Mission
Accomplished ?
As I write this, Brother Gerardo is in Assisi, Sister Chris is working in Plaistow, and John is back home in Morecombe. These three, now dispersed, were for ten terrific days in September, the visiting Mission Team at St Mary’s.
St. Mary’s M2G, so long in the planning, is now over, although we hope the results are felt for some time.
Our PLAMSA (Prayer Life At St Mary’s) conceived the idea of a mission in 2009. The memory, for a few of us, of a previous mission in 1985, spurred us to believe the Franciscans have a particular gift for bringing people closer to God.
Anyone out there considering a similar venture should find this following account quite helpful.
There are financial considerations when planning a ten day mission but strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, we didn’t consider that when we ploughed ahead.
Our first overtures to the Franciscans were encouraging. Sister Chris came up from London to meet us in the autumn of 2009. During this reconnaissance, she must have been satisfied that St. Mary’s was a promising territory, and she gave us good advice about the preparatory work needed. We expanded PLASMA to include Owen and Sally Vigeon who had valuable experience of missions from their previous parishes. They are both Franciscan Companions anyway.
PLASMA now became the steering group. We clarified the aim which wasn’t simply to grow numbers in the church however. That would have been too crude. The real aim was to increase people’s confidence in feelings they already have of an enduring, non-material reality. So we wanted events like a Healing Service and House Groups to focus on people’s attitude towards God, religion and life issues rather than the tenets of the Christian Faith.
Sister Chris had recommended five planning groups of which Prayer and Publicity had to begin work immediately.
When the Prayer Group met for the first time, I suggested the Great Banquet passage from Luke 14: should be our keynote scripture because we wanted the Mission to carry a welcoming, hospitable image. This was agreed upon but the second task was harder. It was to create a Mission Prayer. We pooled ideas and although a committee approach didn’t seem perfect, there were enough good ideas to enable us to produce a version that, after a bit of email conferencing between us, took this final form.
Jesus
Christ, your outstretched arms show your love for us;
Jesus Christ, Gods Son rising, you give us hope;
Jesus Christ, carpenter, gardener, Saviour,
we join our prayers of the lonely and the sick,
the bereaved and the dying,
the frightened and the hurt.
May our mission unite us;
May our vision change us,
and may we all be healed by your love.
Amen.
Around the same time,
a snappy logo was conceived. Malcolm and Stella were I think responsible
for M2G (Mission to Grow). The 2 also reminded us this was the second
Franciscan mission at St. Mary’s.
The publicity group now opened a web site for M2G and I began to feel
by the spring of 2010 that all would be well. I liked the Mission Prayer
the more I heard it, and Sister Chris said we were on schedule. She had
agreed to lead our traditional Quiet Day in early summer. Moreover the
Diocese was able to give us financial support, and Bishop Christopher
agreed to come to our Commissioning Service on the big launch date of
September 16th.
The second part of Mission Accomplished? Will feature photographs taken
at the Commissioning Service, and that will be posted in November.
Tony Thistlewood
After Sister Chris had visited us again in June, she probably had a good idea of our needs. More importantly, I felt at the time motivated by her. Those of us who attended the Quiet Day at Wolvey which she lead would probably agree with me that she is an encouraging presence.
This helped us to tackle all the necessary work. You hope your faith in what you’ve started will be enough, but you also gain comfort from the quality of the people you’re working with. Then you cope better when there are disappointments, like when appeals for help seem to fall on deaf ears.
By early summer 2010, the publicity team had produced some quality ideas. M2G now had its own website. The team planned to escalate the publicity gradually over the summer so it didn’t peak too early and become boring.
There were appeals in church and in the weekly newsletter for people to offer evening meals to the missioners. Some refusals were understandable. Working couples with young families explained it was difficult to put on a meal at 6 o’clock..... a time when they were coming in from work. And yet it had to be 6 since the House Groups had to start at 7.30.
So I began to be concerned that younger people in the congregation might see less of the missioners than older retired members which would skew the impact of M2G.
Stella produced a good questionnaire in early August to help everyone consider which House Group would suit them best.
I approached people I thought would help to provide lunch each day, and others who might support the missioners during their school visits.
We also needed a list of people we could call on if transport was needed. However, Sister Chris’ team hoped to walk round the parish whenever possible, giving themselves more opportunities to meet people. To my relief, many people when asked, if they would help said yes immediately.
We knew for certain by now that we needed accommodation for three Franciscans, two men and a woman.
