HFP Leadership Forum

November 12, 2022

The day began with a Mass led by Father Rene, which provided us with the reverent start for the morning's program. It was also a good opportunity to get a sense of who the other leaders in the Parish are.

After Mass, registration commenced. The 30+ attendees enjoyed tea & coffee / refreshments and socialising while waiting for the Forum to officially start. Our MC Frank, after leading us in our opening prayer, humorously guided us through the program.

During the icebreaker we were asked to share with two others “Who influenced our faith journey?” The most common answer was parent, either mum or dad. Other people included grandparents, teachers and partners.

In the Parish Priest’s address, Fr Rene thanked all the volunteers. He then spoke about some of the challenges that face many Parishes’, relaying an example of a Parish in the inner suburbs south-east of Melbourne that now has two churches but only 6 Parishioners. Across Australia (and many parts of the world), with declining priest numbers and declining parishioners, the reality is the future could be quite grim. Nevertheless, Fr Rene was confident that it is not only possible but ‘already happening’ that we could go against the trend. As he looked at those present, there were a number of leaders that would not have been active in the Parish 3 years ago or even a year ago. This gives him hope that we have the talent and faith that if we continue to be active and bring others along, we can create our community of faith and love that grows.

We then reflected on our Vision and Vision Prayer and identified what words or phrases resonated most with us. The most common were:

“Give us the grace to see you in one another and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road”
“We are a community of faith and love”
“Journey together”

Leanne then walked us through our current organisation chart. Whilst the chart illustrated the breadth of activities within the Parish, it is not conducive for devolved decision making, communication and action. Nor did it enable effective Priest and Lay Leader partnership. The concept of circle of influence (things we could impact) and circle of concern (things we are interested in but have limited impact) were touched on to help leaders think where the Parish Priest and their own Leadership focus should be.

With the Vision as context, Parish leadership from a personal perspective was discussed – what does it mean for me? Consistently many said to be a Leader in the Parish context means to “show up” and lead by examples. If we want more people to participate and be active, we need to participate and be active. Not everyone has to be in a faith ministry, we should all understand our skills and try to discern how those skills can support the work of the Parish.

During the general discussion session, the conversation focused on relationship between Parish, Church and local Schools. Potential to increase youth participation in Parish was spoken about a lot, and one option is perhaps through social justice initiative, a topic important to the youths of today. The good news is we have energised Youth leaders who are ready for Youths to participate in their programs.

Overall, the forum was energetic and the content was engaging – good, lively discussion at each table with minimal hesitation to share stories and experiences.

The Parish hopes to hold these forums twice a year.

For more photos please see the Album.