Submission 1

- posted in the Bulletin

Empty spaces in the pews

Some people are multi skilled. I don‟t mean everyday multi-skilling, like simultaneously holding a crying baby on your hip, madly tossing the stir-fry ingredients around the pan and having a deep and meaningful conversation with an 8 year old, but skills like knitting, playing the piano, riding a horse, navigating obscure (to me) computer programs and making a sponge, to name a few. I‟ve tried them and given up because I found them hard going and lacked the necessary stick-at-it to master the processes involved. I‟m sure most of us can remember clubs, organisations or groups that we have joined, been part of for a time, then, through boredom or changing circumstances, we drifted away.

Submission 3

Submission Three - emailed PP.

Could it be that fewer Catholic Christians whom we know feel the need for regular liturgical prayer? They have all been baptised—some as adults—and are unlikely to have repudiated their baptism in significant numbers. Perhaps in their journey of faith, begun at baptism, they have experienced too few opportunities to grow in that faith: too few opportunities to express it in heightened ways? Perhaps their experience of good liturgy has been insufficient to benefit from its formative power?