Expectations Achievements Challenges docx

Expectations Cayenne

The expectations of the diocese concerning the meeting is especially to share to exchange and to discover what has been done in other dioceses to enrich our experience and our approach.

Belize Participants will Do an inventory of what is happening in different Dioceses and have different groups share in an in-depth way.

Receive

Reinforcement of the training received and inspiration experienced.

Willemstad i. Vision for the coming years. C ​ ontinuation of the Bible school in the parish.​ ii. Formation. ​Of teachers for the Bible school out of the participants. iii. Means and tools. ​Good locations, availability of beamers and other necessary tools to be used during the classes. Good public relation to motivate God’s people and good teachers..

Barbados The expectations are to listen, engage, share and learn from the other Dioceses, means and methods to continue to drive our Mission.

We look forward to continual Spiritual, moral and financial support.

We would welcome help for the purchase of teaching videos and a good children's Bible.

Suriname Vision: Deepening of our faith and spiritual life through God’s word and to listen and be guided by the Holy Spirit.

Formation: To be formed through the experience of other dioceses as well as through the various ABP sessions Means Tools: That through ABP various resources and eventual finance will be made available for the effective implementation of the various programmes in our diocese.

Roseau

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Receive encouragement and insights from the sharing of the experiences of Assembly participants

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Some concrete, workable ideas for the continued promotion and implementation of ABP.

Montego Bay Vision for the coming years – having an AEC theme/vision statement for the year to re­inforce the importance of the Word Formation – including ABP in all catechetical programmes/ Sunday schools, RCIA etc.

Means and tools – more resources to be circulated and best practices shared throughout the AEC

Kingston i.

Sharing of Best Practices from the Region ii. Discussion on Strategies applicable to Caribbean context

Mandeville

Vision for the coming years​: to develop prayer groups outside of the church in homes and neighbourhoods of the church member. The AEC Assembly to provide the training for these skills­set to implement this.

Formation: ​ how Catholics read and understand the scriptures, first in the liturgical setting, second, through personal devotion, third through Lectio Divina.

Means and tools:​ Use of social media to engage the young and keep them connected to the word of God on a daily basis. Voice recording of the Gospels for persons to listen at home rather than reading.

Achievements and Results

Port­0f­Spain

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Conducted approximately 6 one­day seminars (ABP Encounter) at various levels within Archdiocese (approximately 12 parishes) re: Introduction/Orientation/ Enthronement of Bible.

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Conducted Lenten Retreat with ABP drive

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Launched and executed promotion and sales of 5,000 bibles with sessions/pamphlets on Lectio Divina and Enthronement and ABP brochure.

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Launched new “Bible Circles Ministry” to sell remaining 5,000 bibles

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Planned and conducted Retreat for RC Teachers/Principals: ‘Bible @ Work’

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Collaborated with newly launched strategic Evangelization Teams in the parishes.

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Developed a pioneer ABP Bible Study Programme and conducted tests at Catechetical office.

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Initiated ABP­driven Spirituality Sessions for ABP Core Team.

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Started modeling ABP­Parishes to roll out in the Archdiocese

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Started modeling ABP­Schools to roll out in the Archdiocese

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Started modeling ABP­Youth strategy

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Launched “Art of Reading Scripture” competition using Catholic Art depicting biblical events.

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Celebrated Bible Month yearly with Bible Exhibition (as History and Faith) at Seminary Academic Block. And launched D.E.A.R. ­ Drop Everything And Read (Mark gospel).

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Formulated shared Vision/Mission Statement for ABP Ministry.

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Formulated ABP Encounter for all priests/religious with Bishop La Font in January 2016

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Integrated ABP with a critical movement/”CATHOLIC IN THE WORK PLACE”.

2. Results

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Notable awareness of ABP in many pastoral activities highlighting the salient distinguishing features between bible study and bible animation.

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Noticeable centering of most pastoral activities on Bible Enthronement and Lectio Divina throughout Archdioceses.

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Moderate ABP thrust at Parishes, Schools, Catechetical office, Catholics in the Workplace (CIW) movement.

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Deepening of bible month yearly.

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Top Of Mind Awareness of “fresh” Brands: ➢ D.E.A.R. ­ Drop Everything And Read (the bible) ➢ “Bible @ Work” with CIW movement ➢ Creative Enthronement Altar

3. What helped most in developing programmes and sessions

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Leadership support

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Home for ABP Core Team

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Person­to­Person contact for invitation to ABP sessions

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Highly organized, efficient and effective presentation and follow­ups

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Practical approach through continuous modeling, testing and evaluating/adjusting.

