Evangelisation takes place through many doors, not just through talking about one’s faith, UK-based Fr Marcus Holden told Sydney Catholics during his recent visit to Australia.
Known in the UK and abroad for developing the ‘Evangelium Project’ and for his passion for sharing the faith, Fr Marcus spoke to parishes, priests and communities in Sydney and Melbourne in May, 13 years after his first visit to Australia.
While he was in Sydney, Fr Marcus gave a talk titled ‘Opening the Seven Doors of Evangelisation’, which he lists as:
- The door of witness
- The door of proclamation
- The door of truth
- The door of history and tradition
- The door of beauty
- The door of worship and prayer
- The door of relationship
“The door of relationship is where the best evangelisation goes on, where people talk to those whom they know, they walk with them, they share their lives,” he explained.
“For [the laity] to realise that they can do it, that they have a calling to do it and that it will only work through them, that's a big shift. I wouldn't say we're wholly there yet, but that's been the work to equip people to be missionary disciples.”
Fr Marcus said the Archdiocese of Southwark, where he has served for the past five years as Episcopal Vicar for Evangelisation and Catechesis, was experiencing great fruit due to a change in mentality at parish level.
“We had over 500 people received into the Church or baptised at Easter this year in the Archdiocese,” he said. “Part of my work with the Agency for Evangelisation and Catechesis has been to shift the mentality from thinking of the parish… like a spiritual petrol station where you fill up and then go away again, to thinking about the parish as a hub of mission… and that the people in that parish have a mission to bring life to those around them.”
The Archdiocese of Southwark, which established its own Agency for Evangelisation and Catechesis in September 2020, has used an “ecclesial approach to evangelisation”.
“There's a network of evangelisation all the way through the Archdiocese from the Archbishop to the local people in the parishes,” Fr Marcus explained. “In every parish, we've called on the priest to appoint leaders in evangelisation. And our work from the Agency for Evangelisation has been to support them and to equip them.
“We've asked each parish to come up with their own bespoke plan for sharing the faith, evangelisation, formation, catechesis, to make a definite plan to take steps forward.”
As a young man, Fr Marcus had a great passion for sharing the faith, establishing St Anthony Communications with his brother, Christian, who still runs the Catholic resource business. He said he has always valued quality written and visual material for sharing the faith.
“Back then in the early ‘90s, it was very hard to get Catholic material,” Fr Marcus recalled. “We discovered the teaching of Scott Hahn and… it was just amazing. We hadn't heard anything like this, the exposition of the faith through scripture, and we wanted to make this available… and so that's how St Anthony Communications started.
“Today, we've got better written material, better programs, courses, resources, audio-visual materials. It's all there. We're resource rich, but it's about getting the right resource into the right hands at the right moments.”
Later, as a seminarian, Fr Marcus developed the ‘Evangelium Project’ with a classmate as a means of transmitting the faith through art.
“As seminarians, we were teaching catechism to young people in Rome, and we found that it was really useful to use sacred art, in order to explain the catechism and the faith,” Fr Marcus said.
After ordination, the priests produced a course teaching the four parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church – creed, sacraments, morals and prayer – using Christian art. The course is used for people wishing to become Catholic as well as for those returning to the practice of their faith.
Although the UK has witnessed a decline in religious affiliation over the past 30-40 years, Fr Marcus said recent trends are a source of hope and encouragement.
“There's an increase in the number of people getting baptised as adults, of young people inquiring about the faith and coming into the faith,” he said.
“There’s a newness and freshness of people discovering Christianity because the culture is not delivering to them what they need for their hearts and for their minds. It's an exciting time.”
Among the many challenges for the Church in today’s world, Fr Marcus said one key task ought to remain a priority.
“We have to keep evangelisation front and centre if we're really to help people, to save souls, to bring the light of Christ to others,” he said.
Links
Archdiocese of Southwark – Agency for Evangelisation and Catechesis
Image: Alphonsus Fok/The Catholic Weekly
Words: Matthew Biddle