Some Definite Service
The work of forming Christian disciples and evangelisation is at the very heart of the mission of the Archdiocese of Southwark. Our Archbishop, John Wilson, calls us to be an ‘Evangelising and Missionary Archdiocese’. It is the work of the Agency for Evangelisation and Catechesis (https://aec.rcaos.org.uk/sds) to focus towards this end, but the work of all of us to be the evangelising disciples - after all at the end of every Mass we are commissioned to "go and make disciples", "go and announce the Gospel of the Lord".
Archbishop John's vision for the Archdiocese started to form already back in 2021. These were challenging times to launch any ambitious, people centric initiative. There are some 175 Parishes in the Archdiocese of Southwark. The average age of parishioners is advancing. Our Priests are aging and reducing in number. And yet Archbishop John was undaunted.
To try and summarise: The initiative envisages each of the 175 Parishes having 3 core thematic activities operating within their community - Catechesis, Formation and Evangelisation. Every expression of Parish life can be seen to support or be derived from one or more of these themes.
Practical implementation of this way of life has been delegated to the small team of people at the diocesan Agency for Evangelisation and Catechesis. Working with energy and enthusiasm they set about identifying local Parish leads among parishioners, of the 175 Parishes, with a Parish "lead" for each thematic area, together with a compliment of mentors working at the Denary level to provide accompaniment, guidance and where appropriate training. The term Parish lead is a slight misnomer in that it is the role of a Parish lead to accompany those who are doing the work of implementing Evangelisation, Catechesis and Formation. For St Thomas of Canterbury the Parish leads are:
Catechesis - Trish Pinington
Evangelisation - Andrew Latrobe + Sue Sylvester
Formation - Adrian Pinington
Please pray for and support them in their roles.
The name of the initiative "Some Definite Service" comes from words originally written by St John Henry Newman - his inspiring words are alongside.
The ArchBishop has requested for parishes in the diocese, under the direction of their Parish Priest, to prepare plans for catechesis, evangelisation and formation as part of the Some Definite Service initiative. Our Parish Leads for Catechesis, Evangelisation & Formation and their respective teams have worked with Fr Piotr to prepare the first set of such plans, which are accessible below. These plans are living documents - intended to be regularly updated and amended based on their impact in the parish and through feedback and suggestions from parishioners and the wider experience of Parishes across our Diocese.