Diocese of Gizo in the Solomon Islands Bishop's opening address to the Diocesan Assembly December 2005
Good afternoon everyone! Welcome all to the First Session of the first Diocesan Pastoral Council of the Diocese of Gizo. I wish to welcome in a special way those of you who have braved the weather to come by canoe. Above all I welcome Father Michael Fallon whom most of us know and love since he has been so much a part in the beginning and of the on-going renewal program of the Diocese.
All of you here today come also as representatives of your Parishes and Groups working within the Diocese of Gizo. There has been a great deal of preparation conducted through the assistance of Joseph Lalaubatu and his very able Assembly Preparation Team. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.
But the preparation really began when the Diocesan Renewal Program itself was initiated in 1997 with the help of Ms Jill Gibbs and Father Michael both representing the Movement for a Better World. Slowly but surely it has developed to this point where we can all sit down with a common theme as our foundation “Together in the Body of Christ”. We may not have realized then, those of us who gathered together at Loga that this is where we would finish up. But it was my dream – if not so clearly articulated at that time – that all members of the Diocese of Gizo would grow in their understanding and appreciation of themselves as members of the Body of Christ, “The Church”.
Nor would I presume to claim even now that everyone has a perfect appreciation or lives out that membership perfectly. After all we are still human and open to humanity’s sinful ways. However we have grown and developed and hopefully through this Assembly will continue to do so.
How might that happen? There is an air of excitement amongst today as we come together. There is sense of expectation. The Spirit is I feel strongly present with us. That may be the first thing we need to acknowledge: the SPIRIT OF CHRIST IN OUR MIDST. That Spirit is letting us enter, guiding us little by little into the depth of the Mystery of Christ where He dwells with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
I suspect the first thing we need to accept is that being here is a CHALLENGE. Christ is asking us something: look at ourselves, look at our membership in the Church, the Body of Christ. In the now more than 100 years since the first Marist Missionaries and more recently the 50 years since the first Dominicans came ashore in a dingy from the Santa Maria on the same spot where many of you stepped ashore yesterday and today. How do we see ourselves? Most of you here today are third or even fourth generation Catholics. So you can look back over many years of trying to answer Christ’s call: that has been summarized during the Renewal as “WALKING HIS WAY – TELLING HIS TRUTH – LIVING HIS LIFE”. That then is the Challenge already being faced: how have we………At different times and through different means the Renewal Leaders have visited communities and helped people to do this. But again nothing is perfect. So our Challenge has been a Struggle. But definitely not a Failure!
It might well have been a ‘failure’ if there had not been a struggle. It is through crises and problems that we learn a greater dependence on Christ. He had to struggle Himself when he set out to save us: meaning that He ‘has pulled out of danger where our lives might have been lost – has liberated us from oppression – has healed us and made us whole – has freed us from all those fears that close us up in ourselves’ He still does. He is present now struggling with us. In most team sports the Coach gets the sack if the team loses. Some Christians might even have sacked Jesus from their lives! They no longer recognise his presence, as they get sick, loose their jobs or even their families.
If we are to successfully deepen our awareness of ourselves as Church we have first to accept the fact that life with Christ in the Church can be a struggle as the saving power of Christ continues to work in us. It is also the power whereby He also serves us. We too thereby become servants of each other. We are a Servant Church. Unless we learn that lesson, how to serve each other, we cannot be truly together with Him in His Body the Church.
Often part of our struggle when things don’t go according to plan – like Solair canceling flights – is to be highly critical and blame others for what has happened. SO when something goes wrong in the Church we tend to blame even the Pope (or many do), the Bishop, priests and so on down the hierarchical line. But each of us is part of that line; so we need to look at ourselves: how I am living out Christ’s call.
Over the past few weeks during the immediate preparation for this Assembly the communities were asked to answer certain questions. Those answers have now been listed and the Delegates will be given time to discuss them and then bring a summary to the General Meeting so that we can all recognise if there is a pattern emerging in the way the Church of the Diocese of Gizo lives out the call.
That will mean hard work while we are here. Not only that, it will demand patience and acceptance of different points of view and in the end some kind of consensus or agreement to present to the Bishop about what people think and feel. Some will have to admit that a particular point may not be worth pursuing or following in view of what the majority wants to express. Again, part of the struggle!
But as the days progress and we don’t have a great deal of time, the second part of what this Assembly hopes to achieve will become clearer: that from our deliberations a Diocesan Pastoral Council will be established to advise and consult with the Bishop on all matters of pastoral concern to the Diocese of Gizo. Father Michael will explain more of how that happens in a couple of days.
But first of all we need to understand that neither our Assembly nor the Pastoral Council is a law making body. The Council will have certain Statutes like a Constitution setting out how it is to function. But Canon Law does not allow it to make rules or regulations or laws that are in any way binding either on the Bishop or the people. They are recommendations. Important because they express what people feel about their lives in the Church. And perhaps a Bishop would be unwise to ignore them, but that is his prerogative. Nor ought to be seen as a waste of time if he does not seem to listen. I will, you can be sure! Otherwise not so much money and effort would have been spent in gathering us all together. I am sure as listen to each other during these days of discussion that and many other points will be made clearer.
Finally, may I encourage you all to LISTEN to each other? Be patient and encouraging if a speaker is a little shy or too interested in their own point of view and no one else’s! Open your hearts and say what you think however hesitant you feel. It is all right to be yourself. But at the same time you represent a group who has worked hard to tell you how to say what they would like everyone to hear, say you and that means all of us, need to be courageous.
Diocesan Assembly
