Looking to the Future of Kyoto Diocese:
We're aiming at Collaborative Ministry for Mission
New
Year's Day, 2001
Paul Otsuka Yoshinao, Bishop of Kyoto
Introduction
By getting to grips with Collaborative
Ministry for Mission, a way of making the church into a community, Kyoto
Diocese is trying to turn itself and its various parishes into an evangelizing
church which will be appropriate for the coming age.
At present there are 57 parishes in the diocese and from April of this
year, to coincide with this year's changes in the appointments of priests,
all 57 will be officially grouped into Collaborative
Ministry for Mission regions. In
other words, since every parish will belong to one of these regions, there will
no longer be any completely independent parishes. A total of 37 "full-time priests holding
responsibility" and four "part-time supporting priests" will be
appointed to these Collaborative Ministry
for Mission regions.
Thinking
about the future of Kyoto Diocese, as we give thanks at the end of the Great
Holy Year to celebrate 2,000 years since the birth of Christ and set out into
the first century of a new millennium, I would like to use the occasion of this
New Year Pastoral Letter to speak to every Christian of the diocese about Collaborative Ministry for Mission and
to ask for your understanding and cooperation in making it happen.
Even
before now, when an opportunity has presented itself in the diocese, I have had
occasion to explain to all of you something about Collaborative Ministry for Mission.
In this diocese Collaborative
Ministry for Mission began nine years ago when the first Collaborative Ministry for Mission
region was inaugurated in 1991. If we count the period of preparation before
that time it is now almost ten years since we began hearing about it. From time to time it has been taken up as the
theme of articles in the Diocesan Newsletter and of study days both for clergy
and for laity. From April, however, when finally all the parishes will be directly involved
in it, it is important that every church and all the Christians should
be thinking about it in the same way and from the same standpoint. It would
be impossible to explain everything about Collaborative Ministry for Mission
in a single letter so I would like to concentrate, in this letter, on a
few basic points which are especially important at this time when we -
everyone in the diocese - begin to work together towards realizing it.
1.
The Objective of Collaborative Ministry for Mission
The
most important objective of engaging in Collaborative
Ministry for Mission is to transform the Japanese Catholic Church radically,
even more than has ever before, into an evangelizing church. To achieve this
primary objective the various parishes, by putting into practice Collaborative Ministry for Mission which is a movement for renewing the Church community, will need to become
“Mission-oriented Church Communities”. Collaborative Ministry for Mission is not, then, simply a policy
of last resort by which a small number of priests can undertake the pastoral
care of a large number of parishes; an expedient made necessary because the
number of priests has fallen short of the number of parishes.
Certainly
we cannot deny that the first stimulus which led to the introduction of Collaborative Ministry for Mission was
the diminishing number of
priests. During the last nine years, however, as Kyoto diocese has gradually promoted
Collaborative
Ministry for Mission in practice and
tried to find solutions for the various problems which have arisen, we have
come to see that there are more positive objectives than overcoming a shortage
of priests. These and the urgent tasks
they bring with them are a challenge to
Collaborative Ministry for Mission.
For
example, comparing Collaborative Ministry
for Mission and the system of “a parish priest in every parish” which has
prevailed up to now we can see the limitations of the former system and work to
overcome them. We can also push ahead more radically with the practice and
development of the lay apostolate which has been strongly emphasized since
Vatican II. Similarly, the fact that the
Church with its rising age structure, absence of young people and falling
numbers etc., is far from healthy becomes very much more apparent.
Furthermore, meeting he evangelical needs of Japan’s ever more complicated
and pluralistic Society - e.g. the need for humane assistance of foreign
residents, the demand for pastoral service by lay Christians, etc. - constitutes
a near insurmountable challenge for an individual church. In view of the
awareness the Catholic Church is gaining from society at large, however, once
again Collaborative Ministry for Mission would seem to be the most effective way of dealing with the various tasks
and problems which the Japanese Church is grappling with and solving at
the present time. As a
result of our nine years of experimentation with Collaborative Ministry for Mission at least this kind of
discernment is gradually spreading among both priests and people.
