Newly-appointed Passionist Family Group Movement national coordinator Paul Traynor plans to reinvigorate and grow the almost-40-year-old organisation by reaching out to younger families, and inviting those from other cultures to join their family across Aotearoa.
“We cannot do what we do, and have done in the last 30 odd years, if it were not for the generosity of people like Rob and Lyn Hill, John and Mary Ellen (Leen) and Paul and Linda (Darbyshire),” Mr Traynor said.
“Rob and Lyn became the first directors of the movement, and they maintained that role for 26 years, which is just extraordinary, and did a fantastic job,” he added. The Leens and the Darbyshires led the movement in the last five years.
Mr Traynor noted that the Church in New Zealand is facing many challenges, including declining attendance, the decline of Pakeha attendance and involvement, the different cultures beginning to dominate the parishes, as well as the amalgamations of parishes, which results in the loss of local community.
“There are some challenges for us. We certainly have to do something about connecting in a changing face of the Church,” he told NZ Catholic. “The Pakehas are disappearing, but other cultures: Indian, Filipino and other Asians are growing strong.”
“We’ve got to be open and respectful to inviting them in,” he said, noting that some people of different cultures prefer to keep to their own communities.
But sometimes, he said, one comes across people in the pews who are not with anybody.
“The challenge for us as Pakeha is to open ourselves to invite people in,” he said.
Mr Traynor said Pakehas are experiencing, or will soon experience, “what it’s like to be on the edges”. “As the Church changes, Pakeha will be the minority, and we’ll experience life in the Church as many of them have experienced. If we respond in a positive way, then we can do something to re-connect without feeling left out and without getting angry,” he said.
Mr Traynor said the Passionist spirituality is “very much the spirituality of being ordinary”.
“It’s in the ordinariness of life that we find God . . . our struggles, our pains, our sorrows and our joys, they all come in the ordinary things of life,” he said.
Mr Traynor, who lives in the Wairarapa, said the Passionist Family Groups are “just ordinary people trying to be like Jesus: supporting, caring, loving, forgiving one another, just as the early Christians did”.
He said their approach is not a panacea, nor is it the only way to do things.
“The emphasis we have is, before you can believe, you have to belong. And we’re providing a place where people belong,” he explained. “Isn’t that what the early Church was? It’s a gathering of people who remember the presence of Jesus in their midst, and try to live out his message in the best way that they can.”
Apart from practical support and belonging, the family groups also provide formation in faith, he said.
Mr Traynor said he will be going around the country to connect with the Passionist Family Group regional and group coordinators, as well as with the bishops and parish priests.
“That’s being accountable to the New Zealand Church with this ministry, and connecting with the Church leaders and ministers,” he said, “and just trying to do our best growing the Passionist Family Groups, connecting them with one another, and being a sign that, in these small groups, they will find support and a way of living out the messages of Jesus.”
Reader Interactions