CONTENTS
October 2002
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No matter how much Christians may want to evangelise, unless they know their faith their efforts will be ineffective. Declan Lang, Bishop of Clifton, looks at what is necessary for effective evangelisation and insists that within all our dioceses adult education still needs to be our priority.
What is the current situation of evangelisation in England and Wales? Philip Knights, who has recently presented a report on this question to the bishops, gives here some of his conclusions. The pluralism and fragmentation of contemporary Britain demand that evangelisation faces up to enormous diversity in a huge variety of religious, cultural and socio-economic contexts.
We are called to bring the gospel to our culture, but what is that culture like? Mark Lawson is a Guardian columnist who presents the cultural discussion programmes Newsnight Review on BBC2 and Front Row on Radio 4. Here he looks at some examples of our culture and concludes that the general trends in society are clearly problematic for religion.
What can I, or my parish, do in a practical way about evangelisation? Catholic Evangelisation Services, based at All Saints Pastoral Centre in Westminster have developed a new video process helping Catholics to get excited about their faith and share the good news with others. Here David Payne, the Director, explains how CaFE works
Ursula Leahy has been involved in parish RCIA since 1989. She is the co-ordinator of the RCIA Committee in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, and a member of the national RCIA Executive. Here she questions whether the RCIA has been considered largely to be a journey in faith, or a time-tabled programme - and offers positive suggestions for parishes to make it the former.
What brings young people into the Church? Robert Toone, 34, a practising barrister married to Amanda and father of four children, is the national leader of Youth 2000. Here he describes its work with young people, on the eve of their highly successful annual youth prayer festival at Walsingham which attracts 1500 young people.
Paul Grogan, parish priest of St Johns, Buttershaw, and a school chaplain, here offers some reflections for the lectionary readings for Sundays and Holy Days in November.
The Diocese of Portsmouth invited young people to meet for a day earlier this year in which they were challenged to dare to be different in living life as Christians today. This is a snapshot of the process of the event.
Books
Roderick Strange
Darton, Longman and Todd, £9.95
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Dwight Longenecker and John Martin
London: Paternoster Press, £7.99
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