Parish Pastoral Councils

“The lay faithful should accustom themselves to working in the Parish in close union with their Priests…As far as possible the lay faithful ought to collaborate in every apostolic and missionary undertaking sponsored by their own ecclesial family.” – Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Second Vatican Council

For the first time in the Diocese of Down and Connor there is a centralised and concerted effort to develop Parish Pastoral Councils (PPCs) in every Parish. This is no small task given that there are 87 Parishes in the Diocese with under a third of them having a Parish Pastoral Council. A PPC is a body of people drawn from the Parish who, together with their Parish Priest come together to foster ‘pastoral action’ (Code of Canon, Canon 536). In this way, they do three things: they investigate what is or is not happening in the Parish in furtherance of its mission; they reflect on this situation and; they make practical recommendations to enhance the situation and spread the Good News.

Living Church Logo

The development of these PPCs is being co-ordinated by the Living Church Office, based in the Good Shepherd Centre. The history of this office is tied into the ‘Listening Days’ called for by Bishop Noel Treanor which took place through Lent 2011. Each Parish held an open evening where people gathered to ask what type of Church we wanted to see in the future and to wonder how we might get there. The resulting report called for an office to be set up to co-ordinate three tasks:
1. The writing of a meaningful and achievable Diocesan Plan
2. The organisation of a congress in September 2013 where the plan would be revealed
3. To begin to realise those structures that people had strongly called for. One such structure was the Parish Pastoral Council.

Fresh Flowers...a fresh start for the Living Church Fresh Flowers…a fresh start for the Living Church

The Living Church Office seeks to support the development of new PPCs as well as the training and renewal of existing PPCs. In both cases the work is carried out through the use of a facilitative style of training that invites people into asking the question: What is God’s dream for us in our time and our place?

Practically, there is a seven session programme that can be delivered in a Parish where there is no PPC. Each session deals with a particular element of our being Church together and the workings of a PPC in particular (see below).

Diagram showing the Seven Session Programme

Each session is open to anyone in the Parish to attend and, indeed is a ‘hop-on, hop-off’ process in that all are free to attend one, some or all the sessions. The people who meet become a think tank for the development of ideas and wisdom about a PPC in their Parish. They are given a chance to practice being a praying, discerning community (in the same way that a PPC is such a community in itself) and to develop some ideas and practice around the wonderful term left to us by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, ‘co-responsibility’.

Parishioners getting down to business Time for a cuppa

Right from Castlewellan to Cushendall; from Belfast to Saul and Ballee small groups of the People of God (lay, religious and clergy alike) are gathering with a fire in their hearts to have open and adult conversations about our Church, our faith and the way forward for their Parish.

Time for a Cuppa Parishioners getting down to business

The programme is currently running in over 30 Parishes in the Diocese and the Living Church Office is committed to bringing the programme to any Parish where it is needed within the next year.

Presentation Mr Jim Deeds, Facilitator of the process, acknowledging a token of appreciation from Mrs Pat Webb, Chairperson of the Interim Core Group

Srs. Kathleen Gill and Veronica O’Brien from the Belfast area are currently involved in this process with the Loughshore Parish, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim:

St. Colman’s, Greenisland