Sharing 'giftedness' with others

Published: 4 September 2011

Valuing her role in the Church: Ministry development officer with Brisbane archdiocese's Faith and Life Vicariate, Judy Norris

GIFTED in her role within Brisbane archdiocese, Faith and Life Vicariate's Judy Norris will call others to discover their giftedness at the National Conference on Stewardship in Brisbane this week.

The ministry development officer is involved with pastoral planning and stewardship and provides support and resources for pastoral councils.

"I help build capacity in communities," she said from her office in The Catholic Centre, Brisbane.

"... by exploring with them the kinds of initiatives and structures that invite the participation of all the community in the life of the parish."

Judy highly values working collaboratively with parish and deanery pastoral councils "exploring ideas and insights from wide research that suggest more effective ways to engage people in mission in challenging and complex times".

"It can be as simple as how to run an effective meeting or how to write an agenda," she said.

"... or how simply to invite people to ministry in a way that will have the most chance of getting a positive response.

"What I do comes from a long history the archdiocese has had of supporting pastoral councils and parishes."

That "long history" evolved around the work of others, in particular newly retired Josephite Sister Cecilia Anning who assisted with Judy's 15-month formation for the current role.

Judy is most grateful for that formation and Sr Cecilia's "excellent resource of the Handbook for Pastoral Councils" but she soon refers to the "ever growing challenge of meeting the pastoral needs of a changing Church".

"We aren't the Church of the '50s, '60s or '70s," Judy said.

"How people gather is different now and how people experience community is different.

"We are competing for people's time and energy ... (and) there is a great need for parishes to be a place of nurturing and welcome."

"Welcome" Judy has always felt in taking her place in the Church - from the days when her five children were young to now.

"I have never felt, as a woman, that I haven't been able to participate fully in the life of the Church," she said.

"I've always been welcomed and worked with excellent priests and excellent communities."

When Judy and husband Chris' children were young, the family was accustomed to moving house often as was required for Chris' work as an engineer.

"We'd often put up a for-sale sign at Christmas instead of the Christmas tree and take off on our next adventure," Judy said.

Such adventures led to her volunteering in local state schools as a religion teacher no matter where they found themselves.

Chris would "come home in his lunch hour" to babysit while Judy carried out this ministry.

"As a family we have always supported each other's giftedness," she said.
"(And) I found such life in being involved in the parish."
Growing from those encounters, the "ordinary woman with ordinary experiences" said she decided to formalise her teaching qualifications.

Post-graduate study at the Brisbane College of Theology and Australian Catholic University (ACU) allowed her "current life to take shape".

"I didn't pursue any tertiary qualifications after I went to school because my family situation didn't make it conducive to do so," Judy said.

"But then I got this crazy idea to go to university and was very blessed I was able to do so in the midst of having five children and Chris' job.

"Since then it's been an ongoing, rich journey that's happened out of amazing sets of circumstances that I could never have foreseen."

An unforeseen phone call on her 30th wedding anniversary - "the feast of St Jude" - offered the opportunity to move from working as religious education co-ordinator at Mount St Bernard College in Herberton, Far North Queensland, to the teaching staff at Lourdes Hill College in Brisbane.

Other roles that were behind her included six years as a part-time marriage education co-ordinator in Centacare, Bundaberg, and involvement in spirituality programs for families preparing to complete their initiation in the Church.

"I am very grateful Chris and I have somehow always activated the giftedness in each other's life," Judy said of those times.

"I see it as a privilege in marriage to nurture each other's spiritual and human growth this way.

"We have always done whatever was possible and moved beyond our comfort zones to foster each other's sense of vocation.

"(And) now I feel so absolutely privileged to participate in mission in a way that I have done all my life but in an 'after hours' capacity.

"Now I am engaged in what I love night and day."

Judy is also involved in Kenmore parish as chairwoman of the pastoral council and as a member of the Ongoing Learning and Renewal committee there.

As she further develops the stewardship "lense" this week, Judy relays valuable advice for parishes.

"I think the first thing we have to do is to be more inviting," she said.

"We need to find out from people what they need and what the community can do for them.

"Adults are autonomous creatures and they really don't want someone else's idea of what's good for them imposed.
"Just by being asked people tend to feel respected and willing to come forward."

Judy said "we are slow to ask" what those needs might be but by doing so, collective wisdom can be gathered.

Another piece of advice for parishes was about "how to make a response" to those needs.

"Discernment of gifts is fundamental to parish life," Judy said.

"The truth that is out there in the literature is that belonging leads to believing ... (and) if people are invited properly and have their gifts discerned then people will be able to do what they are able to.

"If we are about 'Jesus-Mission' then we should be about doing our best."

In doing "our best" Judy said we model the early Church.

"So much of St Paul's writings are about giftedness," she said.

"Our job is to match the giftedness to the needs of the community if we want to have communities that are powerfully effective places to be."

Judy admits we "are very slow at modelling gratitude - not just as Catholics but as people" and she encouraged sincere praise and thanks in the parish setting.

"The other thing that stewardship is telling us is we need to not just thank people but understand the virtue of gratitude and how it builds relationships," she said.

"(And) the whole spirituality of stewardship that the archdiocese is embracing speaks strongly of the principle of gifts.

"All the baptised are called to full participation in the mission of Jesus - a radical dependence on and development of the giftedness of the faith community is a major stewardship emphasis.

"Just to befriend people, letting them know they are worthy and valued and to devise simple human gestures of welcome, hospitality and friendship make a huge difference to people's experience of parish and the likelihood of their participation in parish life."

Judy said "parishes are asking" about how to be such communities, with many to be represented at the September 8-10 stewardship gathering.

And all this dialogue about giftedness allows an understanding Judy is quite blissfully "a square peg in a square hole".