A bonus was that parishioners from all five towns in the Wairarapa parish worked together for the first time since the parish was formed in 2015.

Ministry formation is necessary because most of us think of our involvement in the Church in the same way as volunteering in the community, says Wairarapa's new parish priest Dennis Nacorda.

"We need to understand that involvement in the ministry in the Church is far deeper than that.

"To be involved in any ministry is a response from the common call we share, whether ordained or lay, in baptism."

Nacorda says ministry formation is one way the Church equips parishioners and prepares them to serve in various ministries.

"This process helps parishioners discern and cultivate their unique gifts and charisms for the service of others.

"The formation process typically involves spiritual, intellectual, pastoral and human development, ensuring that individuals are well-rounded and capable of effectively ministering to others.

"It includes theological education, spiritual direction, practical training and ongoing formation to deepen one's relationship with God and grow in holiness.

"By engaging in ministry formation, individuals respond to the call to serve Christ and His Church, living out the Gospel in their daily lives and witnessing to the love and mercy of God."

Enthusiastic response

Those at the ministry formation workshops were positive about their experience.

"The questions about what we're doing and why we're doing it really made me think. And the talk about safekeeping was important. Not everyone is up to speed with safekeeping, especially if they've been out of the workforce for a while" said one participant.

"It's good that we're all starting from a shared understanding" said another.

"It was a positive experience - warm and enthusiastic."

"It's wonderful we came together to learn and deepen our understanding of our ministries and faith as a parish family - and to know we'll keep meeting, greeting and learning."

Wellington Archdiocesan staff Kevin Plant and Lucienne Hensel led workshops.

Strong turnout

Delighted with the 50-strong turnout on a Saturday morning, parish pastoral chair Peter McCardle says the day marked the first of many combined parish activities.

"It's an exciting and significant moment" he says.

"Our parish plan for the next couple of years includes many lay activities which will see us join together much more often."

These activities include workshops and development opportunities to further extend parishioners' ministry and formation training.

Long term goal

Nacorda says the parish's goal for ministry formation is to practise synodality in the parish.

"When we start looking at the Church from the same perspective, it makes it easier for each one to work more collaboratively and in a synodal way" he says.

Source

• Archdiocese of Wellington
• Interviews

The villa was formerly home to St Mary's Catholic Church's parish priest in Carterton and was hauled away in pieces in the middle of the night in November last year.

The building is now located on a 2.5ha rural property on Bidwell's Cutting Rd between Greytown and Martinborough.

Its new owner, Matt Calder, has been working on transforming the tired old building into a fully strengthened and remodelled 260sqm family home. Continue reading

Since the Catholic Parish of the Wairarapa sold the property in 2021, the once cared-for Catholic church is now seen as an eyesore.

Rubbish, debris and overgrown leaves surround the now-empty St Mary's church on the corner of King Street and SH2 - Carterton's High St.

Worse, it has been subjected to several break-ins, graffiti and arson says the new owner Westwood Land Developments Limited.

The stained glass windows are no more. Parishioners had donated those. Shards are scattered in bushes growing along the stone building's sides.

Although the police were notified and some young culprits were caught, the damage remains.

Police enquiries are continuing.

Distressed locals

The former Catholic church has become the subject of a "larger debate" among Carterton residents. The Wairarapa locals have various concerns about it, according to online comments.

Some are upset that the church has been left to fall into disrepair. Others are concerned about alleged break-ins and how safe the structure is.

The real estate listing from 2022 says the structure is earthquake-prone. At this stage no earthquake strengthening has been carried out.

When approached, the Carterton District Council said the church's exterior is not a Council matter unless it is in breach of the Wairarapa Combined District Plan.

"It is up to the building owner to maintain it how they see fit, within the scope of the district plan" it said.

However, some practical help is on offer to improve the property's street view, with local businesses offering gardening services free of charge.

The developer

Despite rumours about the fate of the former Catholic church, the new owner and developer is keeping quiet.