2. Collaborative Ministry for Mission and
“Streamlining of Parishes” are Not the Same
The
introduction of Collaborative Ministry
for Mission is not intended as a preparation for the amalgamation of parishes. If there are those among you
who are preoccupied by this anxiety and feel, therefore, that you cannot fully
cooperate with Collaborative Ministry for
Mission I ask you first of all to correct that misapprehension and try to
grasp its proper meaning. Because the
first objective of Collaborative Ministry
for Mission is to become an evangelizing Church we don’t have in mind the
idea of using it as a means of combining several small parishes to make one
great big one. In order to achieve Collaborative Ministry for Mission there
is no need to put aside the unique flavour, particular history and valued
traditions which make up the individuality of any parish.
If,
however, among the various activities which should take place in any parish
there are things we cannot, as a small church, manage to do we can and should,
without detriment to our individuality, achieve these things jointly with the other
parishes in the region. Within the
church community these activities might include liturgical planning, faith
development courses or the pastoral care of foreigners and their integration
into our community. In cooperation with
the wider society they might include welfare work, Justice and Peace activities
and volunteer work etc.
I
would also like to say quite frankly, however, that for reasons other than
achieving Collaborative Ministry for
Mission it may become necessary to amalgamate parishes in order to have a
proper distribution of churches within the diocese.
3. Collaborative Ministry for Mission
is a Reformation of Faith
Well then, why is the “Parish Priest System” inadequate to the task of
bringing about an evangelizing Church? Why are we
embarking upon Collaborative Ministry for
Mission now? In order truly to grasp
the notion of Collaborative Ministry for
Mission we have keep in mind the fact that it is a “Reformation of Faith”. What I mean is that the stagnation, or
impasse of our Japanese church requires that we Christians reinvigorate our way
of seeing or understanding our “faith”.
The
purpose of Collaborative Ministry for
Mission is to become an evangelizing church. Strictly speaking a church that does not evangelize becomes vacuous; a
mere shadow of its true self. To say that faith, or being a believer, is
what we are now is inviting the demise of the Church. How we see the Church
depends on how we see our faith. So now, when the whole of Kyoto diocese
is united in wanting to walk together, the most fundamental reasons why
we cannot make progress is that we fail to ascertain our shared notion
of faith and an unconscious lack of openness towards our faith. If we look
back in history at some stage of our faith education became a matter of
how I can maintain “my faith”. And the Church was administered with the
mentality “Outside the Church there is no salvation”. As a
result of this Christians of subsequent ages saw life against a dualistic
backdrop that distinguished between an ideal life of faith and the deeply
sinful way of life of Society at large.
When all is said and done to talk of faith in terms of maintaining “my
faith”, or to have a concept of the Church as “my Church”, itself betrays
a strange way of thinking. The faith is not something I
have devised but something which has been handed on to me. Faith refers first of all the deposit of
faith guarded by the Catholic Church, and the Church is the assembly of those
who, given as a first premise the unconditional grace of God, have freely
accepted that faith and hand it on. This
content of the Church’s faith is the same as that the disciples received from
Jesus. Divine Revelation, God’s all
embracing plan to save the whole of creation by his own initiative, was
realized in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The disciples recognized in Jesus’ lifelong witness to the “Good News
of the Kingdom of God” the plan of God the Father. Precisely because they
realized, through the events of his death and resurrection that took place
in Jesus’ earthly life, that those events were what determined their own
salvation they were able to overcome countless sufferings to tell the whole
world about Jesus. The Church takes as the content of its faith “Jesus’
Good News of the Kingdom of God” which derives from “Jesus death and
Resurrection” and Salvation from God the Father handed on by the disciples.
It stands to reason, therefore, that the Church will struggle in the same
way as the disciples to find ways of communicating this as easily as possible
to the people and Society of its own day and age.
The
Church, which is the assembly of believers, realizes its raison d’etre
precisely when it makes its objective the handing on of the faith. In other
words the Church is essentially a missionary body. Furthermore Christians and the Church have a
social existence. When the faith which we each hand on is directed at Society,
therefore, because of our fellowship, doesn’t “my faith” become “our faith”
with a social dimension; the faith of the individual changed into the faith of
the Church? And isn’t the Church, then, a
“Church for everyone” in that society? I think this is something we should
always be reminding one another of as we work to renew our faith and the
Church.