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Expertise/Commitment of Core Team

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Spiritual development/fellowship/training of Core Team

Cayenne

ABP reflection was born a plan of strategic orientation accentuating the characteristics and needs of our diocese. 4 Priorities: The word in the liturgy and the family; greater knowledge of this Word; savouring reading and proclaiming the Word;. celebrating " the Fiesta of the word " in parishes. Appointment and training of ABP parish representatives

CASTRIES IN ST. LUCIA

Catechetical Training Institute (CTI). Weekend Workshops St. Maarten & St. Lucia Theme: Catechist as Evangelisers Thirsting for God, the Word of Life​ ​– 2014.

Enthronement of the Bible on the occasion of the distribution of certificates to Catechists and Mission personnel. Lecturing on Biblical topics at catechetical workshops.

Sixty­nine Catechists assisted in the use and appreciation of the Word of God. Children participated in biblical games, songs and dramatization of biblical texts, which they ​Most Helpful The professional experience of others…Fr. Bernard Latus, S.V.D., frequent lecturer in biblical studies at CTI, other priests over the years in Trinidad, catechetical formation in Ireland, association with the American Bible Association and staff, then New York Office, my experience in ministry and personal prayer.

Achievements​. Preparations and launch October 2015 of the diocesan Bible Academy for a Bible study project in the parishes.

The ABP is also part of the Pastoral Plan of the Diocese of Willemstad, and it has been presented during the presentation of the Pastoral plan on all the six Islands of the Diocese.

An important part of the ABP presentation during the general presentation of the Pastoral Plan of the Diocese, is the explication of Lectio Divina.

KINGSTOWN

Achievements​ Diocesan ABP Encounter 13­15 June 2014 workshop about 80 participants. Some members of the Team have had exposure to enriching Continental and International ABP experiences.

Panama, October 2014. Catholic Biblical Federation 9​th​ Plenary Assembly (June 18​th​ to 23rd​​ 2015) in Nemi, Italy also attended by Bishop Lafont Bible Month in September 2014 and 2015 theme Mercy in the Old Testament and the New Testament, Mercy and the Family – the Experience of Reconciliation 1. The enthronement of the Bible in all the churches in the Diocese or renewal of the same 2. Enthronement of the Bible in homes 3. A Bible Quiz for the Catholic Schools took place in October 2015.

4. Sustained practice of ​lectio divina at every clergy and diocesan meeting/gathering meeting – for the past two or more years and at meetings of the Synod Implementation Team and Synod Vision Team. Groups meet weekly in most parishes on ABP and Lectio

The theme of Synod 2015 (January 22​nd​ to 25th​​ ) was ​Word, Eucharist and Service​. Resolutions on: ‘Be it resolved that the Bible be reaffirmed as the foundation of the Catholic faith to encourage an encounter with the living Word, Jesus Christ by every Catholic individual, family, parish, ministry and institution (#1 Be it resolved that the diocese promote the enthronement of the Bible in the church, the homes of all Catholics and Catholic institutions (#3) ...

Be it resolved that the diocese at all levels promote the Bible as the inspiration of all pastoral work by implementing Biblical Animation of all Pastoral life (ABP) [#4] ...

Be it resolved that the diocese promote and encourage ​lectio divina as a way of prayer and study of the Bible (#8).’

The diocese has invested in over 1000 Christian Community Bibles. These are in circulation in the parishes Belize Achievements Almost every parish in our Diocese had the Lectio faith groups going during Advent & Lent. Also Bishop Glancy held a special day for Consecrated Life for the diocese and opened the Session with Lectio Divina.

Also, we adapted the Panama PPPs to the Belize context, as 14 of our 16 communities in the Parish are Spanish speaking, with the intention of training a core of Leaders in Lectio Divina.

Helpful The encouragement and experience of Panama and the fact that we already had an Advent and Lenten program going using the scriptures of those Sundays and all we had to do was share a simple lectio method with them and it caught on rather easily.

Without a doubt, the Panama Workshop/Seminar, plus all the material offered plus what other participants shared.

SURINAME

Objective As well as to create among the faithful a deeper thirst and love for the scriptures and for God. This will foster a deeper personal as well as a spiritual life and growth based on God’s word.

Passion for the word of God, the desire to evangelise and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has been our driving force.

Each semester training sessions are being conducted by the Pastoral and catechetical Centre of the diocese for all teachers on primary as well as secondary levels. These sessions are catechetical and scriptural based and are brought alive and interesting through group sharing’s, games and songs

BARBADOS

Achievements On October 16th to 19th, 2014, the First Diocesan Synod was held. Its purpose was to revitalise the Diocese 'through a renewed focus on a deeper understanding of WORD, EUCHARIST and SERVICE.'

September is Bible month in the Diocese and every Parish entered wholeheartedly into the celebration of The WORD. ●

A specially commissioned banner was displayed in every Parish church

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The Bible was enthroned.

