March 1st Pastor's Message

Read this week's message from Father Don

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Dear Friends,

After celebrating my 71st birthday last week I began to reflect on the challenging reality of aging, not only my own aging but that of many practicing Catholics. 

At All Saints we are fortunate to have a significant number of young families attending Sunday mass, many of whom have come to the parish recently. Involving them with parish faith formation or volunteering is, understandably, more of a challenge. 

The parishioners involved in these areas of parish life are predominantly over 65 and retired. This age category only accounts for 20% of the general population, but in active parish involvement the percentage is much higher.  It would be wonderful if we could find a way to facilitate more active parish involvement among young and middle-aged parishioners.

Here is another issue that deserves our consideration. According to the 2021 census, 52% of    British Columbians indicate they have “no religion" (and an even higher percentage if we include those who have a religion but don’t practice it).  A study by the Angus Reid Institute suggests that religious practice is lowest in urban areas and among young people (aged 18-34).

I do not report these findings to make you feel depressed but simply to clarify the reality of the cultural situation in which All Saints operates. The widespread lack of interest in religion and reduced faith practice among young people are key factors that need to shape our pastoral ministry. Continuing to do “what we have always done” is not an adequate plan to address the needs of the contemporary world.

How can we respond effectively to these big spiritual challenges? No single plan is going to be sufficient, a flexible and creative variety of initiatives will be needed.  Pastoral ministry often relies on “trial and error,” that is, an initiative is developed to address a specific need and, after completion, its success is assessed: “Did this initiative accomplish what we hoped for or is another approach required?”

Whatever the approach, the motivation will be the same: a sincere concern about the challenges which leads parishioners to become involved in addressing them.

All Saints is a wonderful parish but much effort will be required if it is to have a secure future. We are God’s people, his co-workers in the vineyard.

Love,

Father Don

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