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\u201cTaste and see the goodness of the Lord\u201d resonates strongly with me this\u00a0week as two of us were invited to the \u201cRimutaka Gate to Plate\u201d meal at\u00a0Rimutaka Prison.
\nWe were warmly welcomed by both prisoners and staff;\u00a0experienced attentive and professional hospitality and enjoyed a veritable feast of delicious\u00a0foods, finishing up with an amazing dessert which exploded into a multitude of different and\u00a0exciting tastes. It sure looked and tasted like the goodness of the Lord.<\/p>\n
While we were at the prison we learnt the number of people in prison, the number of\u00a0children impacted by parents in prison, and the number of staff working in Corrections to\u00a0change offenders\u2019 behaviours. We also learnt that 60% of prisoners are unable to read or\u00a0write. The Department of Corrections are challenging themselves to reduce re-offending,\u00a0particularly amongst young offenders, by 25% in 2017. They said they can work on changing\u00a0behaviours, providing the education and developing work skills while people are in prison.\u00a0Their challenge to us, in the wider community, is to provide the chance for employment for\u00a0ex-prisoners so that they can support themselves and their families, create a different life\u00a0pathway and find ways of belonging and participating in our society and communities.<\/p>\n
Such a challenge can be like \u201c the uncomfortable truth\u201d which led Jesus to ask his apostles\u00a0if they wanted to leave, or the choice Joshua poses to his people whether they will \u201cserve the Lord\u201d or the gods of the Amorites. In both instances the choice is whether to\u00a0acknowledge that the Lord is our God and the source of eternal life, with all the challenges\u00a0and discomforts that choice may bring. Last week, we expressed hopes for our new parish\u00a0community. Some of the hopes we expressed will lead to choices that are not always\u00a0comfortable. At some points we will need to learn to give way to one another, and none of\u00a0us finds this easy. We will also be invited to move from our places of comfort, to reach out\u00a0to those on the margins of our parish community and of society. To find our way \u201cto live\u00a0in love as Christ loved us\u201d, in our new parish community, we need to pray that, like the\u00a0Ephesians, we can constantly be cleansed by the \u201cwords of Eternal life\u201d, so that we can\u00a0respond to the invitation of Pope Francis to move beyond our church structures to the\u00a0people and communities who are\u00a0marginalised in our society.<\/p>\n
Discernment \u00a0– \u00a0Community<\/strong> A handout with hopes for Community accompanies this week\u2019s newsletter. We want\u00a0so much from and for our Community, and we are prepared to contribute to that\u00a0Vision. Look closely at the feedback and what you are seeing in our hopes for\u00a0Community is remarkably similar to St Paul\u2019s image of Church as Marriage:\u00a0caring, sharing, nurturing, supporting, communicating, loving, loyalty, tolerance,\u00a0thankfulness, sensitivity, creativity, courteousness, equality, family orientation,\u00a0faithfulness, respectfulness, selflessness, thoughtfulness, a shared vision, uniqueness,\u00a0commitment<\/p>\n At the same as we reflect on our Church and Parish Community, we also pause and look\u00a0out to who is in our wider Community\u2014people, communities, groups that we support, We pray:<\/strong> Reflecting on this week\u2019s Scriptures \u201cTaste and see the goodness of the Lord\u201d resonates strongly with me this\u00a0week as two of us were invited to the \u201cRimutaka Gate to Plate\u201d Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellingtonsouthcatholic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHow will we be a Community? Who is in our Community?
\nOver the last three weeks we have named our fears, and our hopes, for the new\u00a0Catholic Parish of Wellington South. This week we begin to reflect on how we will we\u00a0live out our Vision. We hold the hopes we have named for Community as we reflect\u00a0on how we will be a community and who is in our wider Community.
\nWe follow God and are led to God through the Holy Spirit in a Church Community. \u00a0We are nourished by the words and Eucharist of Jesus Christ. We don\u2019t do it alone.\u00a0By being here we have made a choice to gather and worship as a Community.<\/p>\n
\nreach out to, get support and inspiration from, who we are obliged to, responsible for,\u00a0inspired by, anyone who lives in the area from the Coast to the Harbour.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLord, where would we go? \u2013 This is our place \u2013 our Parish, our Community,
\nthis is the Church in which you share your words of eternal life\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"