This proved more difficult to arrange than we imagined. Franciscans believe it is important to celebrate the Eucharist each day and to attend morning, midday and evening prayers, so their accommodation had to be near St. Mary’s.
Roger and Stella had agreed to be joint comperes of the St. Mary’s Talent Show. By early September they had a good list of people wanting to take part, young and not so young.
Would there be similar interest in the Parish Picnic at Coombe on the first Saturday of the mission? Well unfortunately not. As it turned out, the weather on the day was fine but doubts about it in the weeks before put people off, so it had to be cancelled.
Owen Vigeon’s two sessions in the week before, intended, as an introduction to Franciscan spirituality, were well attended.
The day of the Commissioning Service was also arrivals day.
Owen and I set off for the station. All we knew was that Sister Chris, Brother Gerardo and John the Tertiary member of the team would be there by 2.45. Sure enough trains from London, Alnmouth and Morecombe achieved almost synchronous arrivals.
Then John looked at Owen and said, “I know you”. Amazingly they had met years before. I was still trying to work out from his accent where Gerardo came from. Sister Chris thought it was Brazil but even she didn’t know. He’s Mexican!
The missioners accommodation had been sorted; the weather was fine; and so on the evening of the Thursday, September 16th, Bishop Christopher arrived at St. Mary’s, to launch our Mission in the commissioning service. It was an enjoyable and meaningful occasion and I leave you to enjoy it through the pictures below.
Tony Thistlewood
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Photographs
Courtesy of Barbara Hancox |
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The first full day of the Mission was spent at Walsgrave Church of England School.
We met in church first..... the three missioners and a group of six who had volunteered to assist.
Each year group that we met that day was told a story by each of the missioners in turn.... stories about famous Franciscans and then after questions, we assistants stayed with the children to help them think about people they admired and why.
A school assembly at the end of the day was another opportunity for the children to ask questions, and as expected they showed their fascination with the nature of Franciscan lifestyle and dress.
Saturday, the second full day, was mainly a day for home visiting. In fact lots of time over the ten days was spent by Chris, Gerado and John visiting individuals in their homes or in hospital or residential homes. Gerado had little luck that first day. One lady was deeply suspicious of a bearded gent with a foreign accent in his dressing gown.
Another was just on his way out and couldn’t stop and when his third call was unanswered, Gerado felt a bit unwanted. Fortunately children from the school were eager to say hello again and Gerado isn’t the sort to feel down for long anyway.
The M2G team attended the annual Sally Army Concert on the Saturday night.
Some of us by now were making a regular habit of joining the team for midday and evening prayer. Not too many apart for the clergy and myself shared open lunchtimes with our visitors, which was a pity since lovely lunches were served each day in the Octagon by a team of ten who rotated over the ten days.
Our visitors dining needs were also well catered for each evening at 6 o’clock as they visited various homes. Twenty people played host to a missioner over the period of M2G.
Perhaps the main focus of the Mission was the house groups. There were groups for Recently Married, My Partner Doesn’t Do God, New to Church and Well established in Church (there were two of these).
There were evening visits to the uniformed groups and on Thursday a Healing service was held in church. This was Non-Eucharistic and was so successful it has lead to many requests for Healing Services to continue.
The last House Group evening was held in church and was called, “Where Do We Go From Here?” There was again a good turnout which showed M2G had made an impact. People gave their thoughts and ideas and these formed the basis for the feedback report to the parish from the Mission team.
Almost the climax of the Mission was the Talent Concert on the final Saturday. Sister Chris had written a five-minute sketch for this. Getting her two colleagues to rehearse this proved frustrating. Gerado and John showed more talent for making excuses than performing. For example, Gerado was exceptionally eager to accept my offer to take him into town to see Coventry’s Cathedral. As it turned out Gerado could not avoid the limelight.
As usual there were school parties in there. One moment they were listening respectfully to a teacher and guide.... then a bearded ‘monk’ in sandals was standing there. Was this part of the lesson, arranged specially for them? Gerado would have been a great visual aid if he had been a Benedictine monk but he was a Franciscan and a distraction for the teachers. Funny though!
The Talent Show did get rehearsed. Every performer brave enough to stand up there could be called a success. There was music ranging from classical to modern. Funny stories and poems were recited. Every age group seemed to be represented.
Stella and Roger were our comical comperes. It was a terrific
evening but not quite the end of the Mission.
The next day we had the final service and it was time to say goodbye.
The M2G team received our grateful thanks, and it’s not too late
to repeat that appreciation.
Thank you Chris, Gerado and John. St Mary’s will never forget
you.
Tony Thistlewood
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