This has been a good chance to reflect
I’m shocked it’s been 10 years! It has been a useful juncture to pause, reflect, give thanks and also offer repentance. There are things you can get right in ministry but also plenty of things that you can get wrong, but it’s a really special time to give thanks and reflect on the immense privilege of being a parish priest. It’s a vocation I believe I was called to from a very young age and it has surpassed my expectations.
I always wanted to be here for the long term
The average incumbency is around seven years and I thought that was a long time when I arrived. I knew I was committed to parish ministry and the importance of people staying for a good while. I’d seen Father McTeer, my training incumbent, spend all of his ministerial lifetime as the incumbent of St Helen, West Auckland and I found that very impressive. I was 26 when I was appointed here and 27 when I took up the living.
A priority of mine was engaging the local community
When I started in 2015 there was a large student population but only one student who regularly attended Mass so I saw rectifying that imbalance as a key priority. I remember being interviewed by Mark Cockayne and Bishop Peter Burrows at the Cathedral and was asked to set out three objectives; a key one of them was to connect the church community with the demographic, which was largely students. I also wanted to restore confidence in growth to the parish and to make it viable in terms of its finances.
The church now more accurately represents where we serve
Carver Street has grown younger and more diverse. What’s been fascinating is it genuinely has changed every three or so years. The city centre has changed dramatically during those 10 years; in the first five years for the worse, everything was getting knocked down, and then in the second five years for the better as the city centre renews itself. It’s looking really good now but there were a few years in the middle where it was like living on a build site!
As a city centre church, we never historically had a large number of children and families, but over the last six years we’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of children and families in and around the city centre and worshipping with us. This year we’ve appointed a Centenary Project worker – Minerva Faddoul – who’s doing a great job in her role and I am loving the noise and holy chaos that our kids bring to Mass.
I pray we’ll continue to see new growth moving forward
I’d like us to grow new leaders within some of our projects: the Art House, the Parish Nurses and within our student ministry. I’d also like to see those who come to St Matthew’s offer their gifts beyond the parish here. This could be through supporting other places and parishes, or seeing some of our students and young adults encouraged to take up roles and responsibilities when they move on to pastures new. Perhaps part of our role as a church is to encourage, to discern and to train those who are with us, even if they’re just here for a short time, to then go on and to lead elsewhere.
For these past ten years and for all His graces, we give glory and honour to Jesus Christ.
