Fr Jamie McGrath spoke at the Diocesan Assembly of his experience as a Parish Priest bringing together
Our Lady of Mercy and St Joseph, Lymington, Our Lady of the Assumption and St Edward the Confessor, Lyndhurst and St Anne, Brockenhurst

A lot of what I say will resonate with the message of Kathryn’s talk, but I’ve been asked to share my experience as a priest of presently living with some of the consequences of the changes we have been discussing during the Assembly. How is it for the priest trying to be with different communities as they try to relate to each other in a new way?

Most of you will know that I’ve been a priest of Portsmouth diocese for a relatively short time. I was incardinated in February 2003. Since that time I thank God that his grace has led me here to a feeling of growth and life in this diocese. I am very happy here. However I also thank God for the previous 21 years when I was a Montfort Missionary, and a good part of that time I was working  in the new and emerging Church in Africa, in Malawi. And it is there that I want to start. This was not my decision to begin here but the feeling of the small group No.8 that I was part of. In the course of our discussion about “The centrality of the Sunday Mass” I was sharing a few of my experiences from Malawi and they thought that if I had the chance to speak I ought to share those as well.

The first pillar of our new Pastoral strategy was foundational: The importance of keeping the Sunday Mass at the centre of everything we do as Church. It was described as the very HEARTBEAT of the Church. It is paramount in these days, as many of us are facing changes to what has been the most precious thing in our lives for many past years, the Mass, that we try to keep our eyes focussed on what is central, and attempt to live with the challenge and pain of some of the other aspects of change i.e. reduced Masses and more challenging Mass times. In all this it is the centrality of the Mass itself which is crucial. We can’t live without that (Heartbeat) we can, however, learn to come to terms with some of the other aspects of a new and challenging pastoral situation. 

 I use this example from my experience on the Missions to illustrate how some of our brothers and sisters elsewhere are living with these and even more acute challenges. It has to be prefaced by saying we are not comparing like with like. The church in the west is nothing like that of Africa and beyond. Our cultures are entirely different too. It is absolutely the last thing I want to suggest that we hope to end up with the same situation they have. After all we have our own historical situation which was so brilliantly drawn for us by Kathryn earlier, emphasising the treasure of our own local martyrs and what they sacrificed for the Holy Mass. 

A typical Sunday on the missions would begin early around 6am preparing a Mass kit for the journey to one of 7 or 8 “out stations”. These are smaller church in villages and districts some distance from the “Mission station”. A typical journey would be 12 -15 miles on motorbike if the rainy season allowed the roads to be passable. You might arrive at the destination around 8am to find 3 or 4 elderly parishioners waiting to be first in the line for confessions. Mass times is a concept not know in Africa. It assumes there is more than one Mass taking place that day, and that time is important. Neither of these is true. Time is a very relative concept especially in a culture that judges time by the location of the sun in the sky. Tough luck if it is cloudy!! Throw your watch away, because it means little there. Oh yes and there is only one Mass, which lasts all day long. This Sunday Mass is going to be a real celebration for people, because the next one will be in 6 or 7 weeks time when the priest is able to return again, having served all his other out stations as well. This is it! Talk about making it the most central thing in the Christians’ life. If we want to reflect on the “centrality” of the Sunday Mass we need to think about what these brothers and sisters do. They are going to celebrate and savour every last moment of this wonderful day in their community. They are going to sing and dance and eat and drink and recreate and meet and pray and discuss and laugh and cry all day today because this is their Sunday Mass. They have been anticipating this for weeks; most of them have walked miles to get here. They are not martyrs but they are joyful at making any sacrifice necessary to be here today.

In June 2003 I was parish priest in Totton and very happy.  Bishop Crispian asked me to consider being pp in Lymington from September. I accepted before he changed his mind. Perhaps I answered too quickly, because he prepared me immediately for the fact that Brockenhurst was to follow the next year and in the fullness of time Lyndhurst as well. We have now reached that time. And I can reflect back on the last two years not with authority but with the benefit of experience.

In Oct 2003 I was invited to attend a meeting at Droxford. It was facilitated by Fran and Angela and was designed to allow priests going through this kind of experience to share together. I had very little to share. But two years later looking back at the report of that meeting I’m amazed by how much of the minutes of that meeting resonate with my own experience now. An how many of those words I could make my own now having lived through it. I would like to acknowledge the collective wisdom of the clergy in that room that day as well as the support and encouragement we all get from each other.

When I took up my new post in Lymington a letter produced by the Bishop was read in all three places on the first Sunday announcing this was to be the plan for that part of the New Forest. So from day 1 everybody was aware of, and working towards the new situation which lay ahead. I believe that was a crucial factor in the remote and more proximate preparations of these three parishes to begin to relate and grow in a new way.

The two things the Bishop asked for in the letter were generosity and sacrifice whilst we face this change together. 

I have found that our people with very few exceptions have been more than generous in accepting the necessary changes made to respond to the new situation. All three parishes have reduced Masses since I took over. All have had to accommodate changes in the times of Mass. Change requires sacrifice from us all. One young parishioner said to me in Lyndhurst last week “Father 8am is very early on a Sunday morning. I smiled back and said “I know – I have to be there too you know, and then go on for 9.30 at Brockenhurst and 11.00 in Lymington. 

The reality is that the priesthood is being spread more thinly, but the silver in that particular cloud is that it invites deeper collaboration with laity and the opportunity to share the responsibility of leadership in the Church.

Uppermost in my concerns meeting the new parishioners in the different areas was to reassure them they were not sheep without a shepherd. That’s what people want to hear, I believe. We are all in this together, Priest and People. We are trying to get the best for all of us. People are angry and fearful about the way the past has gone and what now needs to happen. Priests are people too. We want to help each other in finding the best way forward. To encourage each other to be generous where we need to be and to make little sacrifices here and there in order to keep the heartbeat of the Church beating strongly.

It is the centrality of the Sunday Mass which is at the heart of all we are praying for here.

The Sunday Mass which is so precious to us all. 

So even if the Shepherds are being spread more thinly I want us all to hear the voice of the Lord telling us we are not “Sheep without a shepherd”. Indeed our shepherds are still ready to lay down their lives for the flock.

Fr Jamie McGrath (Combined Parishes New Forest (east) Lymington, Brockenhurst & Lyndhurst.