The beginning of October found me gathering with 200+ brother Priests of the Diocese out in Huron at Sawmill Creek Resort for our biannual Priests’ Convocation. I remember when I was in the seminary that the week of the Priests’ Convocation was somewhat a week of vacation with all of our Priest professors being away. But, now that I’m ordained, the week of the convocation isn’t a vacation. Yes, there is a good amount of down time during the convocation, plenty of time to socialize & just be with brother Priests, but the majority of the convocation is spent in more formative activities including talks, workshops, & time with Bishop Malesic. 

Overall, it was a great week & I gained a number of insights that I hope to share with you in various ways as time goes on. One of the benefits of the week for me was that I was able to spend some time in conversation with other Priests who are pastoring more than 1 parish like me (yes, there are more than just me out there). In conversations with them I gained some insights into doing this whole pastoring 2 parish thing. I have made a few adjustments to how I do things already that I’ve found to be very helpful & over time I hope to make a few more. Some will be more personal type changes while others will be more larger parish organizational type changes, all with the intent of helping both myself & us as a parish to minister in an effective & healthy way. 

Another insight from the week was the reminder to all of us that while, for many years we’ve been used to one way of being & doing Church, that time & that way has passed. If we attempt to be Church or to minister in the same way that we’ve done in the past, we won’t find ourselves being successful. We need to embrace the call to be & do Church in a new way. A way that involves every single one of us taking an active role in parish life. It may be tempting to think, whoever we are, that we’ve been there & done that, but in order to grow & thrive every one of us is called to do what we can to help make things happen. As with the possible adjustments that I mentioned above, at this point I’m going to be more general than specific. But, for the time being, I can say that the need for people to step up is great. The call is there for every single one of us to take an active role in making the Church that we hope our Church to be a reality. It may not, nor should it be, the Church we were, but it’s the Church we are called to be. That’s the Church we’re called to embrace & to be. Let’s embrace that call!