Westwood says it cannot comment as it is still "undecided".

In the meantime however work is underway in the background. "Engineers are currently exploring the options for strengthening the building," Westwood says.

Source

• Wairarapa Times Age

Mike Stevens of St Roch's parish spoke to the media, saying the parish is a vital component of what goes on in the community, it's also very integrated into the community.

Under the restructuring plan known as "All Things New" the archdiocese had aimed to consolidate 178 parishes into 134.

The restructure, set to take effect on August 1, had 35 parishes merging with neighbouring parishes, while 15 parishes were slated to form five new parishes.

Additionally, 158 priests were to be reassigned to various locations as part of the plan.

However, the archdiocese announced on July 31 that Archbishop Mitchell T Rozanski had "suspended the effects" for seven parishes as they had chosen to "pursue hierarchical recourse with the Vatican's Dicastery for the Clergy."

The appeals came after Archbishop Rozanski declined to reverse his decrees, affirming his commitment to implementing the restructuring plan.

The archdiocese said in its statement that "out of respect for each parishioner's right to this recourse and in keeping with Archbishop Rozanski's desire to maintain access to the sacraments, we will be suspending the effects of the following All Things New decrees" for those seven parishes "until this process has been exhausted."

No immediate plans to close or sell any churches

Lisa Shea, archdiocesan director of community and media engagement, told OSV News that there are "no immediate plans to close or sell any churches" in the archdiocese.

"They will all remain open in some capacity for worship for the foreseeable future" she said. "We have a couple of parishes in the city that are really well known for their social justice works, such as food pantries, and while their parishes are closing, the churches are staying open to do all those good works."

The archdiocese said in its statement that it will proceed with the reassignment of priests, and that incoming pastors for the seven parishes challenging the mergers" should not make changes in parish life which would be difficult to reverse, "including the sale of parish property."

Mergers suspension welcomed

Sean McGroarty, president of the St Roch Parish school board, welcomed the announcement of the suspension of mergers of several parishes.

McGroarty had, along with other parish lay leaders, encouraged concerned parishioners to write to Rozanski to appeal the decision to merge St Roch with Christ the King Parish.

He told OSV News that amid its All Things New initiative "the archdiocese missed an opportunity to strategically address the issues they're trying to address."

The problem, he argued, was not solely a lack of priests, but rather the unequal impact of transferring them to areas with more Catholics, adversely affecting smaller parishes and minority communities.

Allowing qualified lay faithful to assume greater co-responsibility for parishes would help address clerical shortages and avert parish closings and mergers, said McGroarty.

"You want priests to care for the universal good of the flock, to administer the sacraments," he said.

"You don't necessarily need them to administer finances in parishes and schools. If they (the archdiocese) had been able to separate that, it might have been a more helpful process. There are laypeople who would love to do all those things."

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

KSDK

CathNews New Zealand

Former parish council member Asrina Hutchinson​ told Stuff it was sad to see the building go after it played such an important role in the community over the years.

"It was a very happy place and very much a parish community place," she said.

"It's sad because we had three or four generations of our family who have been part of that Catholic community."

In 2018 the Church next to the parish house was deemed an earthquake risk. The land and buildings were sold to developers earlier this year.

The Wairarapa parish has recently suffered several reversals; the Archdiocese closed the Carterton, Greytown and Martinborough churches - three of the parish's five faith communities.

The Wairarapa Times-Age reported several reasons for selling the three Wairarapa churches.

These include there being not enough priests to go around, high maintenance costs, declining congregations, and the directive from Pope Francis to focus more on missionary work.

In May, Wairarapa parishioner Gerard McGreevy told the Wairarapa Times-Age that closing church communities is not a way to support people.

McGreevy is the organiser of a Sunday morning alternative prayer service in Greytown.

Subsequently, others have asked how genuine Synodality really looks in the Church and are questioning whether Church administrators are leaving space for the Holy Spirit in the Synodal process.

