A Dream Come True
By François BrassardIn the last issue of The Journal, I wrote two articles. In “Conversations With Jesus,” I was inspired to create an organization that would be called “Ministry Without Borders.” In “Mid-Island News” I wrote about the connection made between our mid-island faith community and Michele Birch-Conery of Parksville who was in preparation for ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood.
In this issue of The Journal I will describe how the two realities mentioned above were married, and how, in the process, a new community was born.
As I remember it, the moment of conception took place the last evening that our small faith community gathered before the summer break. At my request the subject of discussion was Ministry Without Borders. I really needed some feedback from my community. At Connie’s insistence, I listened and took notes. The discussion was vibrant. Everyone participated. And for the most part, I felt quite supported. Over the next few days the various comments of that evening gestated. One main point kept coming back: one thing is theory, the realm of ideas, and another is practice, the realm of concrete reality. Then it came to me: “Think globally, act locally.” Though I was very much immersed in the global part, it was a local event that generated all the energy to put the two together.
Someone in our mid-island community suggested putting on a celebration for Michele upon the occasion of her ordination (July 25), once we were all back after the summer break. Presumably, it was to be a small potluck affair. The date fixed was September 10, after Labour Day, and two days before I would leave to attend the Wiesbaden ( Germany) Congress of the International Federation of Married Catholic Priests.
That’s when the new community was born: Connie and I decided to make the celebration a momentous event, a ‘kairos,’ that would encompass, but go far beyond our small faith community.
The celebration would take place at Brassbach Abbey beyond the borders of the institutional Church. As it evolved over the summer, the Celebration came to be sponsored by Ministry Without Borders, which now had a practical, local reality urging it to be born.
We went into high gear putting it all together. I worked on some aspects of the celebration: logistics, order of service, media presence, but I was mostly involved with the practical creation of Ministry Without Borders: mission statement, web site and incorporation as a non-profit society. Connie concentrated her efforts on the celebration: the musical elements of the liturgy and all the food and entertainment for after the Eucharistic service at which Michele would preside.
This is when the budding community began bursting with life. First of all, we involved Michele in all the preparations. She took it on and we became a team. Our relationship as mentors evolved: we became family. And her extended family became part of ours. We started working on the invitations, hers and ours. The response was ecstatic. People were overjoyed to be invited and spontaneously asked what they could do to help. When Connie, in her inimitable way, explained to people what we were doing, how we were supporting the ministry of the first Canadian RC womanpriest, people caught the energy and joyously put their creative gifts to work. They took the initiative to recruit their friends and relatives who, in turn, found others to help. It made no difference whether a person was a Catholic or even a Christian. And the amazing thing is that the volunteers kept getting younger: from a 50 year old dancer to a 40 year old caterer, to a 30 year old baker, to a 20 something year old flute player, to a teen aged choir, to pre-teen greeters. It was truly becoming a ministry without borders
A local radio talk show host recently interviewed both Michele and myself, her as an RC womanpriest (www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org) and me as an RC married priest. Contrary to what the host expected to hear, Michele explained that ever since her return from Gananoque, she has been overwhelmed with positive support for what she has done, whether it came from passengers on the return flight from Ottawa or from an elderly man in the local mall. The radio host asked me how I might explain this. Based on responses that I have heard, I told her that a lot of people, especially women, saw Michele as a beacon of hope, because here was an older woman in delicate health risking her life to confront an injustice in one of the oldest institutions in the world. If she could do it, then why, in their own way, couldn't they? Michele added that for her it wasn't a question of confrontation. Simply put, she felt called to model a new way of being priestly, of exercising a ministry of reconciliation and healing. Indeed, that's what she has been doing in her every day contacts.
This is what Ministry Without Borders (www.ministry-without-borders.org) wants to facilitate. MWB sees Jesus as a model leader. He chose people to teach God’s way of healing the suffering that people experience. And he chose people regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion or past behaviour. MWB is committed to the same kind of leadership.
Ministry Without Borders is a dream come true and it is only the beginning. The circle of community is ever widening. Breathe the Spirit! Plant a seed, save the world!