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