Fr. Tony Laforet, Pastor of Lake Huron Catholic Family of Parishes. (YouTube)
This missional parish on the renewal journey with DR is transforming lives through Alpha.
Jacqueline Marie | February 1, 2022
“I don’t usually talk this much” Father Tony says with a smile, a man whose quiet, unassuming nature is animated by his love for evangelization.
He began working with Divine Renovation four years ago after reading Father James Mallon’s book Divine Renovation: From a Maintenance to a Missional Parish. Soon after he connected through Kickstart, then Traction where he is now coached by DR’s Rob McDowell. In his move from maintenance to mission Father Tony is confident, “The Holy Spirit is guiding; I can tell you that it is a good decision.”
Father Tony is the Pastor of the Lake Huron Catholic Family of Parishes (LHCFP) – a group of six churches in Ontario, Canada who have undergone amalgamation and change in the last few years. Moving to the LHCFP meant moving from a staff of two people, to a staff of ten. Father Tony knew this move meant he needed to “switch gears…now I have to work with a team, and now I have to be a leader.” He has been communicating his vision to his Senior Leadership Team with help from DR’s resource videos. “I’m not articulate … I have used some of the (DR) videos I have seen because they really express what I think we need to move forward, in order to be an evangelizing church.”
Alpha is another tool Father Tony utilizes in forming a missional parish. At first, he found “it didn’t produce the fruit I was hoping,” the attendance started high but dropped off — along with engagement. “We run a lot of programs in our parishes and programs always end.” But when he switched his view from Alpha being a program to it being a process — ongoing, and cyclical — it changed everything. A parishioner and recent Alpha attendee, Nancy, is now an example of this process working, going from participant to Alpha leader this winter.
“That has always been our mission, to go out into the world and bring the Good News to others” a focus that has been a change for Father Tony who now can: “talk to people I don’t even know about their relationship with Jesus and that’s not me because I was a total introvert.”
One such conversation was with Nancy, a new parishioner who took Alpha this past fall at LHCFP. Father Tony speaks of noticing the “spark that has started in her” since attending Alpha. In December, Nancy gave her testimony at five of the Masses at the LHCFP and now she is leading one of the Alpha small groups.
With a twinkle in her eye Nancy describes her faith as one that is “fresh, and loving, and new again.” Nancy is a woman of clarity and intelligence, her story of conversion and renewal is filled with reference to scripture, theology, and a deep understanding of the faith. A policy maker in Clinical Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Nancy is insightful and intellectual. One gets the idea that easy answers would not satisfy Nancy. Indeed, her desire to learn is part of what brought her to the Catholic Church in the first place.
“The Holy Spirit is guiding. I can tell you that [moving from maintenance to mission] is a good decision.”
— Fr. Tony Laforet
In her youth Nancy had applied to a college at the University of Waterloo but was shuffled over to St. Jerome’s instead: “by fluke I ended up at a Catholic University.” Once there she found herself surrounded by people for whom Catholicism was “their identity, it was who they were.” Along with an undergraduate in English and Psychology she added a major in Philosophy where she spent countless hours in her professor, Father Gerardot’s, office firing questions at him. It was within these years that Nancy converted: “it didn’t feel onerous anymore it was loving and freeing.” Afterwards she married and had two daughters and furthered her studies at St. Michael’s College of Theology at the University of Toronto. Daily Mass, the divine hours and other practices brought a sense of joy; her days were filled with writing and research for her graduate work. She felt the Holy Spirit tingle through her as inspiration poured from her pen to the page. “It was the happiest time in my life” she states, “I just found it so joyful and … freeing.” “I had come at it as an adult, read a lot, questioned a lot…” Her conversion was not a moment but a process, one that started as a teen and showed God’s gentle, relentless, pursuit of her.
But then, as Nancy states, “life happened”: her marriage crumbled, her life as a single mom of two little girls put a priority on providing and career became her focus. Mass became something that was attended at Christmas and Easter and then eventually that fell away too. Yet, “when I was very far from the Church and Her sacraments, the Holy Spirit never broke faith with me… there would be moments I would be quiet, and I would be given the grace to pray.”
This past year, with her daughters grown and her mother in need of care, Nancy moved from Toronto to Exeter. She made a commitment to start attending Mass again at the nearby Precious Blood Parish (part of the LHCFP). This past fall, she was sitting in Mass when “along came the notice of Alpha.” She attended the 11 weeks of Alpha and for her “the rest is history.” “The most pivotal session was on the Holy Spirit.” In that session, Father Tony asked if he could pray for her. Nancy states “I have never experienced anything like it.” Her faith renewed; she has experienced a return to the early sweetness of conversion – but this time it is even deeper than that first love.
On the personal and parish level, renewal is afoot in the Lake Huron Catholic Family of Parishes, as Father Tony puts it: “…this all needs to be directed by the Holy Spirit. It is about what the Lord is going to do. The story is not finished; I am looking forward to what is going to happen next!”
A Deeper Love: A Story from Canada – Divine Renovation Ministry
