By Anthony Barich
COMO parish has established several ‘microcosm’ parish communities that encourage people to think about their Faith more than once a week.
Two years ago, Spiritan Fr Paschal Kearney – who spent 34 years in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the Gambia establishing Small Christian Communities – ran a session called Back to Galilee in Como, the same programme he teaches at Maranatha Adult Faith Education centre.
The lay participants of that session established a number of groups, who now congregate at parishioners’ houses in central, east, north, south, west and north-east parts of the parish boundary.
Tony Pires, one of the organisers of the Small Christian Communities, said feedback forms from the 70-odd people who participate revealed they feel more connected to the parish, are more willing to take on leadership roles, are more attuned to the needs of their fellow parishioners and are more confident about their own Faith.
“Seeing the people becoming more confident in their Faith and being committed more to community and taking leadership roles, taking the initiative in the parish community and growing as Christian people is most important,” he said.
Groups consist of between eight and 15 people.
“Many are already involved in many parish activities, but it has encouraged further involvement,” Mr Pires said.
The formats of the groups are similar – they read the Gospel for the coming Sunday, spend time in quiet reflection then share their thoughts on the Gospel.
He said this has resulted in Como becoming a real spiritual community; “it’s like a miniature version of a parish,” he said.
He also ran a weekend renewal where people testified at each weekend Mass about how it had changed their lives and invited others to become involved.
Mr Pires set up similar groups in Kalgoorlie and Armadale when he was a priest for 25 years. Ordained in 1977 by Archbishop Launcelot Goody at St Mary’s Cathedral, he is now married and runs Como’s RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) programme.
Up to 40 people also attended when Fr Kearney started another eight-week programme, called Back to Galilee, at the North Perth Redemptorist Monastery on 4 February, and many of those people intend to start similar “Christian communities” in the area.