"I thought Synodality was about listening together rather than church administrators at all levels of church management, having the Holy Spirit's personal direct dial number," a Wairarapa parishioner told CathNews.

Listening is an important attitude for Cardinal John Dew, who spoke recently to the national hui on synodality held in Wellington.

"Synodality calls us to listen to all the People of God, even if we think the ideas are whacky, or heretical or far-fetched.

"It is only in prayerful listening that we hear others and begin a dialogue . . . with the Spirit leading us," he said.

Then, on November 24, updating the archdiocese on the Synod process, Dew wrote thanking people for their participation in the Synodal process, saying, "I want you to know that your voices have been heard."

Meanwhile, the new owner of the Carterton parish house, Matt Calder, described the outside of the former parish house as "absolutely gorgeous" with "a huge amount of stature".

He says that when he's finished restoring it, the restored building will have four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and two living areas.

"When I'm finished with it, it should have another 110 years in it," Calder told Stuff.

He expects the restoration to be completed by March 2023.

Sources

• Stuff
• CathNews
• CathNews
• NZ Catholic
• Charities Commission
• Supplied

In so many ways, it has replaced the pub as a meeting place, a stop-off point for anyone and everyone to pause a while over a hot coffee, to read or have a chat.

Across the world, café names have become an integral part of the High Street, an international brand that is immediately recognized.

The café has become commonplace, each with its own character, furnishings and specialities.

Even though they are not quiet places, maybe, in fact, because of it, they do provide a comfort zone where words arrive and stories develop.

Often an overheard phrase finds its way into something I am writing, sparks a movement, and stimulates an idea, only to re-emerge in a poem or article phrase sometime later.

I always carry with me a book to read and a notebook for writing, for they are part of what I do when I find a comfortable seat and order a cappuccino.

I have met a good many and varied people in the café, a passing nod of ten minutes conversation, unlikely to be repeated again, but informative and enjoyable while it lasted, some help on the way.

The staff who serve become familiar faces and, with frequent visits, have remembered names.

The history of the café goes back hundreds of years.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the café was a well-established, cosmopolitan meeting place, not only for social exchange but as a place where business might be conducted.

The world-renowned London Stock Exchange started trading in Jonathan's Coffee House in 1698 in the City. Other well-known establishments, such as Christies and Sotheby's, developed from the café gathering of interested merchants and businessmen.

It is not uncommon nowadays for laptops to be set open on tables, with a tapping of keys heard between sips of coffee and the person using it to be illuminated by the screen.

Apart from the convivial meeting place after the school run or an alcohol-free zone for a relaxing chat, they can also be places for serious exchange, for stories to be told and a time of careful listening.

"Meet me for a coffee sometime soon" can be another way of saying, "I have something to say, will you listen with me?"

Nourished by the Eucharist

Those churches that have a parish hall where groups can gather after sharing the Eucharist are indeed fortunate.

It raises the question as to whether or not community arises from Eucharistic sharing or does our Eucharist spring from the gathering we often call parish.

Either way, humans are gathering creatures, anxious to share in so many ways.

It is natural for us to share with each other and, along with company, to eat and drink together. It's what we do.

So our journey goes on day by day, nourished by the Eucharist, our presence helps others with their problems and difficulties.

Look around at the other tables the next time you are in a café; watch the expressions on the faces of those who sit and drink and talk, who stretch out a gentle hand in comfort to a friend.

Friendship is about both laughing and crying together, sharing the load.

I have just received a new collection of poems by the young Irish poet, Kerrie O'Brien. One of them, entitled "Hemingway" concludes with these lines:

How could he be so close
And I not know it
The worst time to search
Whiteout, blizzard sleet
I hadn't eaten
The hunger raw and persisting
But he led me
And right where he lived
A café
Rose star
In the wilderness
Warm jewel
Run by an American woman
Big hearted
Who took me in
And gave me a muffin
Flooded with raspberry
Bloodsweet, glittering, hot.
It then came
A thudding chant
Be still, still
In the howling
Have faith
Just a little longer

Maybe her last two lines — Have faith, Just a little longer — form the core of the Epiphany we live when sharing the Eucharist, nattering in the parish hall or being with strangers in the café.

