As I sat before the keyboard in deep and serious thought as to what to write for this column, an e-mail, announcing its arrival with a sharp beep, opened up on the monitor. It was from Rev Derek Walcott.

Its content brought home to me very cogently that evangelisation can take place in almost any form or fashion. Remembering that in this year of the family and with the theme “Catholic Family, Become What You Are” resonating in my mind, the anecdote he had sent me opened up whole new vistas.

The deacon in his missive reminded us that the Church’s missionary efforts, according to documents of the Second Vatican Council, were not the task of a few specialists in missionary orders, but rather, the responsibility of all the people in the Church.

He said during the evangelisation of several African countries in the 20th century, when the Church wanted to bring the Gospel to a particular village, the first step was not to send in a team of foreign missionaries to proclaim the truths of the faith; it was to seek one or more Christian families that would be willing to move there to proclaim the truths of the faith by the way they lived each day.

Therefore, the re-evangelisation of our country, according to Deacon Walcott, is not something that can be accomplished by the Archbishop, no matter how many competent and diligent staff he employed. “It’s something that will occur if those who still believe in Christ throughout the country collaborate in the effort,” he added.

He brought home the point poignantly in the anecdote he related. He said a young man who had just completed Youth Alpha with him at Living Water Community, in answer to the question: How do we tell others about Jesus? How do we let them know we all belong to one family?

The young man responded, “By our witness, the way we live and our love for one another.” Deacon Walcott believes “This young man is not far from the Kingdom.”

But what was more remarkable according to the deacon was that the young man was homeless before being adopted by the LWC.

“Likewise, for the cultures and societies of the de-Christianised West to receive the Gospel again,” summarised Deacon Walcott. “It is not going to happen principally by beautiful documents prepared for the new Pontifical Council or by Synod, but by Christians living a sincere, ongoing, saving encounter with Jesus Christ, who invites others into that communion, but by Christian families becoming what they were called to be.”