Down and Dromore gears up for mission
Down and Dromore has been gearing up for mission with a very successful series of Mission Workshop events, the last of which has just taken place in Knockbreda.
Eight workshops were repeated at three separate venues with 470 attending from a cross–section of parishes. Part of the preparations for The Year of Mission 2015, the events were for clergy and their mission teams and looked at areas for mission focus and how to do mission in different contexts.
There was a great atmosphere at each venue with participants diving straight into the topics after a brief introduction and welcome. The hour–long workshops were punctuated by a tea–break and we are indebted to St John’s Moira, St Mark’s Newtownards and Knockbreda parishes for providing refreshments and the use of their halls. Thanks also to the Down and Dromore Council for Mission for organising the events and the Diocesan Office for their administrative support.
Our workshop leaders come mostly from within Down and Dromore but we were delighted to welcome visitors such as Paddi Totten (Glenavy) who talked about Mission amongst Older People, Ali Calvin (Killeshandra) who lead a workshop on Mission in Rural Parishes and Canon Sam Wright (Lisburn Cathedral) who shared his experiences of Urban Mission. The other topics covered were Alpha Re–examined, Mission to Men, Mission and Children, Mission in Country Towns, and Mission in Large Estates.
The general consensus was that it was very helpful to hear what other parishes were doing and many took away ideas to be applied in their own context. Here are just a few of the positive comments shared during tea–break:
As far as this (whole event) is concerned I think you got the time, the topics, the delivery and the message all right, and I don’t say that lightly.” William Hamilton, St Clement’s.
“Fantastic, really good resources and really good for giving us links to go ahead and look at our own context as well.” Pete Graham, Youth Ministry Coordinator at Seapatrick (Mission and Children workshop).
“I’ve never been to an Alpha Course so I wasn’t coming from an experiential position. It gave me food for thought.” Rosie Armstrong–Woodroffe, St John’s Newcastle (Alpha Re–examined workshop)
“Very good. It set a good focus on how we need to make a culture so that men will feel comfortable coming into church events.” Peter McMurray, St John’s Moira (Ministry to Men workshop).
See our photo gallery here.