It is the daily expression of our being Christian.

• Chris McDonnell is from England and is a regular contributor to La Croix International.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

The way Catholics live out their faith is what's important, he says. They should trust in God, who always loves and blesses them. They should also try to bring divine love to people around them.

"We should try our best to promote charity work and give witness to the faith in our daily lives," he explained during a pastoral visit to four tiny parishes last week.

"Evangelisation does not mean to do major things but to live a good and simple life."

Build happy families, offer faith education to children, be honest in your livelihood, stay clear of drug abuse and treat drug abusers with love and respect.

Thien is the first archbishop to have visited one of the sub-parishes for a century or more. Welcomed with drums and trumpets, the 160-member Catholic community swelled so much that Thien had to celebrate an open-air Mass: the church was too small to accommodate the hundreds of visitors.

He praised the local people for properly maintaining their faith during decades of hard times and for producing a priest. This is despite hardships such as when their part of Vietnam was under communist control, the land reform system, religious restrictions and the Vietnam War were the order of the day.

"We come here to profess the faith and I am here to encourage all of you to be brave in your life of faith," he said.

Thien's pastoral visits are part of this year's archdiocese-wide programme for "year of evangelisation".

Other plans include introducing the Legion of Mary at parishes. Thien is calling on all parishes to have the Marian association do evangelisation work.

Hanoi Archdiocese, serves 330,000 Catholics out of a population of 10 million.

Source

• UCA News

The group establishing the service say while Sunday Mass is available in Masterton or Featherston, these options do not always work for everyone.

"It also does not support the local community," Gerard McGreevy of the Establishment Group wrote in a letter to parishioners.

"The cessation of Sunday Mass in Martinborough, Greytown and Carterton and the closure of two of those buildings and partial closure of Greytown has meant that there is no longer an opportunity for those faith communities to meet on Sunday as they have for more than one hundred years."

The group describes the situation as "a great loss".

The Sunday Morning Prayer organisers say they are experimenting with the format. Early reports from other parishioners, however, are that Sunday Morning Prayer is proving quite popular.

Initial indications are the new service will have a traditional look and feel, an opening prayer, readings of the day, a reflection, some discussion followed by prayers of the faithful, a song or two, a concluding prayer with morning tea to follow.

Organisers say there is no shortage of leaders.

"The format will evolve with the intention of encouraging participation and leadership of as many as want that role," the Establishment Group says.

The first official Sunday Morning Prayer will begin at 8:30 am on 13 June in Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Greytown.

The organisers say the time does not conflict with the Mass times in Featherston or Masterton, so those who want to do both will have the time to do so.

In June 2020, and after many months of deliberation Cardinal Dew announced that the Martinborough, Greytown and Carterton churches would be closed and the properties sold.

Local parishioners lobbied to retain all five churches; however, Archdiocesan authorities applied what some locals are calling a 'city model for a rural setting,' and decided to keep just two churches, one at either end of the vast Wairarapa parish.

Instead of one car with the priest, travelling to parts of the parish on Sunday, now parishioners report they are travelling in every which way, or they just do not bother going to church.

The Wairarapa Times-Age reports several reasons for selling the three Wairarapa churches. These include there being not having enough priests to go around, high maintenance costs, declining congregations, and the directive from Pope Francis to focus more on missionary work.

A recent report by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment put a 'spanner in the works' by unexpectedly listing St Patrick's Church in Masterton at only 26% New Building Standard and in urgent need of attention. Initially engineers had rated the building at a much safer 49%.

Source

• Supplied
• Wairarapa-Times Age
• CathNews

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE) rates St Patrick's as only 26% NBS compliant (New Building Standard).

