“ JESUS MUST INCREASE “

Rt. Rev. Antony Selvanayagam, D.D.

Bishop of Penang

 

 PASTORAL LETTER: PARISH PASTORAL ASSEMBLY 2008

 
Dear Fathers, Religious, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 
The love of the Lord Jesus Christ be with each and every one of you during this Season of Lent. Since 1976, through the Peninsular Malaysia Pastoral Conventions (PMPCs), we, in Peninsular Malaysia, have taken a conscious step to transform our parishes into a communion of communities and the Diocese into a communion of Parishes.

 
In the Diocese of Penang, after the PMPC III of 2006, as part of the process, in 2007, we had Parish Assemblies (P.A.) in all the 28 Parishes with the view to evaluate the situation of the parishes in relation to the progress towards transforming parishes into a communion of communities.

 
From the feedback received and also with my presence in some of the P.A.s, I was impressed with the large turnout and active participation in most of the assemblies. It was truly heartening to see the spirit of collaboration among the participating parishioners in wanting to:

a)      See the successes,

b)      Assess the weaknesses,

c)      Clarify what needs to be changed or strengthened,

d)      See how the family, BEC and parish can become Christ-centered communities and

e)      Continue the mission of Jesus Christ.

 
My dear friends, in spite of the positive aspects of the 2007 P.A.s, let us not become complacent but rather strive harder to make our P.A.s for this year 2008 even better. The P.A. should function as a place of dialogue and discernment about the will of God for the parish.

This will help in the planning for the following year, keeping in mind the sharings, which were both positive and negative.

 The late Holy Father Pope John Paul II in “Novo Millenio Ineunte” No. 29 sharing about Pastoral Planning says, “It is in the local churches that the specific features of a detailed pastoral plan can be identified. I therefore earnestly exhort the Pastors of the particular

Churches, with the help of all sectors of God’s people, confidently to plan the stages of the journey ahead, harmonizing the choices of each diocesan community with those of neighbouring church of the universal church.” The same Holy Father in the same document sees Pastoral Planning being closely related to holiness (31.2).

The Asian Church, teaching through the FABC General Assembly of 1990 at Bandung, Indonesia, says that the “new way of being church” calls for collaborative, shared and consultative processes.

So, don’t be afraid to collaborate, to share, to consult and have a Diocesan Plan/Thrust and Parish Plan / Thrust. Through this, you grow in holiness.

 If P.A. and Planning is equated with holiness, we can imagine what we are missing as Pastors, Parish Pastoral Councils and Parish Animation Teams, if we are not familiar with Parish Assemblies and the functioning of Pastoral Assemblies.

With this in view, the Diocesan Pastoral Team has prepared a manual on Parish Assemblies which is practical, easy to understand and implementable.

I, as your Chief Pastor of the Diocese, call upon all Parish Priests, Assistant Parish Priests, Parish Pastoral Councils, Religious Communities, Parish Animation Teams and parishioners to get to know the workings of the Parish Assemblies and become partners in building the Parish into communion of BECs and the Diocese into communion of Parishes.

Let us have a successful Parish Assembly this year 2008.

Let us build community and celebrate the Eucharist.

May Mary our mother journey with us interceding with Jesus to bless our efforts.

 

With the love of the Lord,


Bishop Antony Selvanayagam
06th of February 2008

 


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