4. What is Collaborative Ministry for Mission?
Next I
will try to answer practically the question, “What is Collaborative Ministry for Mission?” The name contains the word ‘collaborative’
and this means that all the widely different members of the church will run it
together, collaboratively. This ‘collaboration’ will be put into practice at
every level of church activity.
The
ultimate starting point for parish Collaborative
Ministry for Mission is that the priests themselves work as a team. Up to
now there has always been a Parish Priest appointed to a parish (sometimes with
one or more curates to help). In that case this single Parish Priest made
practically all the decisions about what was to be done in the parish. In the
case of Collaborative Ministry for
Mission several priests form a team and, as a team of priests, decide about
each member’s role and divide up their responsibility to provide priestly
leadership. In Collaborative Ministry for
Mission the priests do not achieve their ministry of service to the Church
community as ‘individual players’; they relate to the Christian community as a
team. In this way they will be able to compensate for one another’s lack of
ability and physical limitations in giving leadership.
In the regional community the priests also work together (collaborate)
with the Laity and Religious in providing Ministry for Mission. When this
team at the core of the community meets, they will work together to set
out a basic policy of Collaborative Ministry for Mission and a
specific Pastoral Plan and they will make plans for the day to day affairs of
the parish. Furthermore they will consult with as many of the parishioners as
possible about these plans so that it will be the whole Church community that
makes decisions. Whatever has been decided will put into practice everyone and
their activities evaluated as a community. In this way and the process of
always discerning together about each activity the parish engages in, the
fellowship among all the members of the parish and their working together at missionary
activity, will all become an indispensable part of Collaborative Ministry for Mission.
5. The Spirituality of Collaborative Ministry for Mission
The
most fundamental concept for understanding Collaborative
Ministry for Mission is, therefore, ‘collaboration’. So that every level of
the Church community (Priests’ team, Parish team, region, the whole diocese)
can fulfil their particular vocation they share responsibility. When running
things, making decisions about activities, putting these into practice or
evaluating them by themselves they will always do what has been “discerned” by
the whole parish community. This is the
Collaborative Ministry for Mission way of thinking which grows out of ‘collaboration’
which we may call the Spirituality of Collaborative Ministry for Mission.
In
essence, Collaborative Ministry for
Mission is about discerning together as a community before “doing things
together” and afterwards, if there is something more you can do together,
planning that and putting it into action. Simply “doing something together”
doesn’t constitute Collaborative Ministry for Mission. Certainly
there is meaning and purpose in doing things together. For example if we do a
retreat together, or run a children’s camp together we avoid the negative effect
of small numbers. If we work together on a larger scale we not only avoid
wasted effort but our activities become much more effective and significant. It
is precisely because of Collaborative
Ministry for Mission that we are able to achieve something more easily but
in the final analysis that is not what Collaborative
Ministry for Mission sets out to do.
When
they are working to bring about Collaborative
Ministry for Mission the priests, religious and laity together are
deepening the fellowship within the parish community. What they are aiming for
whilst doing pastoral and missionary work through Collaborative ministry is to
change the traditional mentality, which can be seen in pastoral work up to now,
that “the priest is the leader and the laity are dependent upon him”. They will
also take a radical new look at the missionary methods associated with this
mentality so that the parish community will be able to achieve in this age, by
responding to the problems of modern society and the evangelical needs of its
own area, the missionary vocation that the Church has recognized as essential
from its earliest days.
6.
Limitations of the Traditional System of
Pastoral Care and the “Parish Priest System”.
In
order to understand what we mean by collaboration let's try thinking about the
differences between Collaborative
Ministry for Mission and the Parish Priest System. In the former system
there was, in any individual church (parish), a single priest, appointed by the
bishop to that one church, with the title ‘Parish Priest’. He was seen as
literally supervising and leading the church on behalf of the bishop, he made
all the decisions about parish activities and he alone carried the entire
burden of responsibility for it. This system has continued right up to the
present day.
