2014

Spanish trains are very nice. This is me on the 8am train today from Sahagun (the halfway point) to El Burgo Ranero, which shaved 15km off today's walk so that it was only another 17km to my destination of Reliegos. Wide, comfortable seats, 2 euro fare, much better than anything at home. 

 I caught the train today because I know I've got to be more cautious with my blisters, which, happily, as I write this afternoon seem to have turned a corner. There's been one pinky toe which is so jammed into the shoe that it just wouldn't heal, but I think it's on the way now. And a new enormous one on the pad of the heel of the same foot, probably from walking awkwardly to avoid the pinky. But the big one popped as I was walking, is clean, and seems better now. 

Enough of the blisters, but they are a constant conversation on the Camino. 

I am loving the Meseta, this flat middle section of the Camino. I realised today as I looked out across the alternating fields of sunflowers and corn to the mountains along the north that have been my constant companions that this reminds of of the Monaro Plains, that treeless stretch from south of Canberra down to Cooma. That drive holds such poignant memories for me, and has similar jagged hills in the distance. 

I have now arrived at Las Hadas albergue  which is a VEGAN albergue, something which seems at odds with pork & cheese loving Spain, but it is the most delightfully chilled out and welcoming place I have been so far. The free range dog and cat are friendly and the vegan meal tonight was fantastic. 

Today I went back to my yearly recollections, this time of 2014. My memories of this time in Kincumber are overwhelmingly positive and pastoral, but it was also a time of significant administrative change and challenge. 

Holy Cross Parish Kincumber had built a new church just 4 years prior to my arrival. It is a beautiful, light and airy worship space which I felt very much at home in, but it left the parish in debt to the tune of more than $2 million. Even with the support of the diocese in absorbing the interest, and Chatswood Parish in matching us dollar for dollar in repayments, the parish was falling behind and was due to exhaust its meagre savings. 

When I arrived the parish was raffling a car, one of many fundraising efforts. The problem was that faithful parishioners were buying tickets just to support the parish, but more than half the cost was of the prize, so it wasn't an efficient way of supporting the parish. 

I needed to do a drive for planned giving. Most parishes have a faithful core of usually older people who have always donated cash in weekly envelopes, but as those people die or move away new givers were not coming on board. It's important to pitch the vision, and show the difference people's giving makes. Then to tie giving with belonging and commitment to the parish. I always join the planned giving of each parish I'm part of to model this. I needed to invite the younger families who were now becoming more involved in the parish to see giving as something they were part of, despite the pressures of mortgages and school fees etc. We needed to get new people on to monthly electronic giving rather than just sporadic cash donations. 

And it gradually worked. The parish's financial situation improved. Behind the scenes, the diocese and Chatswood also restructured the loan so that Chatswood gave in advance all they would have given over the next five years to knock down the principal and the interest. 

The next challenge was that the parish had no office. It had been intended to be built underneath the church but costs over ran and prevented it, so the ever generous parishioner Ron Tessoreiro had given the parish rent-free use of an office in his shopping block in the town. 

There is an argument to be made for having a parish office in the shopping centre where people will already be, but this was tucked out of the way and had no passing trade, so it was much more about necessity than mission. Ron said this couldn't continue forever, so the options were to either move the parish office back into the presbytery where it had been previously, or, as eventuated, into the church building. There had been a dedicated weekday Mass chapel built behind the main church altar, which seemed a bit superfluous when there was already a perfectly good church there. So we repurposed the office using the parish's last $20k, but it now gave a greater coherence having all the parish premises together. 

These are the dull, behind the scenes things which are often needed to be done in parishes, in order that the real stuff of mission can take place. Finances and premises make other things possible. 

So 2014 was a great year in the parish, with one of the stand out events being the Men Alive weekend. 

Men Alive was founded by a guy from Brisbane who looked around the church and asked "where are all the men?". And like my work with the boys trips in years past, he recognised a need to bring men together and to get them talking in ways they wouldn't usually do. 

Everyone has an incomplete relationship with their father, no matter how good the father was, and this becomes the itch to scratch to discover God as the ultimate Father, and to know ourselves as beloved sons of him. Day 1 of the weekend invites men to go through this process which includes some healing ritual around the fire, and then Day 2 looks at how we can step up to be the best man, husband and father that we can be, according to God's design.