INTERVIEW: Fiona O'Reilly on Helping Parishes Face Lockdown

For this CV Connect interview, Catholic Voices interviewed Fiona O’Reilly who is Director of Global Strategy for Divine Renovation which inspires and equips parishes to be missional and through them bring people to Jesus. Fiona brings together her extensive experience as a management consultant and love for the Catholic faith to offer practical ways to come together to help parishes not only to survive lockdown but to thrive, and even to see this crisis as an opportunity for parishes to evangelise.

Catholic Voices (CV): I’ve been asking all of our speakers every week what challenges and opportunities has this raised for you personally being in lockdown. I presume it is the same in Canada as it is in the UK?

Fiona: It is. Canada is about 2-3 weeks behind the UK in terms of its journey through the pandemic. We went into lockdown pretty early so we’re heading into week 5 of lockdown here and, like everyone else, I have now mastered the fine art of the rapid supermarket visit, taking my queuing skills to a new professional level and I also have now got my 70 year old parents on Zoom and on GoToMeeting and a variety of other social platforms that they did not expect to go on and I did not expect to have them on! We’ve all been learning a lot over the past weeks and my nieces and nephews are now long time experts at how to do group family Zoom calls so that’s a win.

CV: If people don’t know Divine Renovation are there to support and equip parishes to move from maintenance to mission. DR I presume didn’t have some divine telegram letting them know about the pandemic so they were hit by it as much as anyone was. Within the leadership team of Divine Renovation, how did you respond to the pandemic or how was the response looked at over time? How has it been for you?

Fiona: That’s a great question. For those who don’t know us, Divine Renovation was birthed out of the real like experience of helping a parish in Halifax near the Nova Scotia from maintenance to mission back about 6 or 7 years ago. The journey had obviously been going on a few years before that but, called Divine Renovation by Father James Mallon, set out that story and really sparked a conversation that went around the globe with the result that we now coach parishes across 9 different countries and 40 different diocese inspiring and equipping them in making that journey from maintenance to mission. We also support a much larger number of parishes and dioceses with a whole range of digital tools, events and all sorts of different resources to help become outward focus and answer that call at the end of the gospel to go out make disciples and then to form and equip and send them, in turn, to bring the good news to others. 

But we had absolutely no telegram, no advance warning, in fact on the 9th of March I with the rest of the leadership team were sat there going, “We have this global conference which we are panning and running in June… we may have a problem”. So we pulled a bunch of the data, looked at the likely trajectory of what was going to happen with the pandemic and concluded we had to cancel the conference which we were hugely disappointed about. But it also felt like the right thing to do for our guests and people who’d be travelling and so we then pivoted the ministry to remote working. Thankfully, we had got the tools in place because we had part of the team in the UK and others in the US and really then dove into the trenches with all of our parishes, those who we coach, and those who are connected to us through their use of our resources. And there were those who don’t know us who were reaching out to us via email, via twitter, via personal relationship going “Help!”. We can all empathise with it; for our pastors and their teams, this came out of nowhere and it has put them in territory that they don’t recognise. It was a great opportunity to be able say, “Right, let’s see what we can do!”. So, I have to say whoever said that pandemics are the time to step back pause and reflect, which I am hearing a lot of, this has not been my experience! It’s never been busier but busier in a great way because this is a season of crisis and opportunity.

CV: Divine Renovation strikes me as, not only is it a global organisation so it can share all of its insights, but it’s a place where we can share common problems and also the very mission to help parishes try and equip. So what has that looked like from a global preceptive? What have parishes been asking? How have you helped parishes to respond?

Fiona: It has been interesting as we’ve been in a bit of a unique and privileged position because we coach parishes around the world, so we could see what was happening with parishes that we coach in Australia who were several weeks ahead of Europe. We could then see what was happening in the parishes in the Church as the challenges of the pandemic hit mainland Europe and then on into the UK and Ireland and then we obviously coach parishes in India, US and Canada and so we can always tell them, “Look this what’s coming because we can see it over there”. 

