During the Second Week of Easter, Franciscan Friars visited our diocese to teach us How to bring the Gospel Beyond the Church Walls.
Fr Casey Cole (renowned for his YouTube channel – ‘Breaking the Habit’), Fr Roberto “Tito” Serrano and Fr Jason Damon, OFM, met, spoke and listened with a group of young adults representing our university chaplaincies and other groups from across our diocese.
The brothers are based in the Diocese of Charlotte (US) and have recently embarked on a new ministry taking the Gospel onto the streets of Charlotte and into the digital world, to evangelise to all but with a particular focus on young people.
Their visit to the University Catholic Chaplaincy, Newcastle, was one stop in an action-packed, 2-week UK tour to share the hope and essence of their work and message. Bringing the Gospel Beyond the Church Walls is based on the acronym SEARCH: Seek, Encounter, Accompany, Renew, Convert, Heal.
After a time of sharing food and fellowship, the friars each led a talk on an aspect of SEARCH followed by the opportunity for small group discussions.
We explored the importance of taking the time to be secure in our own stories/testimonies of encounter to be able to share them confidently. We were encouraged to go out of our comfort zones to share our faith such as going into new areas to meet people.
It was helpful to be reminded that it’s not about bombarding people with evangelisation but gently forming new relationships and accompanying people through gentle witness and then recognising and making the most of the opportunity to share our stories further if the Holy Spirit calls for this.
Finally, we considered how evangelisation is linked to renewal, conversion of heart and often healing. This is not just relevant to those we witness to but it’s also important that we make space to reflect on how encounters with others renew and continually deepen our own conversion of heart and continue to build our own story.
It was a wonderful and inspiring evening, and we are so grateful to Frs Casey, Tito and Jason, OFM, for making time in their travels to spend such an uplifting few hours with us.
