Celebrating Family Diocesan Projects: Diocese of Shrewsbury 

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The Diocese of Shrewsbury has received a grant of £71,000 over three years from the Celebrating Family Fund to employ a development worker to deliver Everybody’s Welcome & Home is a Holy Place within Local Pastoral Areas, through developing networks & equipping volunteers. 

A key objective of Listening 2004: My Family My Church, the Bishops' consultation with families, was to better understand the realities of family life in England and Wales. In Shrewsbury diocese the survey found that families wanted to feel more welcome in parishes and for there to be a greater appreciation of the way families live.  It was decided at a 2007 review by the diocesan Marriage and Family Life Commission, that implementing two key resources of the Celebrating Family initiative – Everybody’s Welcome and Home is a Holy Place - would address this and other local needs identified in Listening 2004.  The diocesan Marriage and Family Life Coordinator was already fully committed to existing family ministries, and so the Commission concluded that they needed an additional dedicated Project Development Worker to take these initiatives forward. The diocese made a successful bid to the Celebrating Family fund and Helen Bassirat, an experienced diocesan Pastoral Assistant and mother of two, was appointed in July 2008.  

Is Everybody Welcome?

At the heart of Everybody’s Welcome lies the belief that the inclusion of the whole community, and in particular marginalised or isolated families, is fundamental to the mission of the Church. When Helen took up her post, some of Shrewsbury’s parishes had already responded positively to the challenge of becoming more welcoming. St Alban’s parish in Liscard, for example, had created a parish website, built a comfortable recess/information area; put toy/book bags out for children and begun to organise more social events.  But the Commission wanted Helen to go much further: to address the fundamental principles of Everybody’s Welcome by developing pastoral support for the bereaved, for families with mental health problems, and for families experiencing domestic abuse.  Helen decided to approach these difficult subjects first through a diocesan-wide introduction of the Home is a Holy Place resource and subsequently through awareness raising days and parish based initiatives.  

“We need to affirm that God is to be found in the messiness of family life” (Fr Michael Gannon)

Home is a Holy Place is a resource for raising awareness of the spirituality of family life, in good times and bad.  Helen introduced the resource to six diocesan Local Pastoral Areas (covering 35 parishes) in late 2008 and early 2009, and was subsequently invited to speak to groups of local teachers, catechists and parents. Inspired by Helen’s presentation, one Parish Council took a novel approach to Home is a Holy Place, and hosted three very successful ‘Beer and Curry’ nights at a local Indian restaurant. One guest commented, “I got encouragement from realising how much we already do at home to make it holy.” After the event, parents spoke of making positive changes in their family lives resulting in happier homes.  Helen has presented Home is a Holy Place to parish Baptism teams and to parents of children preparing for their First Holy Communion. She is also working with RCIA coordinators who want to adopt a family focused approach to the Baptism preparation of older children (6+). At one of Helen’s sessions, a father commented, “This was very moving, I had never thought of my provision for my children, which I take seriously, as holy, and I am deeply touched.” 

“Come to Jesus and know that He will give you spiritual refreshment and rest.” (Fr Pat Munroe)

Helen’s ground breaking work on mental health started with an exploratory day at St Vincent's, Knutsford in 2009.  The guest speaker at this and a subsequent event at Ellesmere, in 2010, was Edna Hunneysett, a Catholic mother and writer who has published two books on the subject of mental health and pastoral care (the first entitled, ‘Our Suicidal Teenagers – Where are you God?’).  Edna spoke candidly of the pain, isolation and stigma that she and her family experienced when her 13 year old daughter became severely depressed and was admitted to a local psychiatric clinic.  She spoke of her need for the church to reach out to her and her family, and of the ignorance and fear which prevented this from happening. Those attending the conference agreed that there needed to be a greater understanding and inclusion of sufferers and their families in the church community to ensure that they were not isolated or forgotten. The result was the first ever diocesan Healing Mass for those whose lives are affected by mental health issues. The Mass was celebrated at St Wilfred’s, Northwich in 2009 and included anointing. The benefit of the mass, for many of those involved, was significant - and seven further Healing Masses have since been celebrated in Shrewsbury . Two more exploratory days, with Edna Hunneysett as guest speaker have also been planned for 2011 (19 March at The Cathedral parish and 26 March at St Patrick's, Wellington). The diocese recently made a successful application to the CaTEW Mental Health Fund for the resources to enable Helen to continue developing family-led parish based support groups for a further year.

“To create an environment in which domestic abuse is understood and recognised as unacceptable and where appropriate responses are available” (CEDAR)

In 2008 Helen was invited to join the Domestic Abuse Working Group (DAWG) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales to develop an appropriate response, and advice, on issues surrounding domestic abuse. DAWG identified the need to gather together existing resources on domestic abuse, to increase awareness and to support a pastoral response from parishes, deaneries, dioceses, schools and other organisations. The result is Catholics Experiencing Domestic Abuse Resource (cedar) a website, which offers a wide range of practical support and guidance, pastoral tools and spiritual reflections. Helen was responsible for preparing the prayer and scripture resources for the website, which went live in November 2010.  Helen has also carried out a detailed mapping exercise in the Shrewsbury diocese to clarify how parishes currently respond to families experiencing domestic abuse, and she is working to raise awareness of this difficult subject with two events for 2011 currently in the planning stage.

The Celebrating Family fund will continue to fund Helen’s work until June 2011.  After this time the diocese will be seeking alternative financial means to extend the diocese’s work on Everybody’s Welcome and Home is a Holy Place, by employing a second Marriage and Family Life Worker.  For more information please contact Project Manager Clara Donnelly or Project Development Worker Helen Bassirat.

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