But, what we did really focus on was a couple of things, the first thing for all of us to remember in this season is the mission hasn’t changed. We’re still a Church. We exist to make disciples and in a time of crisis that can be hugely helpful because it gives us a north star to steer by. It gives us a sense of direction with which to then make decisions. And so, the first thing we did with parishes was just help them re-engage with the fact that their vision is about what it would be like to make disciples, to be a parish focused on the outward posture reaching out in love and in accompanying and serving those who come to faith and helping them share the good news with others… that hasn’t changed. That call to make disciples is still the same. And so, this is about understanding then the time horizons we’re working in and how the model and the methods needs to evolve to deal with this new reality, this unexpected set of challenges. 

We did a lot of research to understand with our parishes what’s the best guidance we can currently have from the World Health Organisation and different public health authorities about how this is likely to playout. Quite quickly it became clear and this wasn’t a 3 week problem or a 6 week problem, this was a reality where we were going to have implications of the pandemic influencing our ability to gather in large numbers as a church for 12+ months. While there might be waves of lesser social distancing and greater social distancing, eases of restrictions and then tightening restrictions, our ability to come together in large numbers to celebrate the Eucharist and gather together to explore the faith together as a community was all going to be very restricted. That was helpful because you solve a problem in one way if you think it’s going to be 3 or 4 weeks, you start to solve it a very different way if you know it’s for 10,12 + months. You start to think differently about the long term implications if you also know it’s also going to likely run for something along those time lines, why, because 6,12,18 months is enough to start driving quite fundamental shifts in people’s behaviour.

Therefore, as a church we have to respond to those realities knowing how to interpret the signs of the times and knowing how to basically order the churches methods and means, as Pope Francis has invited us to, order everything to serve and love and to make the Gospel known. We have been helping parishes just think through it in that key, still about the mission to make disciples but we’ve got some challenges that are not going to go away anytime soon so we need to evolve our methods and our models so that they respond to the realities of today.   

CV: So, imagine the situation that you’ve got a parish priest as a friend of yours and he knows you’re in Divine Renovation but has not really thought any more about DR or doing it. But suddenly they are very interested because the crisis has made them so, what would you counsel them? What is the crystalized wisdom of Divine Renovation? We’re in a complete meltdown, help manage us out of this. 

Fiona: So, there would be 3 pieces of advice. I think the first would be you’re not in this alone. A) be grounded in prayer and B) gather some people around you because what we see time and again is that those pastors who either are already leading a team or who manage to quickly pull together 2,3,4 other people in the parish who can be trusted advisors fare much better in this sort of challenging season. Why? Because the complexity of navigating a pandemic is more than any one person’s brain can handle. Having a couple of people alongside you to, as a team, work through: what do we do? How do we do it? How do we correct the course over time and kind of get to where we want to go?. That’s the first thing. 

We’ve been doing some research as well to the impact on pastors and parishes and we know that one of the biggest issues on parish priests in particular is just the stress levels and the work levels have shot up. A lot of them are struggling with loneliness because they’re in lockdown in presbyteries on their own and feeling very alone in front of what is just a huge level of demand. From how to live stream my first mass, how do I respond to all those getting in touch for help, to how do I look after the particularly vulnerable in the parish and those who are just feeling the pressure of being in week 6 of lockdown? I think, don’t solve it on your own, then recognise that actually having people around you is important for your health as a pastor and for your ability to lead well, as well as enabling you to do the right things. 

The second thing we would say to them is understand where you want to focus first. Think about in 3 to 6 months’ time, what do you want to be able to look back and say about your parish? Often, the answers will be we want  parishioners to feel like we were there for them. I remember a parish priest who I was talking to, he put it really beautifully “I want my parishioners to know there’re not alone and I want the community to see real love in us”. That became their vision for the next 3 to 6 months and having that then help them say, what do we need to do to make that happen? What are the practical things that we do? Would we live stream the mass? Would we set up a Facebook group? Would we reach out by phone to those who are not connected via technology ? (Maybe because they are that bit older). How will we serve and love those who are not connected at all to us as a parish? And how will we spread the Christian word of hope into the challenges, the disappear and the pain of this moment in our time as a society? And so that then helps them figure out what are the very practical ways in which they can do that in their context with their community.