Church engineers originally rated the building at a much safer 49%.

The new public compliance level has surprised some who attended Mass at St Patrick's.

"From 49% to just 26%, there's something amiss there," Mary Ann told CathNews.

"It's quite serious, they've based their advice to the Cardinal on wrong figures," she said.

Like other churches in the parish, Mary Ann is concerned the 26% rating will make the Masterton church too risky for parishioners to attend Mass.

The change in earthquake seismic rating comes amidst a time of significant change in the Wairarapa Catholic communities.

With three churches closed and up for sale, and now St Patrick's new seismic rating, it leaves Mary Ann less sure about the future of the Masterton Catholic Church.

The parish plan is to have Mass available at Featherston and Masterton.

It is a move parishioners have questioned.

When asked for input the parish said it preferred a 5 church community model.

Pat, a Featherston parishioner wonders if it is a chance to relook at things.

He laments the loss of the local community and wonders if 'Masterton' understands.

"I don't see why the priest can't promote the local community and come to the people rather than all the community travel to where the priest is".

A pragmatist, Pat admits his concerns may not eventuate.

After the merger of the five communities in 2014, by land area, the Wairarapa parish is the largest of the Archdiocese's parishes.

While the church has changed, diverse in nature, the small civic communities remain.

"Local community matters.

"Interesting model, this church one," Pat says, a little tongue in cheek.

He gets on with his day.

Sources

• Wairarapa Times-Age (2021)

Earthquake-prone building regulations, ageing populations and shrinking Mass attendance have all had a part to play in deciding to close the buildings.

Cardinal John Dew, of the Wellington Catholic Archdiocese, said at least one Sunday Mass or Vigil Mass would be celebrated in both remaining Wairarapa churches - St Patrick's in Masterton at one end of the parish and Featherston's St Teresa of Avila at the other end.

He said with only one priest covering the whole of the district, providing masses in all five Catholic churches "is not an option for the future".

One of the parish churches to close is St Anthony's Church, which is on the main road into Martinborough.

The average age of the active parish members of its congregation is around 75.

The church building has been out of use since it was deemed earthquake prone in 2018.

Parishioner Yvonne Riddiford (95) is "desperately sad" to find her church will probably be sold for other purposes.

While she acknowledges the challenges such as shrinking congregations, lack of priests and repair costs, she's dismayed at what she calls "defeatism".

"... just to close it on those grounds, you'll never open it again."

Carterton's St Mary's, which is also earthquake-prone, and Greytown's Sacred Heart are also earthquake-prone and they will also be closed.

Victoria University of Wellington religious studies lecturer Dr Philip Fountain says the Catholic churches closing in the Wairarapa reflects broader trends of decline in some traditionally prominent denominations.

"One of the big stories of religious change in New Zealand has been a fairly steady decline of Christian affiliation across New Zealand census data since the 1980s," he says.

This comment is borne out by the 2006 census where 508,812 indicated they were Catholic, as against 492,324 in 2013 and then fewer than 470,000 in 2018.

Like rural areas, metropolitan centres parishes are also consolidating heavily.

Fountain says the counter-balance to this trend is growth in new religious communities.

"These dynamics are reshaping rural communities in important ways," he says.

"Indeed, while the urban stereotype of rural areas is that they are the ‘conservative rump' of New Zealand society, they are better considered as spaces of vibrant and dynamic religious innovation," Fountain says.

Wairarapa MP Kieran McAnulty, says at a sentimental level, he agrees it is a shame the Carterton church where he was baptised, made his first holy communion and was confirmed is no longer going to remain operational.

"At the same time, we have to face up to the fact that a lot of these buildings are earthquake-prone ... it's very much a case of use it or lose it.

"The church is faced with significant costs to keep up buildings that a relatively small number of people are attending, they can't keep these buildings going for large congregations twice a year at Christmas and Easter."

Source

• Stuff
• Image: Stuff