WelCom, September 2024
Dr Maya Bernardo
National statistics show our aged population is increasing exponentially and our elderly are now becoming a significant part of the peripheries we are called to encounter.
Within our Catholic parishes, seniors make up a significant proportion of our ministry and our gatherings. This also means, that in the near future when our senior parishioners move to rest homes or retirement villages outside the suburbs of their parishes, we could see a significant shift in our parish demographics and a potential drop among our churchgoers.
Concomitant is the shortage of priests, the growing complexity in the health and safety and safeguarding policies, and a range of other social-economic and political issues surrounding ageing and the care for the aged.
The best ministries often emerge when the needs of people cross paths with others who feel called to make a difference. The urban parish of St Mary’s of the Angels was faced with the challenge of reaching out to its parishioners who had moved out of Wellington Central, but still feel St Mary’s is their spiritual home.
What began as visits to former parishioners in their rest homes by Sr Frances Gibbs, long-time parish minister of St Mary’s and a former nurse, has evolved into a ministry that now covers 11 rest home facilities across Wellington Central and involves about 25 lay volunteers. It also includes a care facility for elderly with disabilities. The ministry has developed its own formation programme with regular sessions run on a Saturday once a month at St Joseph’s Mt Victoria. Along with Sr Frances, the programme is now run with St Mary’s parish priest, Kevin Mowbray sm and Jeff Drane sm.
The Church continues to evolve, and its mystery continues to unfold through our responses to the call of mission – that of spreading the Good News to all the corners of the earth.
Mark 16:15
The ministry has been running for two years. Currently called ‘The Aged-Care Project’, it has a solid and distinct spirit based on relationship building. The model of aged-care that the ministry team is promoting is transparochial and goes beyond providing the Sacraments to the Catholic aged-care residents. It is also providing support to the staff of the residential facilities.
This care also extends to residents’ families and support ranges from visitations, liaising with the parish, and accompanying families during bereavement. Lay people are allocated to specific rest homes, and they collaborate with a group of priests, mostly from the same parish.
It is hoped such a model or something similar for this ministry will eventually cover many more rest homes within the whole of the archdiocese.
The traditional configuration of what we call the ‘Church’ is predicated on the parish as its basic organisational unit headed by a parish priest. This model of demarcating territories is centred on a religious edifice – church building – where we all go to worship and gather. The changes in today’s world, forces the Church to be open to new ways of being church.
Church is where the people are; Church is where the greatest needs are. As exemplified by the Aged-Care Project, the Church as the living body of Christ, goes to where the people are. Being present to our elderly to assure them they will always be part of our church life, and we stand beside them as they make their most important and final journey to eternal life.
Please email parish.priest@smoa.org.nz if you are interested to join and support the Aged-Care Project.
Dr Maya Bernardo is the Formator and Manager for the Archdiocese of Wellington Te Hao Nui Launch Out Formation Programme.