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The homily for the first Sunday of September focussed the attention of Parishioners on Scripture in the Liturgy and the place that the Bible should have in their lives

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Pamphlets on the Bible were made available and distributed; there was a Press release and a radio and television interview were conducted.

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There was the annual walk on the Boardwalk in celebration of ​THE BIBLE ­ THE WORD OF GOD.​ The Bible society joined with us in this venture.

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The Diocesan Drama Group held their 2nd dramatic production. Each Parish dramatized a story from the Bible.

ROSEAU The experience and learnings of the ABP Conference in Panama 2014 were shared with groups and in the Diocesan Magazine “Our Catholic Community” and Dominica Catholic Radio for a wider audience.

Week­long Bible course facilitated by Fr. Arnold Francis, Ph. D., July13­ 17, 2015 and Retreat for Priests on St. Mark Results

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The People’s growing appreciation and love for God’s word.

Familiarity and knowledge of papal encyclicals Motivating the people to practice Lectio Divina

1. What has helped most in developing these programmes? o Sessions o PowerPoint presentations, especially those of the ABP Panama Conference. o Pamphlets o Radio and newspaper

MONTEGO BAY IN JAMAICA

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Weekly Bible study groups and lectio divinas in 4 parishes Bible enthronement at AEC plenary meeting Opening Mass in April 2015 Distribution of Catholic Community bibles The richness & comprehensiveness of the ABP power­point presentations

KINGSTON IN JAMAICA Achievements We have had a series of Bible Animation Sessions (16 Sessions in each of the parishes; each session lasting for an hour and thirty minutes) in six (6) parishes and four (4) missions in the archdiocese. An average of 20 persons have attended in each of these sessions.

Bible Animation Brochures and Lectio Divina Prayer Cards/Bookmarks are printed and widely distributed in all parishes in the Archdiocese to make all understand what is ABP.

A week­long Animators’ Training was conducted, with a view to introducing Biblical Animation to target groups of individuals and identifying potential Animators to be further trained in ABP. It was well received with an average of 65 persons attending each evening (three hours each day for five days, and 6 hours on a Saturday).

Monthly Bible Animation Sessions are held to maintain the momentum among those who participated in the week­long training sessions.

Helpful

The enthusiasm of the core group of the Biblical Commission is encouraging. Past experiences from Columbia (2013), Peru (2013), Panama (2014) and Trinidad (2015) have been excellent motivating factors.

Financial Assistance from USCCB (through AEC) assisted greatly with the printing of brochures and bookmarks and to fund the weeklong training programme

Mandeville in Jamaica Achievements

ABP Word of God Encounter Workshop in Mandeville​ was held in June, 2015. Deacon Mike and Maria James facilitated at the invitation of Bishop Neil. 50% of the attendees were young people. 15 churches attended.

Youth Bible Animation: ​The ABP team recognized the need to work with the Young who makes up most of our churches and involve them in Faith Sharing in an Area (School) of ABP and implemented Youth Bible Quiz. (a cast of approx. 27 children) revelled the audience with their little play, “​Jesus the ‘Yuteman’ His Life and Ministry.”

28 years ago; and involves scripture workshops on various books and themes, of the Bible. It is held in November of each year; this year’s presenter is Dianne Bergant, CSA, a past President of the Catholic Biblical Association of America. The theme is ​‘The Earth is the Lord’s: Biblical Theology and Ecology’.

certainly at the start of all Diocesan meetings, Lectio Divina is practiced). Bishop Neil unceasingly encourages this.

Mission:​ Prior to the ABP Word of God Encounter workshop in Mandeville, Miss Hazel Gooden wanted to start a prayer group in her community. After her participation in the Workshop she was even more fired­up. ​ ​At St. Vincent Strambi Catholic Church in Bull Savannah she implored Fr. Jim to come to her community and start an ABP prayer meeting. She lives very far from the church and also the only catholic in her very poor community in which she resides. Fr. James Price, CP (Fr. Jim) Pastor of Both St. Vincent Strambi and St. Theresa of the Little Child Jesus, gathered a group of young adults who attended AECYA 2015, visited persons in their homes and invited them to prayer meeting at Miss Hazel’s house; 6 to 14 persons are attending at any one time at Lititz. This is now a weekly event where the ABP team with young adults attending the Lititz prayer meeting.

Recently the Pastor was able to co­opt one of the Sunday school teachers at St. Vincent Strambi to attend and involve the little children who come with the parents. The prayer meeting takes place on the outside, and the little children have their Faith Sharing on the veranda with Catherine Powell.

Most helpful i)

A conviction that the Word of God nourishes, animates and changes people when a platform for listening is available and conducive.

