Renew blooms around Diocese

Various segments of the Albany Diocese -- from parishes to prisons -- are busy adapting and implementing the Renew 2000 process, which formally starts next fall.

Although Renew 2000 focuses primarily on faith-sharing groups in parishes, diocesan Renew 2000 coordinator Kathy Menard told The Evangelist that Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock (Washington County) is among the many other facilities and organizations in the Diocese planning to have its own Renew group.

A maximum-security prison, Great Meadow has "a very active and thriving Catholic spiritual community," Dr. Menard explained. The prison has its own Confirmation class every year and numbers many Third-Order Franciscans among its inmates.

Behind bars

After the prison's chaplain, Rev. James Hayes, attended an informational session on Renew 2000 last fall, he asked Dr. Menard how the Renew process could be carried out in a prison setting. The result was a leadership group of a dozen inmates with "a real sense of mission," said Dr. Menard.

Since most inmates are facing prison sentences of 25 years to life, she added, "they're really looking to maximize their quality of life behind bars."

However, the Renew 2000 process obviously had to be adapted to prison life. "One thing you can't do in prison is invitational ministry, where you go out and knock on doors," said Dr. Menard. "You're also dealing with a very resistant population." For example, prisoners told her that they are often ridiculed by others just for attending Mass.

Solutions

Through role-playing, the inmates themselves came up with several solutions to the problem of motivating their peers to become part of a faith-sharing group.

"It's important not to be too 'in-your-face,'" Dr. Menard remembered one man saying. "Your invitation needs to be respectful." Another added: "Never tell somebody what they should do, but what you've done."

The Great Meadow Renew group will include two inmate-leaders and an outside volunteer, per prison regulations. Dr. Menard is currently recruiting those volunteers.

Adaptations

Prisoners aren't the only ones adapting the Renew 2000 process to fit their needs, said Dr. Menard; many parishes of the Diocese are doing so as well:

* In Rensselaer County, St. Joseph's and St. John's parishes in Rensselaer and St. Mary's in Clinton Heights are working together to implement some aspects of Renew 2000 as a cluster;

* The "Northern Points" cluster -- Blessed Sacrament, Hague; St. John the Baptist, Chestertown and St. James, North Creek -- plans to have some parts of Renew in each of its parishes, and others as cluster activities;

* St. Clare's and Our Lady of Mercy parishes in Colonie, and St. Francis de Sales in Loudonville will turn their parish mission into a "cluster mission," said Dr. Menard. The same team, made up of parishioners from all three churches, will present the mission in each parish;

* Several "special-interest groups" have also expressed an interest in Renew 2000. Dr. Menard and an advisory committee are working to help nursing homes, communities of women religious and even individual families to adapt the Renew 2000 process to their needs.

Ready to start

So far, comments from the parishes and other venues at which Renew will be used in the fall have been overwhelmingly positive, Dr. Menard said. She cited one parishioner as saying, "Renew in our parish was great [when it was first used in the 1980s]; we hated to see it end. We're really excited to be getting it back."

Dr. Menard said that many parishes have already asked whether Renew 2000 materials will be available for faith-sharing groups that want to continue to meet between the fall and spring sessions of Renew.

When the process is formally concluded in the year 2000, she said, "our goal is to incorporate this whole phenomenon of small faith communities -- that there's a milieu that's bigger than one and smaller than 100. We go to Sunday Mass and there's a lot of people, and we say our prayers and there's only one."

Renew 2000, she said, will show that there is a happy medium.

(03-26-98) [[In-content Ad]]