"Holy Cross Parish Goodwood is an active community of faith focused on the Gospels and centred on the Eucharist."

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Our new Parish Cluster Priest

As of 2008 our new Parish Cluster Priest is Father Michael Brennan, pictured here.

Appreciative Inquiry Process Underway

Appreciative Inquiry is a process that builds appreciation by shifting what we look for, what we hope for and what we do together.

The process asks questions to highlight what works in order to help us fix what is wrong. Its purpose is to maximise what we do well.

The three Pastoral Councils of our Parish Cluster met for the first time this year in early March. This Day of Formation began with 8am mass at Kingswood. Afterwards we adjourned to the hall for breakfast and then got stuck into a process of Appreciative Inquiry. Cathy Whewell led us on this search for the best in people, their organisations and the relevant world around them. The process involves asking questions about what gives life to our living system (the parish) when it is most alive, most effective, and most capable.

The day focussed on the Cluster as a system, but now we will bring the Appreciative Inquiry back to the Parish. So this is your chance to think about things before we interview you. The interview is a simple process, more like a chat over coffee. In your life as part of the parish there will have been ups and downs, highpoints and challenges. We will ask you to focus on a highpoint, a time when you felt that the parish was what you had hoped it would be. Perhaps a personal story where the parish made a difference to you, or something the parish did or participated in that made you proud. What happened with this high point? Why is it a high point for you? And if you were to fall asleep for ten years and everything you hoped for your parish had come true, what would you see?

We will bring together everyone's appreciative answers, to help us discover how the parish gives life to our living system. We will be able to increase our potential. Your Parish Council is not here to tell you how things are going to be in ten years. We are here to help facillitate the dreams of all parishioners for the parish. And for that we need everyone to be involved and take ownership - the Goodwood Parish is its parishioners.

During the Cluster Appreciative Inquiry, and the Cluster Meeting that followed a week later, we discovered that there were (of course) differing views on how the cluster gives life, and how the cluster should be organised into the future. But those who attended agreed that the appreciative inquiry process, a celebration of what is right with us, gave us strength and inspiration to start to fix what's wrong.

When the inquiry process does happen, please step up.

David Kilmartin

 

We must be the change we wish to see - Ghandi

 

The banquet of Wisdom, the banquet of Life.

(From the Goodwood Bulletin: August 27,2006)

Monday was a wonderful day:
In Lebanon the guns were silenced and the bombs ceased to drop, and in Australia Mr Howard was forced to drop his Migration Legislation because of insufficient support in the Senate. This was wonderful, not so much because the legislation was not passed, as for the reason for its failure – the refusal of some members of the Senate to vote against their own consciences. This tells us that, not withstanding the dreadful and dishonest things that are said and done, integrity is still alive in our political system. This is a great cause for rejoicing, for hope and for optimism.

The ceasefire in Lebanon is also a cause for hope. As I write this article, I wonder if the guns will still be silent by the time it is being read. We all hope and pray that this will be the case. Even if it isn't, if fighting has resumed , we can find in the ever continuous efforts, however flawed , to talk through the problems, to use diplomacy and the international structures for dialogue, a source of hope.

Referring again to the words of Pope John Paul 11, quoted two weeks ago by Fr Anthony:  `war.is always a defeat for humanity', we can say also that the reverse is  true. The continued efforts to use peaceful means to resolve problems, even in the face of ferocious use of force, is a sign of commitment to justice, integrity and peace, a victory for humanity.

This continuous effort can be seen as a sign of the enduring attempt of humanity to accept the invitation of Wisdom that we listened to in the first reading, to come to the table of Wisdom, to `leave your folly ..and walk in the way of perception'.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul advises them to live `intelligently'. To be open to the Holy Spirit and become a force for good in their world.

We pray also for ourselves: To the extent that we are guided by the Spirit, to the extent that we hope and pray and work for positive, constructive, just and humane solutions to the worlds problems, to that extent our lives are redemptive.

Nourished by the Eucharist, in communion with Christ and with each other we can become part of the redemptive action of Christ which gives life, now for ever.

Sr Elaine Treagus rsm

 

Cluster News

Goodwood Parish is part of the tri-parish cluster that includes

the Kingswood and Colonel Light Gardens Parishes.

 

Goodwood Parish also manages four beautiful cottages at Aldinga Beach. With a fantastic location, the Cana Cottages are available for rent by the general public (though preference is given to parishioners with school-age children during the summer holiday break, and due to popularity this sometimes requires a ballot process to decide the lucky people.)