Liturgy & Community (LC)
SUNDAY - the gathering of the People of God - is the starting point for who we are as a Christian community, and therefore is a major pillar of our life together. The Sunday celebration is one of the main ways in which we are formed/transformed
as Christians: we come to share our lives, hear our story, and to ‘break bread’ together, and from this we are sent out to live our Christian mission to ‘live justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God’ (Micah) in every day life.
Sunday after Sunday as we proclaim the scriptures the whole mystery of Christ unfolds, and we enter more deeply into the mysteries of our faith - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
CCR offers a variety of study days and workshops for those who have responsibility for gathering the community for worship, and those who minister within that gathering, and the members of those communities themselves, as follows:
LC1 RCIA: Transforming the Parish Community
(tailor-made to parish/parishes 4 sessions)
Workshop on the vision and practice of how the Church accompanies people towards faith in a process that deepens the whole community’s conversion to Christ.
• Overview of the initiation process
• Engaging the Whole Parish!
• Celebrating the Liturgies in the Initiation of Adults
• Celebrating Initiation of Children of Catechetical Age
• Evangelisation and Catechesis in the initiation process:
• discovering and entering into living relationship with Christ
• Community based Catechesis in the RCIA
• Forming/training the Initiation Team
LC2 Becoming a Welcoming Parish Community (4 sessions)
People can often feel ‘left out’ or marginalised in life, and this can sadly be true in our Christian communities too. For a variety of reasons people are isolated and insecure, and parishioners need to be alert and sensitive to those around them, both the ‘regulars’ and the ‘strangers’, and be able to offer a warm and supportive environment where those who come, and those on the margins might begin to feel ‘at home’. The sessions in this workshop will explore what it means to be truly welcoming!
• Why bother? God’s hospitality for us - biblical perspectives
• Just what are we like?! - culture today
• Parish audit and response
• Being inclusive! Who gets left out? The challenge
• What about people who don’t come to church?
• Monitoring/Evaluating - not being ‘cosy’!
LC3 Children’s Liturgy of the Word
(1 to 2 evening sessions or a Saturday morning)
There is increasing demand for adults to lead this liturgical ministry of breaking open the Sunday Gospel with children. CCR offer training for leadership of this vital parish ministry.
• Encountering Christ through the Sunday Gospels
• God speaks - ‘let the children come to me’
• Exploring the National Guidelines for celebrations of the Word with children
• How to encourage proclamation, attentive listening,
• & reflection, enhanced by song, mime and prayer
• Skills, resources, and Child Protection issues
LC4 Living and Praying the Eucharist (2 evening sessions or 1 full day)
The CCR are happy to come and train prospective leaders who would like to use With Hearts and Minds, the RC Liturgy Office resource, as a tool for exploring the Mass with groups in their parish/parishes. The ‘course’ itself enables participants to deepen their appreciation of the nature and role of the Eucharist in the life of the Christian community, and to participate more deeply in this great mystery at the heart of Christian faith.
• Introduction and overview
• Leadership roles
• Structure/preparation of the sessions: simple method
• Introducing 'journalling'
• Parish follow up