I think of St. Elizabeth in Richmond who put together the ‘guardian angels’ programme which brings together their young people with some adults, who can provide oversight, and make sure it’s all being done in accordance with the ask from the government. Their focus is on helping the most vulnerable in their community and the elderly feel connected but also running practical initiatives to help those who are isolating, who are perhaps struggling for food and can’t get to the food back, whatever it might be, and so being those hands and feet in love in their context works really well and it looks really different in another pastors context because they may be in a more rural area and so it has got to take a different shape. Whatever your vision is, get some people around to support you personally as a pastor and to help you figure out how to do it and then really focusing in on, what do we want to be saying 3 to 6 months from now and how do we make that happen?

CV: Have you ever found that there can be sometimes a difficulty with clergy- laity co-responsibility? What advice do you have for both sides? For both the priest opening up and creating proper boundaries but also the lay person offering in a spirited charity?

Fiona: I think the first thing is to just recognise that this is less usual and a bit new for pastors and for the folks who are gathered around them. What I would say though is that we can learn from other people’s experiences. One of the things that I’ve been so moved by is that I have had the privilege of coaching a number of priests around the world in making this journey from maintenance to mission and leading out of a team. They say to me, “I had a bit of trepidation and I wasn’t quite sure what it was going to be”, but as they gathered some people around them who had the same passion as they did, who shared the same vision, then what they found was it transformed their ability to fulfil the kingly as well as the priestly and prophetic demotions of their priestly ordination. They will say things to me like, “My priesthood has never been more alive, now that I am really able to focus on leading out of a team and focusing on parish mission and seeing people come to faith and flourish in that faith!”. They will also say, “I have learnt a whole load about myself and the burden of trying to have to be all things to all men has been removed. I can share this with a team who bring gifts that I don’t have, who have skills I will never require”.

Particularly in this world where you’re not going to become a digital expert overnight, yet there are people sat in your pews who do know how to do this it has taken off a load of pressure off those who didn’t already know. What they will say as well is there is a real sense of camaraderie of actually being able to serve the Lord together that comes over time and that the friendships that come out of that are entirely appropriate and entirely life giving. That has been a beautiful gift for them. So, I would encourage both pastors and those who have the opportunity to get involved. Go into it with an open heart, grounded in prayer, go into it with humility on both sides and with a proper respect of what is the preserve of the ministerial priesthood but also recognise the gifts that the laity have to bring. The fact that all are called to holiness and mission by our baptism means this is about us answering the Lord’s call and helping each other to answer it really well. God is not wasting this crisis and we shouldn’t either. 

CV: How do you see this crisis impacting parishes, discipleship and mission? In the present what are you noticing from parishes that you’re  speaking into and what can we do to help face these challenges? 

Fiona: You know what I love is one of the conversations I was having the other day with a pastor in the UK and what he was really saying was “with crisis comes clarity”. So while this has been a very difficult season, the pain of us being in isolation and not being able to get to church, while that is real and the challenges are real, equally with this has come a clarity for parishes asking themselves “why do we exist?”. It has, if you like, helped cut through the layer of things we’ve done just because we have always done them and brought a renewed focus around what are we here for and how do we do that to the very best of our abilities? Because that’s what the Lord is calling us to.

We’re finding two things, one is that parishes have a renewed clarity about how a pastor responds, walks alongside, accompanies and ministers to those were already connected in some way with the parish. The other thing that we’re finding is that parishes are discovering that people have a huge level of spiritual hunger at the moment. People are asking questions and are desperate to engage. When I look at the metrics from UK parishes, the number of hits on their parish website is up by 200-300 %. If you look at google searches, there has been an enormous spike around people searching for prayer, for spirituality, for “does God exist?”, “why do bad things happen?”. People have these questions and are going to their local parishes, often in terms of going online, and googling to see what they can find and what can they engage with. 

