Taking the Light Out From Under the Bushel Basket

Every parish has people living just beyond its doors who may never think of the Church until they need it—when a loved one dies, when life raises a question they cannot answer, when loneliness settles in, or when they simply begin wondering whether faith has anything to say to the life they are living.

The challenge is reaching them before that moment passes.

That is the opportunity Father Brian Converse sees in the Tri-Parish Community’s renewed Evangelization Program, sponsored by St. Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and Sacred Heart in Groton and Our Lady of Lourdes in Gales Ferry.

The series is not simply a collection of talks. For Father Brian, it is part of a larger effort to make the parish a place people think about throughout the week—a place where they can learn, ask questions, meet others and encounter the Catholic faith in ways that connect with real life.

“We’ve got to show people who we are, what we are, and how rich our faith is, and how it plays a role in our daily lives and making decisions,” he said.

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A Program Rooted in Invitation

That conviction has been developing for years.

Father Brian said the roots of the program go back about 15 years, when he worked with Deacons Bill McGann and Phil Hayes to begin offering presentations on a variety of subjects. The idea was straightforward: the Church already had knowledgeable, talented people. Why not give them a place to share what they knew and invite the community to join the conversation?

The presentations were promoted beyond the local parishes, and word traveled. Father Brian remembers his mother showing him a parish bulletin from his home area of Pomfret that carried information about one of the programs.

After COVID interrupted the effort, Father Brian wanted to bring it back. This time, he again looked to a resource that is sometimes easy to overlook: the people already serving within the Diocese of Norwich.

“We have a lot of talented individuals in the diocese,” he said.

In particular, Father Brian has been impressed by the education, professional experience and knowledge of the Diocese’s permanent deacons. Rather than deciding every subject himself, he reached out and invited them to bring forward topics they believed would be meaningful.

“You pick a topic, I’ll host it,” he told them.

The purpose is not to fill a calendar. It is to create encounters.

Father Brian described evangelization as “reaching out to the community and pulling people into our churches” and helping them gain “a deeper sense of church, of faith, of the Catholic Church.”

That outreach can take many forms. In the past, the parishes have hosted programs on bereavement and end-of-life concerns, bringing together people with different kinds of expertise to address questions that families eventually face but may not know where to take. One end-of-life program included a funeral director, an attorney and a physician experienced in pain management.

The response surprised even Father Brian. About 115 people attended the program in Gales Ferry.

The number matters not because 115 people filled a room, but because it revealed something deeper: people have questions, and they are willing to come to the Church when they believe the Church is willing to meet them there.

That is where this effort becomes more than adult education. A person might come because a topic catches their attention. Someone else may attend because a friend invited them. Another may simply be curious about something they have wondered about for years. They may arrive looking for information and discover a community.

That first step may seem small. In evangelization, it may be anything but small.

Uncovering the Light

Father Brian believes the Church has an extraordinary richness to share, but Catholics can sometimes be hesitant about putting it before others.

“I think sometimes we keep our faith under a bushel basket,” he said.

His goal is to uncover that light.

That does not mean every program must look like a theology class. Father Brian spoke enthusiastically about the possibilities of music, community gatherings and presentations that address subjects people encounter in ordinary life. He and his music director are also considering concerts as another way of welcoming people, including those beyond the Catholic community, into the parish.

The common thread is invitation.

“A lot of talent” is out there, Father Brian said, and “people love to share their talents and their abilities if they’re asked.”

The same may be true of those sitting on the other side of the parish doors. Sometimes people need to be asked. Sometimes they need a reason to come. Sometimes they need to discover that the Church is interested not only in whether they are present at Mass on Sunday, but in the questions, struggles and hopes that fill the rest of their week.

Father Brian sees parish facilities as places that should be alive with that kind of activity. Churches already host recovery groups, Scouts and other gatherings. Why not continue looking for new ways to bring people together?

“The church has got to be back to the center of a community,” he said.

That vision also helps explain why the Evangelization Program is intended to reach well beyond the three sponsoring parishes. Father Brian hopes people from throughout the deanery and the Diocese will take part. The parish can become a host, but the invitation is much larger.

“It all comes back to the community,” he said.

Come and See

There is also something distinctly Catholic about that idea. Evangelization is sometimes imagined as having exactly the right answer to a theological question or finding the perfect words to bring someone back to the faith. But evangelization can begin much more quietly.

It can begin when a parish opens its doors on a Saturday morning, when someone hears a speaker discuss a question they have carried for years, or over a cup of coffee after a presentation when a stranger becomes an acquaintance. It can begin when someone who thought the Church had nothing to say to them discovers otherwise. And it can begin with one Catholic simply saying to another person, “Why don’t you come with me?”

That may be the real promise of the Tri-Parish Evangelization Program. The topics will change. The speakers will change. Some gatherings may draw a handful of people and others may fill the room. But every gathering creates the possibility of an encounter.

The light is already there. The faith is already there. The people with gifts to share are already there.

The work of evangelization is to stop hiding those gifts under the bushel basket—and invite someone else to come and see.

ALL ARE WELCOME

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