May 2008

Dear Members and Friends of The Christian Community in Auckland,

Twenty of us participated in a community meeting on Whitsunday. Lots of ideas, some of them new, appeared - and now we need to continue this essential development process. We will have two more meetings in June which Chris Mullins has agreed to facilitate, then we will get down to the task of forming action groups to follow the process through. Please come along to the June meetings. Details are in the programme.

At the Whitsunday meeting someone expressed the very valid concern that community development is difficult without growth in the number of people participating in the life of the community. The growth dilemma has been around for a long time. How can the community become bigger in terms of the number of individuals and families who are actively involved?

In The Christian Community we do not proselytize – we do not act to induce someone to convert to our own religious faith. We do not recruit people for The Christian Community. Many other churches and religions see it as part of their task to do so. So what can we do? One thing is for sure – we can invite others to join us – invite them to come along and see and experience for themselves. If we gain so much from our participation, why would we not want others to gain too??

Of course we can easily feel that coming straight to the Act of Consecration of Man might be too bigger step for many people. But should we make that judgement? In this respect it can be helpful to reflect on our own first meeting with the Act of Consecration. There are certainly bridging resources available. Our web site is one such – instead of inviting someone to come to church, we could instead invite them to take a look at the web site. They can gain this initial ‘worldly' impression, have a look at some programmes and newsletters and learn a little about The Christian Community. Another resource is there in some of our publications – and of course, our priests are always willing to meet with people – and to be invited as speakers to any kind of group that might be open to hearing some of the things that we have to say.

Our presentation and growth in the world depends on us. We are the community. The ability to prosper and become visible in the world is up to each one of us.

Best wishes ~ Kevin

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