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| Everybody's Welcome |
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In 2004 the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales launched a major programme of listening to the needs of families in our church. You may remember this, and indeed, you may have taken part in it. At the end the Bishops published an interesting report of what we heard called Not Easy But Full of Meaning. First of all we heard that, most of all, families needed by way of support that their parish should be family friendly. This is why we are launching a programme in 2006 called "Everybody's Welcome." In the report, families talked about how important the parish was to them. It was a community in which they wanted to feel known, accepted and loved for who they are. They wanted to experience their parish as a place where they could find friendship, and to experience their parish as a wider family to whom they could turn in times of joy and sorrow. They would love their parish to be a place where their values are shared and reinforced, and a place where they find spiritual nourishment. They also expressed a desire for practical help, including information and skills to help them become better family people. Sadly we heard from families who did not experience any of these things in their parish communities. Some felt quite isolated and alone. Sometimes this was because they felt their lives did not match up to the ideal of Catholic family life. Sometimes it was because they came to Mass each Sunday and left without anyone talking to them. Sometimes they felt guilty because their busy lives left them unable to contribute to the life of the parish family. Sometimes it was because they saw no sign that the parish cared about the rest of their life outside of Sunday Mass. A great deal of work has been done already on these issues in so many parishes across the country, and in our programme "Everybody's Welcome" we aim to share the ways that have been discovered and tried out - ways of being sensitive to family needs, ways of being welcoming, ways of being family friendly. A great deal of work has also been done within other Christian communities. This particular resource was originally developed by Churches Together for Families to help churches think about ways of becoming more family-friendly. We are very grateful to Churches Together for Families for encouraging us to use it and for allowing us to make some changes that reflect our own Catholic community and beliefs. (The original version, should you wish to explore possibilities for ecumenical collaboration, remains freely available on the CTFF website: www.churchesandfamilies.org.uk) Please let us know if you use any part of this programme. We need to find out how useful it has been. John Hine Rt Rev John Hine
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