The accompaniment of the Chief Shepherd (Bishop Neil) in these early stages of deepening the sense of Listening to God and identifying skill­sets that will sustain the gathering of people and listening to the Word of God. Many young people who present themselves, are ‘wannabe’ Catholics and are benefiting from the missionary works of the Diocese, made it necessary to facilitate a relationship with Jesus among them. At the ABP workshop a participant commented that, excepting for the schools, it is only the Catholic Church in this part of the rural Jamaica who socialize the young in meaningful ways.

Michael Casey; SACRED READING, The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina; Liguori/Triumph, First Edition 1995, Liguori, Missouri, U.S.A

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Challenges and Needs

POS

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Face­to­Face meeting

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Resistance from some clerics/religious given ignorance of difference between Bible Study and Bible Animation.

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Turfism (to re­integrate some already existing bible initiatives/movement/plans into the Archdiocese official ABP initiatives).

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Continuous administration of sale of bibles

Measuring success of ABP Modeling at parishes and schools Cayenne

People need help to become more aware that God speaks to us through Scripture. that the Word is Good News for today, and that it belongs to each of us. Need for parishioners to discover that they are capable of finding in the Bible of the answers to the problem of our time.

S essential in our diocese to educate or to train(form) the assembly to include sharing the Word before the mass.

On the financial level help would be useful to produce kits and manuals to be shared with representatives to facilitate activities in their parishes.

Castries Difficulties/Challenges​ Lack of bibles for children, youth and adults. At all levels of Church, there is need for more persons trained in biblical studies, and who possess a readiness to encounter and engage persons, especially Catholics, in a deeper knowledge of the Word of Life. Such an encounter ought to originate from a stance of listening, readiness to learn, especially re cultural background and language, e.g. kweyol.

Willemstad The biggest challenge is to make things happen, to arouse the desire to study the Bible.

To reach teachers and material developers. More people to be conscious of importance of the Word of God so as to promote it, especially priests. Need to extend the Bible study to more parishes, training and motivation of teachers.

Belize Support for the Program by the Pastoral Team, whilst welcomed, is not enough ­ the presence of the Priests, at least in the initial stages is essential to the program to successfully take hold.

I feel confident that if we can the Project up and going here at Sacred Heart Parish, San Ignacio, we would then be able to successfully ‘export’ it to other parishes, re­enforced at some point in the process with an invitation to say Deacon Mike James [he now resides in next door Cancun]to do a weekend Diocese­wide Workshop/Seminar. assistance funding to attend these events

The area in which we have most difficulties is support and collaboration from our various parish priests. Sometimes announcements are not made and the parishioners are not encouraged to partake in the diocesan activities.

As a diocese our main needs are to find more dynamic and inspiring ways to proclaim to word of God especially to our youths. Finding creative ways to make the basic knowledge of the bible more available for the faithful is one of our needs. To find good and motivated coordinators who will monitor, support and promote the ABP activities in the parishes.

Monet

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Little or no follow­up in the parishes Majority of priests seem not interested in promoting ABP Challenge of taking ABP to individual parishes

2. What would you say are the main needs in your Diocese for further progress in making the word of God the inspiring rock and base of all Church life, activities and Mission? o All the clergy must come on board. They are the leaders of the parishes. Without their interest and enthusiasm ABP will not grow roots in the parishes and by extension in the diocese. o The encouragement of God’s people to learn. “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorant of Christ” (St. Jerome). Parishes are not equipped for teaching and learning. o Willingness to teach; to make good use of what they have been taught, especially passing it on to others.

Montego Bay

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Pastors involvement and leading the charge in this initiative Perception that it is one more thing added to responsibilities

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Widespread training in ABP

More Bible enthronement Lectio divinas at every ministry/ church council meeting Incorporating that message more in homilies

Needs

Kingston

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Inability to have someone fully dedicated to the ABP (without additional responsibilities) is a challenge to rapid development of the ABP programmes.

Finding suitable Animators/Agents who have the time and energy to be immersed in the ABP activities is a challenge.

Mandeville

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ii) iii)

Most clergymen are lukewarm to this effort and are not desirous to interest and motivate the laity. The skill­sets to rally people, sustain the gathering and good timing (understanding the spiritual growth of persons) for movements and shifts, are inadequate. The missionary zeal is weak resulting in a lack of follow­up in most churches.

At first persons were cautious in their sharing but with the Team’s commitment and regularity, they slowly begin to open­up – issues of confidentiality and trust.

Need lots of time for development, with constant and regular meeting each week.

iv) v)

Persons with skills​­s​ et to gather and rally the Laity​ to grow the group; despite weekly announcement and invitations the groups remain small with no new faces.

Prayer group leaders:​ Identify persons who can be trained to gear the conversation and the questions to the lived reality and level of understanding of the people. (Making the questions relevant to people’s life experiences and directing the questions to those situations to help with listening to God’s Word for ‘a change of heart’) To find ways for the bible, and especially the Sunday readings, to go out on social media for our people to participate in.