Taking the Plunge: A letter from the UK
I have been a priest for 30 years.
I arrived as Parish Priest to St John the Baptist, Uddingston, a lovely, large parish in the suburbs of Glasgow, in January of 2022. In October of 2023 our Diocese of Motherwell got together its clergy with the help of a very talented lay management specialist, Adrian, to examine where the diocese was, is and is going. It was a story of great faith and blessings but also steady measurable decline. It was pointed out that we as a diocese were not actually running out of priests or even money, but we were running out of people.
Casting Off into Renewal: A Story from Czechia
Father Petr’s priesthood has often been in isolation, as Zuzana explains: “Father Petr is used to being alone, because he was alone being ordained a deacon, alone being ordained a priest, in his year, in the seminary he was also alone” as others around him left priestly formation. So being able to be in a coaching cohort with brother priests was a welcome change.
Since Kickstart, Father Petr has jumped into parish renewal with both feet.
Found: A Focus on Fathers
The subject of Fatherhood – spiritual or biological – often dredges up a convoluted catch of emotions, netted from the depths of our memories. Joy, pain, love, fear, anger or even shame. Whether from healing or hurting, those in the role of “father” in our lives cut deeply into our hearts, forming who we believe ourselves to be as children.
Some of the greatest power of fatherhood lays in its ability to create identity. Like a last name, fatherhood can wrap each individual member of the family in a moniker, identifying those who belong.
But ultimately, earthly fatherhood is a reflection. It is in the Creator that parenthood is defined and in its perfect form. It is from him that our true identity is found.