We’re finding that there is a new openness to conversation and people are showing up in places we wouldn’t have expected. So the opportunity to evangelise, the opportunity to share the reason for the hope we’re given, is absolutely amazing. It is a phenomenal gift, it just comes wrapped in some very good disguises and so, what do we need to do as parishes… as individuals? The first thing we need to recognise is that people are showing up with questions and we need to know that to respond to them will require patience and love on our part. We’ve got to give them shallow entry points, ways of connecting with us, ways of engaging with us, to kind of check things out and then ask questions at the pace they feel able to do so. Whether that’s on a Facebook group, whether it’s on a chat on the mass live stream Q&A, whether it is someone enquiring about some of the online stuff that might be available and then we need to recognise that we have something to offer. We have the good news and it is the best possible news in this sort of challenging time.

We have got to be bold enough, it’s a holy boldness that’s needed here, to invite people in with love. In a way that doesn’t not water down the Gospel but, with huge compassion, meets peoples in all the mixed up circumstances that they can come from and which allows them to belong long before they get to believing or behaving in any way that we would recognise as approaching Christian or Catholic.

And so, what does that mean ? Well it means that, people have time and they are engaging in record numbers so as parishes we need to give them something to engage with. Have we got someone on the Q&A for live streaming our mass? On our Facebook group, is someone welcoming new people who join or who post a question? Are we willing to recognise we all just acquired a digital campus whether we like or not? Now we need to think about how to show up well there. We need to recognise that giving people shallow entry points means giving the safe places to explore the possibility of faith. They’re not yet ready for the doctrine, they’re not ready yet for all the riches that our faith offers, they are like babies and we have to offer the milk first before we get onto the steak. The steak will come, but we’ve got to give them those safe spaces to ask the big questions and to wrestle with the painful realities. So, whether that is Alpha or Sycamore or some of the great content coming out the Augustine Institute right now, by taking those programmes and running them online we’re able to invite people in, give them a place where they are loved and where the truth of what we believe is shared, so that we can facilitate an encounter with Christ. Those are some of the most loving things we can do and the opportunity has never been greater because the hunger right now is acute.

People have got big questions and most of the things that they would have used to drown them out have been taken away. So, in love, we should be sharing the great news that we have and what we’re finding with parishes, as they do this, is people are engaging in record numbers and that’s a huge encouragement because you’re getting into the conversations that matter most that. Conversations that could have life-giving implications for people. Why wouldn’t we want to do that?

CV: One of the things Pope Francis has been saying a lot is calling people to ‘apostolic creativity’ to respond to confinement with creativity. How can we already be planning for the future? There are so many ways we can be doing things presently but is it a different kind of conversation?. Giving we’re doing those things you’ve mentioned, what does the planning of the aftermath of Covid-19 look like? What conversations should we be having and what questions should we be asking now?

Fiona: Well, I love that question and we’re still working with parishes discerning and figuring that out but let me give some notes from the journey so far. One thing that seems pretty clear if you look at the sort of views starting to come out from sociologists and from those who look at behaviour change, we’re going through a significant shift as a population right now. There is something around 4.5 billion people around the world under some level of social distancing and lockdown. The majority of those have access to various online digital platforms and we are acquiring a whole new set of behaviours and skills and ways thinking as human beings which we won’t forget afterwards. We will not go back to February 2020, whatever our next normal is like it will have elements of February 2020 in it but it will have a level of fluency and comfort and expectation around digital environments that we won’t be able to ignore. So, we need to be able to show up there in ways that enables us to take seriously the call to make the Gospel and share it by all means possible so that at least some may come to believe.

