Synod parish staff formation day focused on ‘the parish and small groups’

By Barb Umberger

The Catholic Spirit

Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville welcomed staff from parishes across the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis April 20 for a formation day focused on the Synod, with the theme: The Parish and Small Groups: Preaching Jesus in the Temple and at Home.

Members of parish-based Synod Evangelization Teams, of about 12 people each, also were strongly encouraged to attend, said Julie Meyer, planning, transition and employee development facilitator for the archdiocesan Office for the Renewal of Structures.

As the archdiocese implements Archbishop Bernard Hebda’s pastoral letter released in November, “You Will be My Witnesses: Gathered and Sent from the Upper Room,” it is encouraging Synod Evangelization Teams and parish staff to create small groups that evangelize, support and minister to Catholics and others. To further that effort, evangelization teams recently completed a seven-week School of Discipleship program offered through the Archbishop Flynn Catechical Institute at the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul.

Laura Schoenecker, a parishioner of St. Wenceslaus in New Prague, said she is part of her parish’s evangelization team. The School of Discipleship was “awesome,” she said.

“It was really a good experience and everybody, I think, really enjoyed it. We all learned a lot,” she said. As the April 20 program began, Schoenecker said of her parish’s team, “I’m excited for this time when we get together as a group to really see how we’re going to move forward with this.”

Discipleship has always been a focus of St. Wenceslaus’ adult formation, Schoenecker said. “So, when (Archbishop Bernard Hebda) came out with this, I was so excited and appreciative to be part of it. Today, I’m just hoping to learn more about how we can implement this within our parish,” which she said has already done a lot with small groups.

Archbishop Hebda welcomed those gathered, and he presided at the event’s Mass in a mostly full church. He said the day gave him the chance to say, “thank you to you, not only for your presence here today and for the great work that you do in our parishes and at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center, but also for the extraordinary work that you’ve been doing as we try to implement the Archdiocesan Synod.” The archbishop said he hopes “evangelical synodality will be the ordinary way of Church life in this large diocese.”

“I think we’re taking our cue from Pope Francis and we’re already seeing fruits in the work that we’ve done over these past three years or so,” he said.

Speakers included Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams, who addressed the theme of parish small groups and evangelization. The power of small group ministry is not theoretical for him, the bishop said. “It’s very important in my own life as a disciple,” he said, and part of “my own witness.”

Father Michael White and Thomas Corcoran from the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland, spoke twice: first on “A Pastor and a Lay Apostle on Mission Together: Evangelical Synodality Rebuilds a Parish,” and later, “Small Groups at the Service of Intentional Discipleship and Authentic Parish Community.”

Their first remarks addressed the value of being in communion with others, specifically the value of small groups. God clearly shows this need for connection in nature, Corcoran said.

“The roots of a redwood tree are only about 5 or 6 feet deep,” he said. “So, what accounts for their ability to grow? Their roots are interconnected with other redwood trees, and it gives them the strength to grow tall.”

In a similar way, people long for connection, Corcoran said.

At the Maryland parish, small groups typically have six to 12 people. “We like to say small groups discuss the Bible, but they’re not Bible studies,” Father White said. “They support one another, but they are not support groups. They pray together, but they are not prayer groups. Instead, groups blend all three together as we meet … to understand where God is working in one another’s lives.”

Small groups are places to share how the truth of the Gospel is working, Father White said. “In the daily experience of members, they provide an opportunity to tell our story … And they provide an environment and create a space to actually have conversations about faith.”

“We need voices speaking into our lives, reminding us about Jesus’ teaching when we inevitably encounter problems in our daily experiences,” Father White said. “We need a safe place where we can process this conflict in a Christian context.”

Brandon Ocampo, director of communications and marketing for St. Peter in Forest Lake, said he learned from his pastor that Archbishop Hebda invited all parish staff to the April 20 event. So he and other staff members “went with open minds and open hearts just to see what we could learn, what ideas we could get, what connections we can make and see what other people are doing, too, related to the Synod,” he said.

Ocampo moved to Minnesota from New Jersey six months ago. He said he was impressed with the pastoral letter Archbishop Hebda released a few months later. “I felt very enthusiastic by the fact that I saw the archbishop and the diocese focusing on these things and then not just leaving parishes on our own to figure it out, but actually making an effort to train us,” said Ocampo, 27.

“Taking that time to come together as a staff, as a team, as volunteers, and just receive from the archbishop and these leaders and speakers really says that they do care about us and make it an initiative to form us and to treat us as disciples as well,” he said.

Grant Anderson, 36, started his role as marketing and communications specialist at Our Lady of Grace in Edina a couple months ago. He wanted to participate in formation day because he knows the archdiocese wants to use small groups to help grow the Church. It was a great time to see “how to tackle that issue and address it, and how we can all be a part of the solution,” he said.