MANAGEMENT IN TODAY’S CHURCH
In the summer of 2011, when happily I accepted the appointment as parish priest of Bishop Eton and St Mary’s, Woolton, instinctively, I was already imbued with the spirit of synodality, long before Pope Francis invited the whole Church to think seriously about the need for all of us to walk together on life’s pilgrimage. My experience as parish priest in Birmingham and Sunderland had confirmed my conviction that professional administration of the parish was essential if the priest was to be free to carry out his ministry without the burden of all the inevitable paperwork. Six years at Redemptorist Publications reinforced my experience of how rewarding it can be to work with a large team of dedicated people, using their different skills to help proclaim the Gospel.
Accordingly, during the past thirteen plus years, I have sought to continue that tradition, and I want to pay tribute to the wonderfully loyal team who have staffed our offices and enabled me and my confrères to be available to minister in the two parishes. You do not need me to remind you again that as we, the priests, grow older the challenge to maintain that level of ministry requires an even greater commitment on the part of our administrators. The fact that, in recent times, they have been taking new initiatives and marshalling our faithful teams of volunteers to fill in the gaps has not gone unnoticed, and I will continue to seek the support of the Archdiocese to ensure that they are employed and recompensed for the hours this all requires. At St Mary’s we have been promised a Maintenance Supervisor, but because of some technical difficulties, the appointment has been postponed. The need for such a person was perfectly illustrated this past week when again I had to close the office because the new boiler had been declared unsafe. After demanding an urgent response and having to give up part of my day off, I am happy to report that the problem has been resolved, and the office is open again. I will be discussing all these matters with the Archdiocese in the coming days in an attempt to allay any further problems.
