Fr Martin Boland gives an update on the work of the Vicariate for Adult Formation, which launched a separate website back in June.
In my conversations with priests, religious and lay men and women, a recurring theme was that this new Vicariate should make every effort to provide concrete resources for adults to help deepen their relationship with Christ and His Church. The following are a brief summary of current initiatives:
The Journey Home resources
These have been shared with parishes and can be downloaded in the resources section of www.thresholdsofhope.co.uk. They aim to be an encouragement to people to deepen their participation in the celebration of the Mass.
Thresholds of Hope seminars
Later this month we will begin a series of online Sunday seminars for adults who want to deepen their understanding of their Faith. These seminars will be given by priests of the Diocese and I am grateful to them for their generosity in agreeing to support this initiative. It is good to draw on the considerable talents and experience within our clergy. These seminars are not a systematic course but rather related theological and spiritual topics that adults can dip dip in and out of as they wish. The next talks will be on the 3rd and 10th October and the question being explored is “What does it mean to talk about God?” Fr Mark Reilly, parish priest of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Wickford, will consider this question. If you would like to join this discussion, please forward a contact email to [email protected] For more information about The Thresholds of Hope Questions go to www.thresholdsofhope.co.uk
The Tablet Blog
I have recently written a post Reaching out to lay Catholics with the spiritual riches of the Church (thetablet.co.uk) arguing for a more theologically literate laity and their involvement in the life of the Church. At the same time, I was approached by a young man, Trevor Lopez, who is presently studying medicine at Imperial College, London. He also has an interest in Catholic theology and the Vicariate has agreed to support him as he begins a Catholic Divinity course through Maryvale, Birmingham. You will be able to follow his progress through a serious of video blogs which we hope will also prove an encouragement for other adults to consider Catholic theological studies.
I would also like to draw your attention to another online project developed by Mauro Iannicelli that provides an accessible guide to the Bible for adults. Mauro is a committed Catholic layman in our diocese and has provided input for the Newham Deanery in the past. His YouTube Bible Timeline Course aims to help people better understand the riches of the Bible in a simple and straightforward way. The course begins on Wednesday 29 September 2021 at 7pm. For more information and to register go to www.comeandsee.org