On Saturday, 12 August at 5.30 pm the Matilda’s were playing France.  This team of great sportswomen seems to have captured the imagination of the country!  While the Matilda’s were being celebrated, there was another celebration going on at Deepdene Church.  The community was honouring another great woman – Lyn Kane.  Lyn has been the coordinator of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in our parishes of the last 34 years.  Lyn, (and her team pictured below), has coordinated the welcome and preparation for the sacraments of dozens of people who have become part of the Catholic Church via baptism or confirmation over those years.

The best way to honour the contribution of Lyn is to renew the RCIA process across our parishes.  Recently Tricia Norman and I gathered with 20 people, about four from each of our communities, to start exploring how RCIA can become a more central part of parish life.  We are aware that after decades of Lyn’s wonderful leadership we need to take a renewed approach.   

We are hoping to initially develop an Inquiry team to assist inquirers who might approach us throughout the year.  We would hope to develop a separate group of Catechists to be involved with the Catechumenate journey.  We would like to involve our Liturgy Group, which works across our parishes during the stage of preparation of candidates for the Easter Sacraments.  And finally, it would be our hope that we would develop a fourth team for the Mystagogia, who would accompany the newly baptised and confirmed to find a place in our church community and in the wider church.

This will all take time.  We would like to begin with the Inquiry stage.  Perhaps there are parishioners in our communities who have an interest in one or more of these particular areas.  Tricia Norman and I would love to hear from you if you would like to be involved in any one of these stages.

We have now begun advertising for anyone who would like to inquire about becoming a Catholic.  If you have an interest in being part of one of our teams to welcome people into the Church or if you would like to find out more about the RCIA process, please contact Tricia Norman or me in the coming week.

By Fr Brendan Reed

Email: brendan.reed@cam.org.au or tricia.norman@cam.org.au