From
the point of view of deciding what a church should do this ‘Parish Priest
System’ was probably quite sufficient in an age where the image of the church
conformed to a ‘Pastoral Model’. The
parishioners received spiritual care from their priest
and their faith-life was completely passive. On the other hand the priest had a
very active role principally in
administering the sacraments (the Mass) then teaching catechism to catechumens,
leading a Scripture study group or individually counseling people with problems
of one form or another. The
relationship between the priest and his parishioners was determined by this
difference between them. Church finances as well as all the parish activities
and events, even to the point where one man was unable to cope, were decided by
the parish priest alone and overwhelmingly the parishioners passively accepted
his decisions.
From
the point of view of evangelization, even well after Vatican II, although there
was instruction and baptism of catechumens, over and above that there was
little to be seen by way of what we now describe as the “evangelization of
Society itself”.
Difficulties
arose out of this situation. To mention just one, when the Parish Priest was
replaced the whole direction of parish policy was likely to change suddenly
according to the way of doing things preferred by the incoming Parish Priest.
The laity would become bewildered but, although they lived there beyond the
tenure of any parish priest and were devout Christians, they had no independent
responsibility for the management of their own church and its missionary
policy. In the end they were at the mercy of the whims of a single priest and
could not maintain a consistent long-term pattern of Church activities.
7.
The Way of the Post-Vatican II Church
Since
Vatican II, even under the old system of Parish Priests, there has gradually
emerged a wish to move towards a community consistent with principles such as “Prominence
of the Laity” or “Cooperation of Clergy and Laity”. It seems, however, to be
taking an inordinately long time for a really lively and boldly challenging
evangelizing Church to appear. The teaching of the Council that the Church
should “renew itself so as to be open to the modern world” showed the Church a
way forward which was like asking a person to change his mind completely. But
the although the ‘head’ has changed we have as yet to see this reflected in a
physical change in the body of Christ. Collaborative
Ministry for Mission is, little by little, changing the old shape of the
Church.
The most important thing is to have a feeling for the Spirit of the Age.
At the close of the violent twentieth century both Mankind as a whole and
Japanese Society, politically, socially, culturally or in whatever field
of human endeavour are facing a period of transition to a new age. In the
world at large and in Japan the fact that the former system is falling
apart is being exposed, and we are living in the present age with a feeling
of uncertainty about the future. It was precisely because the Catholic
Church was also acutely aware of this transition to a new age that, at
the instigation of pope John-Paul II, it seized the opportunity of the
preparing for and celebrating the Great Holy Year as a way of reflecting
on our past sins and faithlessness in order to make a fresh start as a
Church fitted to the new millennium.
8.
Collaborative Ministry for Mission
and the Identity of the Church
By reflecting in this way the Church has been made to think again about
the meaning of the mission of salvation entrusted to it by Christ. In the
present age the Church is reaffirming its raison d’etre. It is discovering
itself as part of “salvation history” which is based on a theology of
being called and sent (vocation and mission). God chose to accomplish his
works for the salvation of mankind by means of choosing from among them
and calling to service a small number of representatives. The ultimate
representative is Jesus; before him came the people of Israel and after
him the New Testament Church, his beneficiary.
In Japan especially, rather than being taken up with the Church's special
circumstance as just a very small group within society, we should see ourselves
as ministers specially chosen to represent the true People of God. We can
see this as the special vocation of the Japanese Church to work in a missionary
environment. Because of that, we bear witness with conviction, before Japanese
Society and the rest of the modern world which are indifferent towards
gospel values, as ‘special ministers’ for bringing a gospel of hope to
the present age.
In
this way the experiment with Collaborative Ministry for Mission will give us the courage to ask certain simple questions and to answer
them candidly and without regret with the wisdom which comes from honesty.
These would be questions like why (in a Japan with so few Christians) am
I a Catholic; what, after all, is the Church; apart from having a building
in which we gather to worship what ought this small Japanese community
to be doing?
9.
