Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Excellent evening...

...with the FAITH Movement, with a talk by Mgr Keith Barltrop, tackling the question of scandals in the Church. It was honest, thoughtful, and extremely useful. He began with the description of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles - the small community of believers united in faith, holding things in common, praying together, and then at the growth of the Church and the problems that can arise when the Church - or any instiutution - becomes powerful...

Among other issues, he explored how things that can of themselves be  good - respect for privacy and confidentiality, or a sense of brotherly unity among priests - can become bad.  Much food for thought there...and other issues tackled were the need for good spiritual support for priests, a sound understanding of the Church's teaching on sexual ethics, and an authentic sense of communion within the Church. In this he included a recognition of the different and complementary roles of priests and lay people, and a good relationship between the two - something which is emerging in some of the New Movements although these too can have their problems.

There was much more in the talk, and in the discussions that followed. These Evenings of Faith are provng extremely popular, and the parish hall at Warwick Street is packed. The meetings are held on alternate Tuesdays, starting at 7.30pm: more info here...

1 comment:

AndrewWS said...

Yes, it was superb, just the sort of intelligent stimulus one needs. My first time at one of these and it certainly won't be the last.