Dedicated to the renewal and evangelisation of parishes, the Community Disciples of Jesus have initiated another Maltese project with the formation of an English-speaking cell in Marsascala.
“Ultimately our vision is to renew our parishioners’ way of being in the Third Millennium. We would like to assist the Church in rediscovering how small communities facilitate the sharing of one’s faith experience and the spreading of the Gospel that is so striking in the Acts of the Apostles,” explains Fr Paul Fenech, the national promoter for the Parish Cell System of Evangelisation. “We see this as a way to bring about the vision of the Parish as being a community of communities, which differs greatly from seeing the Parish as an ensemble of groups and committees.”
This idea came about as a result of the annual National Workshop on the Parish Cell System of Evangelisation organised by the National Service Team.
“Last November this workshop was held in the parish of Marsascala, thanks to the hospitality of the parish priest, Fr Walter Cauchi. A young married couple attended and were inspired by the idea, asking if there was an English-speaking cell as the husband is a foreigner. Because we are seeking to promote this method of parish evangelisation even in English speaking African countries, we immediately saw the connection and decided to expand on this opportunity,” says Fr Fenech.
It is hoped that the English speaking cell will be able to reach out to Malta’s English speaking community (and there is collaboration work being done with the parish priest of the English parish, Fr Charles Carabott), as well as to the many Maltese who were brought up in an English speaking environment and who may find difficulty in speaking Maltese.
“We would also like to reach out to families who host foreign students, as well as students in secondary and tertiary education,” Fr Fenech says. “And, as regards the projects in English speaking African countries, well, when you delve into Baptism’s real meaning you get an outgoing and missionary approach to Christianity. It is then that you can see that your faith truly has no limits.”
The history of these cells of evangelisation in Malta stretches back to October 1994 when the Community Disciples of Jesus invited the parish priest of St Eustorgio in Milan, Don PiGi Perini, to head the first formation of leaders in Malta. Today the organisation has grown to encompass cells in Dingli, Fgura, Floriana, Gharghur, Hamrun St Cajetan, Marsascala, Safi, San Gwann, Sliema – Jesus the Nazarene, Sta Venera, Tarxien, and Zabbar.
“We give thanks to God for Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho, who developed this idea in the Assembly of God Church in Seoul, South Korea back in the 1950s. The concept crossed to America in the 1970s when a Catholic Irish missionary in the States, Fr Michael Aivers, introduced this method to his parish of Pembroke Pines, Florida. It was there that Don PiGi Perini experienced this new way of making parish. As a result, Don PiGi invigorated his parish in the heart of Milan and saw 150 cells meeting weekly in homes, culminating in a great two-hour celebration of Sunday Mass in a packed Basilica. But he has also been fortunate in that the Lord has used him to spread the Parish Cell System of Evangelisation widely throughout the Catholic Church, touching all the five continents, including Europe and Malta,” Fr Fenech relates.
The cells are intended to be under the direction of the respective parish priest. However, the Community Disciples of Jesus has developed a ministry, termed a National Service Team, to support the parish priests in the formation of new cell leaders and in their ongoing formation. Last April, the Pontifical Council for the Laity approved the Parish Cell System of Evangelisation, and an International Organism was founded to promote and oversee the sound development of this experience within the Catholic Church.
“When we speak of evangelisation we are touching the very heart of the Church – the very reason why it exists. Our Church is comprised of people who dwell among their oikos (a Greek word that refers to close relations). Thus the cells become a school of prayer, formation and evangelisation: they encourage participants to create new friendships with those that have become distanced from the faith. In a sense, this is a way of allowing the Church to grow,” Fr Fenech says.
To achieve this aim, Fr Fenech is clear that they have the assistance of a very special partner: the Holy Spirit whom Pope Paul VI referred to as “the principal agent of evangelisation”. And it is with the assistance of the Holy Spirit that the National Service Team intends to accomplish their task.
“It is like fishing in a vast ocean full of fish,” Fr Fenech says with a smile. “Every fish we ‘catch’ is a person ‘recovered’ for Christ.”
The Provisional English Speaking Cell starts on 27 January in the parish church of Marsascala and will hold weekly sessions, every Wednesday, over 12 weeks. Courses begin at 6:30pm and everyone is welcome to attend without making any commitments.
Fr Paul Fenech
Flotiana