A Chance for the Japanese Church to become Self-Supporting
A basic reason for choosing Collaborative Ministry for Mission is the realization
that the time has come for the Japanese Church to become self-supporting. Today in many
churches, because of a falling off in the number of parishioners or the rising
age-structure of their members, the system of raising funds for church
maintenance is beginning to
crumble. Particularly churches which,
after the war, were supported from abroad by religious orders and missionary
societies, both financially and in terms of manpower, need to become
self-sufficient in every way.
Because
we have decided to commit ourselves whole-heartedly to achieving Collaborative Ministry for Mission even
supposing the number of priests should increase the movement towards Collaborative Ministry for Mission will
not be abandoned. Nor should we be
afraid if, whilst finding our way, we suffer failures of one kind or another; we will accept these as the ordinary
pain - the birth pangs - which accompany any change. It is important that we understand pain and
failure as the ‘food’ of a new awareness.
Since our objective is not quickly to set up a perfectly running system
of Collaborative Ministry for Mission
we should be careful to avoid the danger of deciding, “We have achieved
it!" Because we are continually
seeking to discover Collaborative
Ministry for Mission many new problems and tasks will arise as we progress.
Theological research into Collaborative
Ministry for Mission, new developments in our understanding the “Priesthood
of the Laity”, individual Christians taking greater responsibility, the forging
within the church community of new roles for priests and laity, real leadership
from the clergy, the relationship between the community and different kinds of
ministers, and the development of new and better ways of discerning within
human groups etc. will all lead to as yet unforeseeable situations.
10.
Having an awareness of being the ‘People
of the Diocese’ in order to make greater progress towards realizing the Vision for Kyoto Diocese
Kyoto
Diocese, in order to live and hand on the gospel in an energetic manner, has
chosen, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to become an evangelizing church
community by promoting Collaborative
Ministry for Mission. We chose this path after re-appraising and
intensifying the Vision for Kyoto Diocese - A
Church Walking Together with Society ? promulgated in November1981 and with a keen understanding of Modern
Society, the Church and people of faith. To further Collaborative Ministry
for Mission, as we make progress in the midst of mistakes and setbacks, I ask every single member of the diocese to
cultivate an awareness of being part of the
‘People of the Diocese’ and begin seriously to implement Collaborative Ministry for Mission. It
is essential that we have an awareness of our own parish and what sort of group
it is. Before the local name of every
church, however, the word ‘Catholic’ is written. This is a statement of intent,
I think, by which we tell people that, as members of the community of Kyoto
Diocese - the Regional Church which holds on to the same deposit of faith and
accepts the same church order as the Catholic Church throughout the World - we
exist in order to hand on that same faith to the people in our locality.
To
say the same thing again, what gives meaning to the Church’s existence is handing on the faith. In order that the gospel
of the Kingdom of God which Jesus proclaimed be handed on in the best possible
way for the present time in the various districts of Kyoto Diocese, the
regional Church, we need to look beyond the confines of our own
parish. It is perfectly obvious that we
need to adapt the way we have always done things up to now in response to the
needs of the present day. The important
thing is not to preserve the way we have always done things but to have the courage, as people of faith, to correct the
things that need to be corrected. Doing Collaborative Ministry for Mission is
nothing other than seeing ourselves as the ‘People of Kyoto Diocese’, taking
responsibility for the future of our diocese and taking a first step on our
journey into the new millennium as the church handing on the faith and
ceaselessly spreading the gospel.
I
have made only a few points here but let us try, little by little, to change
the mentality which maintains that the old ways must never change. The future
is not something that simply happens if we wait. It comes from taking stock of
the past and continuously re-assessing it; from asking ourselves as individual
Christians and as the ‘People of the Diocese’
what is the best way to live the Gospel of Jesus; from continually renewing
ourselves through repentance, even after the Great Holy Year has ended, so as
to become ever better Christians throughout our lives.
Whilst
tackling Collaborative Ministry for
Mission, which is the foremost task of Kyoto diocese, let us ask the
intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary that “We may All be One” in the third
millennium and that the manifold graces of God the father and the light of the
Holy Spirit may illuminate our journey of faith during the coming year. In the name of Christ I send you my episcopal blessing
The Peace of the
Lord be with you.