Using a power point presentation, Fr Harris highlighted the need to do things differently if new evangelisation was going to be a success. He exhorted his audience to develop this new approach confidently and begin to think outside the box.

He said the threefold task of the bishop was to teach; to sanctify and to govern, because he has prime responsibility for all pastoral work in the diocese and pointed out that all those engaged in ministry were in fact helpers of the bishop.

Fr Harris explained that to understand the new model Church, people must have a new understanding of ministry and the relevant persons must be able to facilitate the contact between the person and Christ.

He likened the new model Church to a river flowing from the source and bringing life wherever it passes and as other streams and tributaries feed into the river, it continues to grow bigger and more relevant.

He said the Church must see itself as missionary in this new model which would result in the Archdiocese having a direction, while all groups work in collaboration to achieve the mission. Fr Harris said collaboration was the new way to be Church, developing greater room for creativity and a new way of communicating.

Monsignor Gordon, in reinforcing the fact that the Church needed to be missionary, told the gathering that in the new model, the people cannot afford to sit back any longer and simply rely on the power of the Church to drive things forward. He said the Church has lost some five percent of its membership over the last 50 years and if this continued, the Roman Catholic Church would simply continue losing its membership.

He connected this to the importance of the Church Census and saw it as part of the new evangelisation process and in keeping with the Synod mandate of “Catholic family; become what you are.”