Easter is a busy time of year for many regional Catholic parishes, as churches across rural and coastal Australia prepare for a surge of worshippers not seen at any other point in the calendar. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Regional parishes face unique challenges in preparing for the Easter rush, with larger geographic areas, scattered congregations, and many attending Mass only once or twice a year.
The Catholic Weekly spoke to three regional priests from New South Wales about what they were expecting this Easter and why the season draws people to church.
Fr James Arblaster, assistant priest at St Michael’s in Nowra, said he was anticipating 900 worshippers across six churches.
“Every man and his dog comes. Obviously, we get locals who don’t normally come to Mass but will come to Mass for Christmas and Easter,” he said.
“In places like Vincentia and Culburra, you get a huge amount of people from Sydney; they’re travelling down for their holidays, taking the long weekend off and they do tend to flood in for the Triduum.”
Fr Joshua Scott, parish priest of Sacred Heart in Moruya, said he was expecting 500 people across three parishes – one coastal, one rural, and one in between, each with its own distinct congregation.
“Because we are on the coast, the numbers go through the roof,” he said. “We’ve got people who come home to the coast, as well as holiday-makers.”
Fr Arblaster said the bigger crowds at Easter provided more opportunities for evangelisation, and he strives to be “intentionally explicit, invitational, positive, and upbeat”.
“They need, first of all, a good experience of the liturgy, but it also needs to be an accessible experience. It’s a golden opportunity.”
Fr Paul Newton, parish priest of four parishes in and around Hay in the Riverina region, says the liturgies fulfil “a need for sincere gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us”.
“That’s the very first thing; never to take for granted the blessings of God, the sufferings of our Lord and the graces and blessings that he offers us every day,” he said.
“I think one of the best ways to show God gratitude is not keeping our faith to ourselves, but to offer more outreach, more works of mercy, more actively inviting people to engage.”
Fr Scott said he will never stop preaching hope, especially during the current cost of living crisis and overseas turmoil.
“I just preach as best as I can on the mercy, redemption, and love of Christ because if they’ve only got one time in a year to hear that, I want them to hear it.”
FULL STORY
Easter is a ‘golden opportunity’ for regional churches to shine Christ’s light (By Callum Hussein and Tara Kennedy, The Catholic Weekly)
