Over the past 18 months the Perth Parish has held four Pastoral Planning meetings which are part of the Vibrant Parish initiative, a worldwide parish renewal program for our Church. We reflected together, as a Parish and as a Pastoral Council, on how we could work for the development of our parish community. One of the top priorities which emerged from our Pastoral Planning meetings was for Adult Faith Education. This falls under two of the six priorities of “Vision 2020”, the Word of God and Catechesis along with Liturgy and Prayer.
On Sunday the 7th June the Perth Parish had their first Bible Study group. Twenty three people attended. Our Deacon, Richard, led the group. We began with a song, followed by exploring the first Vision 2020 priority “Word of God and Catechesis” and what these two terms mean. We then turned to the Bible itself. We learnt that it is a collection of books written over many centuries, containing many different styles of writing. It is the inspired word of God. We then looked at how the Gospels were written and the communities they were written for. This was followed by an introduction to the Gospel of Matthew which will be the focus of the group until the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Lectio Divina is a method for reflecting prayerfully on a passage of scripture. Our deacon has tasked us with trying this method before the next meeting, using the Sunday Gospel from the Liturgy. Our next Bible Study will be on the 21st June after the Divine Liturgy.