The first thing is, digital is here to stay in a whole new way so we need to be open to what that could look like and to engaging with it well and to meeting people well there but there’s a couple of things we are fascinated with at the moment so I think it is helpful to reflect on those also. We’ve been asking ourselves, “What is it we are rediscovering as a church during this time?” There’s a huge joy in seeing some aspects of our Catholic faith start to re-emerge or emerge in new ways. What do I mean by that? Well, many people round the world this Easter for the first time in their lives actually went,  at least virtually tuned in, to their Cathedral for the Easter Triduum. The reality that we are a diocesan Church, we are gathered around the Bishop in each diocese, that’s becoming alive for us in a new way because it’s becoming alive experientially rather than just being a theoretical thing. I think, the domestic church is another thing that we’re really noticing that for those who were already living their faith to some extent this has become a time where amid all the trials and tribulations, often of trying to home school or trying to do 1 million other things, actually the domestic church has people praying with each other and engaging with their faith in the context of their house. That has become again something that’s really real and lived for us. As opposed to just a part of our theological account that was kind of muted. 

I think the other thing we are seeing is this whole rediscovery of the word and of community. Community extends beyond who showed up at the 11:15 mass. People are actually reaching out to other people who they would have sat beside in the pew but apart from the sign of peace would have never exchanged words with. So, those are some realities for us as a Church that are coming alive and which create all sorts of new opportunities for nurturing that growth instead of losing it when we move onto this next normal. We’re really interested to see how that plays out.

Another thing I will say, which it’s more challenging for all of us, it is likely that the decline dynamics that we’re seeing in some parts of the church in terms of closing of parishes, in terms of restructuring of buildings and infrastructure in parish boundaries is likely to be accelerated by this. Why? Well, because the financial pressures caused by this pandemic are real and that just reduces the amount of funding there is to help make some of this stuff happen and also because our presbyters are very exposed to this Pandemic. When one looks at the number of priests who have died in Italy and other countries there is a disproportionate impact to presbyters because they have the courage to be on the front lines loving and serving those who are ill but themselves are often paying a huge price for it. That will accelerate some of the restructuring and the changes that were already ‘on the slate’, if you like, but we thought we had 10 or 15 or 20 years and we now have significantly less time. On the other hand the thing about digital is that it is only part of the picture, but, it’s infinitely scalable and it gives us a whole new set of tools with which to respond well to these challenges. It is like the Lord, in giving challenges and permitting it to happen, has also given us new ways into the problem because he is infinitely creative and so we can follow his lead. 

CV: I love the live-stream mass but now I’m getting a bit sick of it, you want the real thing and it’s a sorry substitute for the real thing! Conscious of that, this has precipitated a of kind of digital revolution, what are some of the hotspots for creativity that we ought to be keeping? What are some of the ways people can improve their online presence or meet the digital demands with this kind of infinite scalability? 

Fiona:  If you are sat there and, if in between all the many demands of this season you have some time, reach out to your parish priest and ask how can you support him? People have been furloughed with professional skills that would be very helpful to a parish trying respond at this time. Sometimes they have the gift of hospitality or being able to accompany and meet people lovingly and so they would be ideal for Facebook or on the chat for mass. I would think also, there’s some great work being done by some people like Peter’s House with their Faith in Isolation initiative during Lent. There are things happening out there so if you’re gifted in a particular area have a look to see what people are doing and ask, “How can I co-operate with that? How can I empower that?”. Or in prayer, pray the boldest prayer of all which is “Lord here I am, send me, what do you want? I will do whatever you ask and I give you permission”, and He will not be slow to answer. But, you could end up in places like Halifax- so be careful!

CV: If you were saying there is a 200-300% increase of visitors on parish websites, it must mean there has been improvement on parish websites? Some meetings could be done via Zoom, lots of people are getting used to Zoom and things like it, like Skype. Am I just being a bit too naïve or optimistic?

Fiona: Not at all, there is a resource kit on Divine Renovation’s website which people can download that effectively go through each of those areas of meeting, ministry, money, and messaging / communication. What we have done is try to pull together great examples of innovations from the Catholic Church from around the world as well as then drawing on some of the thinking from other Christian traditions who are further ahead in their use of digital than we have been. I would encourage any pastors or anyone listening who would like some grist to the mill, like examples and some thinking to prime their imagination, have a look at that.

