"My initial plan was:
'Just get through the first year, pretend to be normal. Just do the things people expect you to do...'
I couldn't do it...because I go insane 'doing religion' without evangelisation.”
-Father Damian Ryan
Jacqueline Marie | November 2025
In 2015, still in seminary, Father Damian Ryan heard about a new ministry out of Canada called Divine Renovation. Later, he picked up the book Divine Renovation: Bringing Your Parish from Maintenance to Mission. He recalls thinking, “WOW, this priest gets it, he totally gets the reality of priesthood.” He was relieved that the book was addressing the very real problems of the modern Church while still being grounded in Catholic Theology. Father Damian says, “reading the book felt like ‘this is going to equip me.’” He started getting ideas for when he would be a priest.
In the summer of 2017 as an assistant priest, Father Damian interned with Father James at Saint Benedict Parish in Halifax. He left encouraged and focused on the future.
But then he became a parish priest.
The reality of leading a parish hit him like a ton of bricks.
“My first time as parish priest was in my current parish.” He says, “my initial plan was ‘Just get through the first year. Pretend to be normal. Just do the things people expect you to do. That’s it.” But he found, “I couldn’t do it… because I go insane ‘doing religion’ without evangelisation.”
Father Damian’s own conversion experience occurred when he was a student: “I came to real faith in a university chaplaincy and never really felt like that in parishes.” He knew that often when he would live out his faith, he would experience others in the parish finding it a bit odd. Father Damian shares, “life with Jesus is amazing…” but others in the parish “look at you like: ‘he’s a bit mad.’”
But now, he was the parish priest. He needed to lead a culture shift in his new parish, Our Lady of Holy Souls.
“After a few months, I led an Alpha on my own with a group of people I thought might love it, who were influential in the parish, and would potentially have the capacity and skills to run one with me another time.” He adds, “I ran it really poorly — mainly because I was on my own!”
“This gives me hope, because I don't have to be the only one to try to convince people about Jesus and the Church. When people encounter Jesus personally (even if they are 'new' or returning Catholics), and are filled with his Holy Spirit, they become natural evangelists.”
Yet despite that, he shares, “the whole experience and the Holy Spirit Day was even better than I could have hoped for. The Holy Spirit moved in a very powerful way.” He continues, “Three years on, those guests (many of whom are now key leaders in parish life) still refer to that day, its continuing impact in their daily lives, and the experience we want for others. The Holy Spirit sparked this renewal. Alpha helped prepare the soil.”
Father Damian tells the story of one young woman in her mid-twenties who came to Alpha.
He shares she had “a profound experience of God’s love and forgiveness. She was inspired to reach out to, and reconcile with, a friend with whom she had been estranged for several years. Her friend wanted to know why she reached out, and she told her about Alpha.”
As a result, the friend (a non-churchgoer) started attending and had a powerful experience of God’s love at Alpha. Now, in turn, that woman has been inviting her friends.
Father says, “This gives me hope, because I don’t have to be the only one to try to convince people about Jesus and the Church. When people encounter Jesus personally (even if they are ‘new’ or returning Catholics), and are filled with his Holy Spirit, they become natural evangelists.”
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Through coaching and accompaniment, his parish has undergone real change.
“Divine Renovation has helped bring new life to my parish by helping to articulate and live out a theology, model, and practice of the dream that is in many people’s hearts — even if it may be dormant.” He describes that internal dream in Pope Francis’ words: a “dream of a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 27)
When asked about the change that he has seen over the last three years, Father Damian says “It’s difficult for me to give a ‘before and after’, because I don’t have first-hand experience of ‘the before’ September 2022. However, my Senior Leadership Team (SLT) constantly tell me how much the parish culture has shifted.”
He details the specifics of what this looks like: “We have a clearer vision of where we want to go, the Sunday experience has changed dramatically.”
He lists some of the tangible changes: “Jesus-centred homilies, variety of worship music and music groups (including a contemporary style) – prayer ministry after Mass, people hearing testimonies of personal conversion, hospitality and welcome teams, and a variety of new service teams. We have leadership summits for our volunteers, a Senior Leadership Team (SLT), a Vision Team (strategy team), a new Youth Team, and a new Confirmation process.”
Father Damian is quick to say there is much still to be done on the parish renewal journey.
“I sometimes feel the desired cultural change is taking a long time. But I believe this does take a long time!” In general, he feels, “people know something transformative is happening here now…People are being inspired, identified, and invited to play a part in leading according to their gifts, personality, and availability. They realize increasingly that they are the primary agents of missionary cultural change.”
