Denver Catholic

Parish representatives Mary Erwin and Mary Engle have organized a parish Core Synod Team that will be meeting with our parish ministry coordinators in September to review and update all the specific ministries within the parish. Christ on the Mountain is fortunate to have several ministries that range from youth programs, adult faith education, community outreach programs, marriage prep classes, small faith communities, music ministry, etc. Some of these programs have changed leadership and/or have made other changes to their specific ministry program. All of us on the Core Team would like to make sure we are fully updated on these changes before we invite all the parish members to participate in an evening of prayer, ref lection, information sharing, and welcome new members to engage in an active parish life through several ministry options. All are welcome! - MARY E., CHRIST ON THE MOUNTAIN PARISH IN LAKEWOOD At Risen Christ, the synodal process strengthened our commitment to small group experiences, which we had started to build just prior to the synod. After the synod, we added a weekly Sunday scripture study (in a small group setting) to discuss the Sunday Mass readings. That group continues to meet every Sunday morning. - FATHER SCOTT BAILEY, PASTOR, RISEN CHRIST PARISH IN DENVER FI RST FR U ITS First fruits of discernment T he Archdiocesan Discernment Process launched nearly a year ago, which invited all the faithful of the archdiocese to engage in collective discernment together and listen to how the Lord is calling the Archdiocese of Denver to mission in this new apostolic age we live in. Each parish elected two representa- tives to attend the March discernment gathering described earlier in the magazine, where hundreds of faithful Catholics representing the entirely of the Church in northern Colorado prayed together and discussed what they heard the Holy Spirit saying. As we've outlined in this issue, the Holy Spirit spoke very clearly about where the Lord is calling our community of faith; as a result, we asked parishes to share how they're listening to the Holy Spirit within their own communities. Here's what some of them said. Parishes share how they're listening to the Spirit Following the last discernment meeting in Denver, we iden- tified four main areas that the Holy Spirit revealed to us to work on as a parish that include: Healing, Unity, Equip and Outreach. In response to this, we had scheduled a time for parish ref lection and prayer for May 22 to further discern what the Holy Spirit was calling us to do. Unfortunately, we had to reschedule the event and it will take place on Sunday, August 28, following Mass. The event will include sharing break fast together as a parish; spending time together sharing and further identifying the four main areas and finally (most importantly) spending time before the Blessed Sacrament to receive guidance from the Holy Spirit. The event will close with Praise and Worship, as well as a time for sharing as a parish community. We will gather information and insights shared at this event to help plan future events for the parish. Some of the ideas on the table include, but are not limited to: healing retreats, small groups, opportu- nities to identify our individual giftedness and how to use it to strengthen our parish. We are excited to see what God has for us as individual disciples, fami- lies and parishioners. - MARY F., ST. ANDREW THE APOSTLE PARISH IN WRAY Notre Dame Parish hosted a town hall meeting in October, in part to prepare for the synod process. An open invitation was extended to all parishioners, who met in February to discern the subjects of discernment outlined by the archdiocese. Our representatives took that to the March meeting. Now, following the release of the archdiocesan report, we met August 5 to review it with anyone in the parish who wanted to come and spend the day doing so, using the same synodal format. The parish pastoral council is now preparing a new parish mission statement, based in large measure on the "results" of the parish and archdiocesan synodal gatherings. - MSGR. ED BUELT, PASTOR, NOTRE DAME PARISH IN DENVER 34 SEPTEMBER 2022 | DENVER CATHOLIC

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