By Caroline Smith
Building community spirit among the Catholic community – particularly in a new area – can be a challenge for many priests, but Baldivis Parish Priest, Father Geoff Aldous, has found an innovative way of doing so.
The concept involves bringing people together through a series of monthly meals hosted at the presbytery.
Entitled ‘Bethany Meals’ – after the town where Martha and Mary provided food for Jesus – Fr Aldous has organised two such events in Baldivis, after carrying out the same concept in his previous parishes of Mirrabooka and Innaloo.
At the most recent event, on Friday, 13 May, 25 adults and eight children turned out to share a meal with their neighbours, building on the inaugural meal which took place in April and attracted some 20 people.
Fr Aldous said he was inspired to introduce the concept after seeing it practised by another priest several years ago.
“The model was developed by Dominican priest, Fr Kevin Condon, who tested the idea at Doubleview parish,” he said.
“I then adapted it to Mirrabooka parish which was a very big, lively parish.
“Then I started it at St Dominic’s in Innaloo, and found that it was good for reaching people on the fringe.”
While people of all religious persuasions are welcome at Bethany Meals, the events normally draw in Catholics living in the area, although they may not be regular Mass-goers.
Fr Aldous said the event had several aims.
“Firstly, reaching out to known Catholics in order to build up a sense of local and area identity,” he said.
“Then it’s also a call to fringe Catholics to let them know that we’re here.
“It’s also a bit like a house-warming: we want to show people around the presbytery, around my flat and show them my dog and the chooks.”
In the weeks leading up to the meal, current parish members – including people from the Legion of Mary and the NeoCatechumenal Way – went out to homes in the local area, particularly those where householders had identified as Catholic, and invited them to attend.
“They have to visit around 80 families in order to get a good turnout,” Fr Aldous said.
“People are mostly quite receptive – even if they couldn’t come to this one, they asked to be invited to the next one.”
Parishioner Sandra Carson has been helping to organise the Bethany Meals since joining the Baldivis parish just over a year ago, and says the recent event was a great example of fellowship.
“People were very happy to chat to one another and then, at one point, we all moved to different tables so that they could all talk to different people, and it worked really well,” she said.
“The food was excellent – we had a working bee to help prepare it.”
Long-time parishioner Brian Fitzgerald said the event on 13 May, which he attended, had been a great opportunity to help local people connect with their neighbours.
“There were people in our area whom we’d never seen before, and it brought us together,” he said.
“It was a really universal meal: there were people from all over the world, but who are part of the Baldivis parish now.”
Mr Fitzgerald added that people of all faith backgrounds were welcome to join the meals.