Our new Gathering Space

Parish Council Announcement:
The Parish Council wishes to announce the results of the vote conducted these last few weeks in the parish. The question we asked was, "Are you in favour of a Gathering Space?" 855 votes were cast. 25 were spoiled votes. 645 voted in favour of the gathering space and 185 voted against. This works out to 77.7% in favour of the project. The council expresses thanks to all who voted. First thing in the New Year, two committees will be struck, one to evaluate strategies for financing the project and a second to go into further detail with the present design and to incorporate ideas brought forward at the town hall meeting. These meetings will be a regular occurrence with the hope that we can take full advantage of your ideas throughout the project. May God bless us as we embark upon this exciting effort to bring life and vitality to our church for generations to come.

My friends, as you and I journey through our lives of far too few years, we are, at every moment, being called to redefine ourselves as Christians, to answer the question Jesus asks of his disciples, "Who do you say I am." In an increasingly secular world, all faiths are being challenged to grow and adapt or fade into irrelevance. Our Catholic faith is no different. We need not be smug about our future. Our faith is on the line every day. In our affluence, our comfort, keeping our Catholic faith strong and vital may seem too much effort or simply beyond us. The press inundates us with negativity about our church, never giving similar attention to all the heroes and accomplishments and treasures of our faith (and there are many today and through 2,000 years of history.) In all this, by our inaction, we stand to catastrophically lose the proverbial baby in all the muddied bathwater.

Our Christian truth, God’s entering humanity in the person of Christ is a reality no society can change. Our hopes rely on the timeless gifts of our scripture and sacraments. And while these truths remain, one thing is clear. Our church and theology cannot become intransigent or complacent while our world speeds by. We must adapt and engage our world with confidence or it will leave us far behind. Rituals need to evolve and new worldviews need to be embraced or our faith will be lost to future generations.

Jesus asks us today, who we are, not who we were or will be. Though past and future give perspective, they can cause complacency, deadly routine and feelings of despair. Let us shake these things off. Let us dream again as children, hope and risk again as young adults and engage the present with a fresh, God-filled spirit. If we answer Christ’s question as our parents did, we are in trouble. Remember, eternal truths remain unchanged, but voicing them, celebrating them, understanding them—for today—requires effort and new understanding for future generations. Our answer to Christ’s question is as relevant as the apostles, even more so—because our answer is the voice needed today.

At the conclusion of 2003, I spoke of the NOW here at St. Alphonsus. I told you of the immense energy and outreach that occurs in our parish everyday. I told you how special and unique we are in the whole Canadian church. Our vitality and our potential are simply unparalleled. That said, ours is a potential that sparkles still beyond what we’ve realized. Here we face our awesome gifts and consider the road God lays before us. Our theology, our financial resources, our collective talent, our growth in numbers, --every barometer goes off the screen here at St. Alphonsus. And they place before us a sobering challenge. Shall we be average and let this gift pass by or shall we seize the moment, sacrifice a bit and make a real difference in our world. The second is harder-------- and the second is our only choice.

I mentioned our financial situation- how average weekly contributions have stayed at a level that has not reflected the inflating dollar of many years. The gospel call to tithe is a tough but real call of Christ- 10% of your earnings gifted back to God- 5% to the charity of your choice and 5% to your faith community. In a world where we are accustomed to much, tithing challenges us all the more- because of our abundance. The more we have, the harder it is to meet the gospel’s call. One parishioner told me he tithed by giving one hour’s wage every week to the church. A reasonable choice I think. All surveys show Catholics lagging behind other faith communities in their giving. We need to re-evaluate our tradition and our commitment to giving back to God a reasonable portion of what God gives to us.

This moment in our parish is a defining one. We will look back on these years and see a great potential squandered or realized. The ball has been thrown to us and we have the uncomfortable task of letting it drop to the ground or catching it and running with it. Jesus calls to us - a modern, progressive faith community, that consistently provides leadership to the larger Peterborough faith community and even to the whole Canadian Church and asks: "Will you take this time, this place, your time, your place, your resources and invest them in me and my community?"

I’ll tell you what I told our parish council about St. Alphonsus. I said I was a little overwhelmed by the growth here at St. Alphonsus. God’s spirit moves at such an awesome speed. Parishioners masterfully manage the RCIA, they facilitate book studies, they guide large groups of parishioners in healthy living in mind, body and spirit. I see a faith community that birthed the Abraham Festival where Muslim, Jewish and Catholic families built bridges that will change the landscape of our city. Imagine Muslims praying IN the synagogue? Imagine a Muslim, Jewish and Christian child together unveiling a unity plaque in Millennium Park. Our Canadian Bishops, in their Liturgy Bulletin will write extensively of this Abraham experience to document and inspire others.