What we’re seeing is parishes, as you say, transforming their websites and using things like Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Google Hangouts really creatively to enable community. Things like Project YM, Project Youth Ministry, now do global virtual hangout for teams which is surprising everyone with how effective it is and the kind of traction it’s getting. Steubenville University recently put all of their talks from their youth conferences online so that if you are a youth minister or if you’re even just wanting to do something to engage you have got high quality talks with amazing speakers who you would struggle to get into a parish ordinarily.

You can give people access to that and then you can do things around it, you can have discussion groups, you can gather folks to chat on Zoom or Google Hangout and you can create community at a time where people are really hungry for connection. That’s the thing, the initial influx of interest and the desire for information will eventually wane without further connection, but, to the extent that we use our creative to create places to connect and then to draw people into community and loving relationships. Then as we transition into the next normal, physical and digital boundaries may be blurred, but connections are sticky and friendships last and they will persist well beyond this pandemic. What we are trying to do is find ways to enable that because in the end we journey as the people of God, we journey as a community, so how do we help that community in all its shapes and sizes?. 

CV: We spoke about sociologists before, the question is, who are the sociologists? What role does data play in helping us to strategies and look forward as a parish? 

Fiona: Pulling data is important. We as the Catholic Church have a tradition of sending in the Mass returns and keeping a very close track of who has been received through the sacraments of initiation, there’s nothing wrong with that, that is good. There is no contradiction between saying each individual soul counts and we care about the numbers because behind every number is a soul, behind every face is an eternal story. What we are saying and doing, certainly with the parishes we work with and those who we support in various ways, is saying to them, “Think about what is important to measure”. If you’re going to be putting in effort behind something, how will you know if that’s having the impact that you want? Then, how will you decide how much resource to put behind it? Whether that is people, money, time, skills and whatever else. The interesting thing is that once people start to get into the habit of things it helps them make better choices. 

 The other thing that we’re doing as Divine Renovation is we’re reaching out to all the parishes that we’re connected with in different way to understand the data around what has been the impact on, for instance, finances. Most of them have seen a big drop in finances because they were dependent on the loose plate collection. Once you understand that data, you know where you may want to do something in terms of helping reach out to parishioners to enable electrical giving. The other side is that we’re asking questions about, where can you feel the most pain? Where can we give support?, because this is useful for us to know as a ministry but it is also useful for us then to be able share so people can go “hold on if you need help there, I can help”. Often we undervalue the things that we can do because we can do them, their obvious surly everyone can do them. It isn’t until we realise there’s a pressing need that we can help respond to, that we realise we have a role to play and that there is a call for us. In terms of the specific questions on where is the sociological data coming from? It’s very early observations so far coming some of the big universities like, The University of London some of the universities in the States are furthest ahead in looking at this in terms of what we’ve seen. I’m sure that others will be looking at this and reflecting; what are we seeing? And what do we know?. They’re not having do that purely based just on this pandemic because, of course, we have has big seismic shifts in the world before. To take an obvious one for folks, after World War II we didn’t go back to 1939 ways of acting we went to 1946 ways of acting. So we know some things already about how large scale shifts happen when it impacts substantial numbers of the world’s population. There is just some very early reflections and initial hypothesis, and they are just hypothesis right now, around drawing on the past what might we be able to infer about how this my play out. 

CV: How did you actually get involved with Divine Renovation What drew you to them? Why do you love it? You moved to Canada in order to start working for them, what happened then?

Fiona: The very brief story of getting to Canada is that I spent 25 years working as a management consultant with most of the world’s leading companies. Helping them deliver transformation change, manage through crisis, effectively move to respond to challenges in their industries and I absolutely loved it but I was also passionate about my faith as a Catholic. Which is why 10 years ago I stuck my hand up to be a Catholic Voice and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was very blessed by that experience and the great work that Catholic Voices does but my passion, in particular, was for helping people come to know Christ and to helping pastors, parish priest and their teams be better supported in doing that. I always said when people asked me “Would you ever leave consulting?”, say if my family needed, because I’m originally from Dublin, I might move back to Dublin or else if I could find a way to use my skills to serve the Catholic Church then I would take that call seriously.

