By Alison Bradish
“Hope in Every Season” from Ecclesiastes 3:1 was the theme of the 3rd Annual Arch Congress and Kickoff to the 2020 Archbishop’s Appeal. This first-ever virtual Congress was livestreamed September 19th. The program is still available online.
The two hour congress incorporated a preview of the Archdiocese of Regina Appeal videos, greetings from people involved in the capital campaign project and the appeal, music from the praise and worship group City Silence and clips from previous episodes of the Diocese Tonight. The keynote speaker was Matt Nelson, originally from Shaunavon, who now works as the Assistant Director of Bishop Barron’s Word on Fire Institute.
During the livestream participants were encouraged to submit question for the Archbishop which he answered at the end of the meeting. At one point 133 people were in attendance for the live presentation. At the time of publication, the program had been viewed on more than 750 devices.
Hosts Lisa Polk, Director of Pastoral Services for the Archdiocese and Deacon Eric Gurash, Director of Communication and Evangelization, said participants would hear a lot about hope, resilience, and trust throughout the congress.
The first guest speaker of the day was Maria Martinez, the Archbishop’s Appeal Coordinator. Martinez began talking about the life of Christ; how he was born, had a public ministry and was crucified, died, and rose from the dead out of love for us. Although we know the story by heart, said Martinez, served as reminder that Jesus was the reason for the gathering.
“We are called to call our people to become good stewards of the gifts God has given them,” said Martinez.
She highlighted some statistics of the 2019 Appeal. “We reached 80 per cent of our goal, we raised $1.3 million thanks to the generosity of more than 4,500 donors and all of the work of the parishes.”
She said 24 parishes met their goal and $36, 000 will be given out as rebates. She congratulated the parishes that met their goal. There are over 130 parishes in the Archdiocese of Regina.
Feedback received by the Archdiocese finance committee has resulted in a change to the formula for calculating the appeal goal for each parish. It is now based 100 per cent on revenues. The rebate to parishes will be reduced to 10 percent. (In previous years, the formula was based on the percentage of households and the percentage of revenue. If a parish exceeded the goal for fundraising, they were eligible for a rebate of 80 per cent.)
She said the appeal is a fundraising mission providing support to over 20 pastoral ministry programs and grants to various Catholic charities.
For instance, some of the funds are used to educate priests and seminarians and to run the lay formation, communications, youth, and adult programming. Funds are also used to support vocations, social justice initiatives, indigenous relations, and refugee support.
She encouraged participants to talk to others about the Appeal and why they support it. “When talking about the appeal let them know the Church’s mission is amazing and exciting and it includes every human being and that you are inviting them to invest in it.”
Michelle Sanche and John Dipple co-chairs of the Rebuilding our Church Capital Campaign offered an update on their work so far. The campaign is dedicated to restoring and repairing Holy Rosary Cathedral and building a pastoral centre on Cathedral grounds.
Before Covid the committee was working on the “quiet phase” of the campaign approaching those who may have had the capacity to give a larger gift to the campaign. The quiet phase of the campaign will end when 70 to 90 per cent is raised to complete the project.
At that time, the public phase will begin where everyone at the parish level will be given the opportunity to participate.
By the time Covid hit the campaign had just passed $5.4 million, one third of the way to the goal of $17 million. They received five major gifts totalling $4.5 million and 86 gifts totalling $906,000.
Also announced was the launch of a website for the project and ideas and suggestions for improvement are welcomed. It can be found at RebuildingOurChurch.ca and contains information on the campaign as well as donor profiles.
The focus of the webpage is the Holy Rosary Cathedral renovation rather than the pastoral centre. This was a suggestion from volunteer consultants who work in the communication industry.
“While the pastoral centre is important to us as Church members the Cathedral is also important to the neighbourhood, the city and heritage Regina members and others,” said Sanche.
Discussion about a donor recognition wall and honouring opportunities is also in the works.
A charitable foundation is being set up for the campaign. Once registered with the Canadian Revenue Agency future donations will be received and managed by the foundation which will be governed by a board of directors appointed by Archbishop Don Bolen.
“The foundation will give donors the assurance that their donations will go securely to the Rebuilding Our Church project,” said Dipple.
Dipple encouraged those who knew anyone in their community who may have quiet phase capacity to contact them. He said they are looking forward to welcoming new volunteers for the public phase of the campaign as well.
Teresa Drew from Drew Consulting Ltd. has been hired as project manager.
Dipple shared about the partnership between the Regina Symphony Orchestra (RS0) and Holy Rosary Cathedral.
The RSO chose the Cathedral as the location for their Masterworks Concert Series for 2021.
“We are so excited about this opportunity as it allows us to give back to the community, open the doors of the Cathedral to people who wouldn’t otherwise enter the Church and give new people the chance to care about restoring and repairing it,” said Dipple.
Wrapping up the event, Archbishop Don Bolen shared a reflection about hope, reminding viewers the Christian sense of hope still comes forth in the darkest of times and summons us to creative action.
Archbishop Bolen also answered questions sent in during the livestream. One of those questions pertained to the use of church space for non-liturgical events.
Bolen said churches need to be careful about how church space is used saying there are guidelines in place.
“Our Gospel is a Gospel that calls us to reach out, to proclaim good news to the culture, and sometimes it’s events other than church services that allow us to reach out more broadly to the culture around us,” said Bolen.
He said the RSO partnership with Holy Rosary Cathedral is inviting people into the church for a secular event that promotes nothing contrary to the faith and allows an opportunity for engagement that we need.
A question was asked about how the Archdiocese expects to implement the recommendation from Laudato Si (Pope Francis’ encyclical about care of our common home).
Bolen said there are opportunities for the new pastoral centre to have environmental components build into it. He noted an online workshop coming up in the Archdiocese about Laudato Si and the efforts the Archbishop’s appeal is making to reduce waste by using electronic means. He highlighted the CWL for making care for the common home their theme in the past year.
He also took the opportunity to remind people that on October 3rd Pope Francis is signing a new encyclical on human fraternity.
The last question was “If resources were not an obstacle, what are some your dreams for the Archdiocese?”
Bolen says he hopes for the Church to engage with young people more effectively especially in the context of the wonderful opportunity of Catholic schools. He hopes the Church can invite a respectful dialogue with those who do not have faith. Other areas he hopes the Church can be more effective is with the use of technology.
Bolen said he hopes the Archdiocese can accompany and revitalize parishes and in turn parishes know the Archdiocese is there for them, in their joys and struggles.
He addressed the need for the Church to continue to reach out and walk with others. He noted the work being done regarding clergy sexual abuse and the need to be honest, accountable, and transparent about the past, a church that is “safe, holy and respectful.”
Lastly, he acknowledged internal tensions in the Church saying he hopes this leads not to winners or losers but a people who desire unity.
“The Holy Spirit wants us to be united. Our proclamation of the Gospel is so much more effective when we are united and not polarized. …How do we as Church witness to unity? Witness to living together, including living well with difference because the Holy Spirit moves us in different ways.”
At the end of the congress Bolen encouraged anyone with further questions to submit them.
The Arch Congress can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dNPTZjQU_s.
Donations to the 2020 “Hope In Every Season” Archbishop’s Annual Appeal can be made through your local parish or at the various methods offered through the Archdiocese of Regina’s Giving page
