayer and Communion. They will follow the cycle of the Church’s year and begin with the season of Advent. Year of Mission Advent 2017 – Advent 2018 Year of Prayer Advent 2018 – Advent 2019 Year of Communion Advent 2019 – Advent 2020 The aim of these three years is to give us the tools we need in order to be able to take a firm grip on the future that the Lord calls us to. The symbol of the anchor, which recurs through-out the document, reminds us that the anchor which holds us fast is the knowledge of God’s love for us. |
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