I got involved with a volunteer with Divine Renovation then the opportunity to take on the role of ‘Director of Global Strategy’ came up and as I say, if you say to the Lord, “I give your permission. Where do you want me to go?”… it’s a dangerous prayer but an exciting one! I’ve been in the role nearly a year now and it’s been a great privilege to serve pastors and bishops, in terms of, helping the church become healthy, helping people be more effective at sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and really seeing lives transformed. 

CV: We have a question here form Father Mathew: “Thank you for sharing your insights. What advice do you have for people, as well as for prayer, who feel disempowered or disconnected from the digital world?”

Fiona: I would say that it certainly is a complicated factor. I think back to the parishes I coach, and particularly a parish I coach in India where 2500 of the 4500 families don’t have an internet connection because they’re living in the slums. There are things we can do and we need to be creative, so what do those things look like? Well, for starters, quite a lot of people still do have access to the phone. One of the parishes I work with has effectively set up a phone tree where they’re reaching out to people in their parishes connecting with them by  phone; to check in with them, to let them know they are loved and cared for, to see what can be can be done to support them support them, to ask them how frequently they would like to have someone contact them (from never again to a couple of time a week and really making that offer in love) and also importantly always offering to finish praying with or for that person. Ask if they’re comfortable to pray with that person in that moment but also take all their needs and intensions to the celebration of mass which their priest is still celebrating every day.

There are also many other way depending on which country you are in. Reaching out in terms of, while respecting social isolation, dropping past standing at the gate while talking into the window and also a bunch of things people are doing creatively for example reaching out via post and arranging deliveries. These are going to vary depending on the particular country you are in, the phase of lockdown we’re experiencing, the profile of you4 parish, what is helpful and who in which category, and who are the most vulnerable? Not just the most vulnerable because they are elderly or ill but where are the pressure points emerging, where are the family pressures starting to emerge or between married couples? What might supporting that look like? Roles that perhaps older married couples could take in helping younger married couples in what are challenging times. There are all sorts of ways people were people are starting to reach out. I know one group where they now have Zoom calls where 10-20 people size groups in the parishes get together to hang out  informally for an hour a week. It’s become a place of community of prayer and of caring and there the needs surface and people can discreetly respond to them outside of the call. Those are just a couple of examples and they have people joining that Zoom call who are just dialling in so it’s not always about being able to get on the internet.

 

CV: Is there a practical resource for helping to respond to Covid-19 you can point us towards? Where is a go to guide? 

Fiona: Sure, let me give you three things;

-        First, is the resource kit I mentioned earlier which across messaging ministry, money and meetings has got loads of practical suggestions about great innovations we’re seeing all around the world from all sorts of parishes and organisations so grab a copy of that. It’s got the inspirational idea, the practical tool and the how to use in there. You can find that at Divine Renovation.Org and if you just click on the resource kit button you’ll get a free copy of that and then updates as we release big new ideas that we’ve come across. 

-        The second thing we’re running is there is all sorts of tools that can be used for evangelisation, and we work with parishes that use all sorts of ones, but in our experience Alpha is one of the most effective because we see the fruit that it bears. They have done a great job in terms of creating the tools to support parishes in moving online with Alpha and we are working on a set of digital boot camps to help parishes, who have never gone near Alpha before, start to run it in a way that works this season where it is all online. The next one of those is online tomorrow and they’ll be a session sort of mid-day time in the UK and then backend of day in UK. So again, those are all available free. Go to Divine Renovation.Org and just look for ‘Alpha Digital Bootcamp’ and you’ll find those there.

-        Third thing is we have a regional co-ordinator in the UK, Hannah Vaughan Spruce, and she is running a series of UK parish conversations. They are designed to be really practical in equipping parishes and their pastors and teams with the tools this season  and also providing a space for people to come together to share their experiences, the struggles, whims, questions and opportunity. We’ve got one coming up on the 30th  of April going a bit deeper into what do we think life will look like after lockdown? and one on the 5thof May which is all around leading out a team even if you have never had one before this. To get details on that, again, it is Divine Renovations.Org/uk. Those are free for anyone to join and we would love to have you join the conversation with us.