I see a youth program where 60 grade 7’s and 8’s gather to share their faith and ask important questions. Our Family Mass last week had 30 children singing in the choir. Where else does this happen but here? Dialogue homilists leave energized by their experience of our parish. So much of who we are, expresses a theology of growth and vitality, a theology that brings hope for our faith and generations to come.

And so our challenge today is to consider our physical structure and determine whether it supports this growth or impedes it. A simple but all-important comparison of a theology of yesteryear and a theology for tomorrow will help us.

Years ago we slipped into the church through narrow entrances to pray and keep our Sunday obligation. Gathering wasn’t necessary. We need not talk to one another. In church it was even rude to do so. Respect for God meant keeping silent and uninvolved until Mass was over. Churches were built fortress style, high, thick walls and stained glass, so no one could see inside, the thought being, the inside was holy, the outside was not. They had statues with large cement walls around them that blockaded the entrance to the church so no one could see in. Fortress like-- it was, where silent people prayed as individuals. There was little that was inviting about its design. Such was a church that celebrated with silence, secrecy and darkness.

Enter a new spirit that is this living community, a theology for tomorrow based on St. Paul who taught faith without action was dead. A theology for tomorrow requires a gathering space as large as the worship space- so people can reach out and care for one another before and after they pray together. A theology for the future is filled with light and without secrets. It demands a gathering space made of glass so we can be a proud community, confident in our future, open and inviting with nothing to hide, where the world outside and inside are sacred, where we celebrate our gathering and our praying, both clearly visible to everyone passing by on Clonsilla Ave.

Imagine driving by on a Tuesday night and in full view, seeing people enter the church and the Resurrected Christ towering above the priest presiding at Mass, all very visible and inviting to the world. How radically open and inviting this would be. How this would speak to the world of our faith. Such would be a design that would challenge us to grow. And what would Christ say to this?

At the Abraham festival 250 people had no place to engage one another before the service or afterwards. We were spread through the choir room, the chapel and green room. When we have sacramental sessions throughout the year with parents and children, we have a place to pray but not to talk openly and build friendships. Think of all the ministries and activities that reach out to you every week in our narrow entrance way. It is unworkable. No ministry can grow in our entranceway. People can’t engage one another in the entranceway. Signups are on the walls but you risk your life trying to stop and sign anything in the crush of people after Mass. If our prayer is to lead to service, as our church teaches, we need a space to do this. Blood pressure clinics take place in the pews because there is no place at the entrance and if anyone wants to share important things with the parish nurses, there is no time. The next Mass is already coming in.

The noise of our cordiality with one another before Mass is a source of frustration for many who want to pray. Our gathering and our praying are presently in the same space and this impedes both. A proper gathering space allows us to improve both our praying and our community building. A new gathering room could also be a multipurpose space for many church functions throughout the week- book studies and larger functions all having the potential for prayer in the worship space or leading us to Sunday Mass. And for larger feasts where we have overflow crowds (Christmas, Easter and the sacramental season), this space can open up and accommodate everyone.

These changes to the front of the church are not cosmetic. They challenge us to a theology that can embrace the next millennia with confidence. They challenge us to continue along the extraordinary path God has placed before us and not sink into the past. We can continue to keep our doors hidden from the world and squeeze through the narrow entrance to pray--- or build a space made of glass that allows all to enter, that opens our faith to the world and invites all to gather and pray with us, excited about our future. Christ asks us, "Who do you say you are?" Our answer has to be a proud move to the future rather than a complacent living in the past.

This project will take sacrifice and effort, but it will open the future to us and bring a return more than we can presently imagine. This beautiful property where all of Peterborough drives by would speak a powerful new message of hope about a people and faith truly living the resurrection. This new plan will also double our parking, a problem that has plagued us for many years.

Jesus asks us a most defining question in the NOW: "Who do we say you are?" Are we a faith community who takes up the challenge laid before us- to keep ourselves vital and alive for future generations? Will our gathering space express a theology of openness and invitation to the world, confident in the future, putting into action the gospel that will always challenge and inspire us?

Who are we? There can be no more important question to ask. And my friends, what will our answer be?

Fr. Paul