Further Reading

How active is your parish?

Have you ever wondered how you might start to transform it?

If you have, you might have wished that there were imaginative and engaging video resources that could do this.

David Payne, Director of Catholic Evangelisation Services, believes he has the answer:

CaFE, which stands for Catholic Faith Exploration, is an innovative way to get small groups of Catholics thinking, talking and praying about their faith.  Instead of parishioners sitting in rows in their parish hall, they sit at tables and are served light refreshments.  They then watch a video together and discuss it.  It's such a simple idea that you wonder why it hasn't happened before.

"We want to meet people where they are at.  We want to stress the cafe style that we have learnt from Alpha: transforming a hall into a warm, friendly cafe environment which  relaxes people, makes them feel special and blows away their preconceptions of cold church halls with fluorescent lights, rows of plastic chairs and custard cream biscuits," says David.

One of the key factors of CaFE's success is its user friendly approach.  Lay people are enjoying running the various courses because they see how much their fellow parishioners enjoy coming.  CaFE takes the pressure off the course leaders because of the video talks, so they are free to put their energies into the welcome and group discussion.  "All you need to do is pray, create the cafe style, open the wine and put on the video!  The results have been quite remarkable.  Helping others to grow in their faith has never been so easy or so enjoyable",  David says.

"If CaFE is run properly in a parish, it won't just be something that you have done.  It will, hopefully, give birth to small groups of committed Catholics who meet, pray and study the scriptures together, and then get more involved in mission and ministry in the parish," he adds.

The CaFE approach is the kind of thing Cardinal Murphy O'Connor has spoken about when addressing the decline of Christianity in Britain.  He has suggested that the future of the Church will revolve around small groups of committed Catholics meeting together.  CaFE works closely with the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE), who recommend its approach.

Catholic Evangelisation Services, which is based at All Saints Pastoral Centre in London Colney, Hertfordshire, was established in 1996.  "We were set up to help Catholics respond to the challenges of the New Evangelisation that the Holy Father spoke to us about.  As we grew we saw the need to produce Catholic material on video which would meet people where they are at and speak their language and history," explains David.

He adds that CaFE is responding to the Church's call use modern media for catechesis and evangelisation.  He believes CaFE is becoming a leader in producing quality videos that present modern Catholicism. Their titles include Knowing God Better, Exploring the Catholic Church, Baptism: helping your child get more from their Catholic faith, Catholics Making a Difference, and Youth CaFE.

Each presentation includes stories of people's lives, icons, music, mime and practical tips on how to make Sunday Mass relevant to the challenges of marriage, family life and work.  The videos feature prominent speakers such as Father Raniero Cantalamessa, biblical scholar and Bishop Mark Coleridge and theologian Dr Marcelino D'Ambrosio.

The baptism course, commissioned by the Birmingham diocese, has been a phenomenal success, enthuses David. "Nearly 500 parishes in two months have bought it. The feedback is just coming in now and it's wonderful. It's evangelising the parents and preparing them to bring their children up in the faith. We see clearly that there's a need in the Church for sacramental preparation material and we're looking at developing this more".  He has been encouraged by the feedback he has received. "One priest said that the baptism course was having a profound effect on parents, many of whom had not considered the sacrament of baptism to have any connection with Jesus whatsoever".

The most popular series is Knowing God Better, presented by David himself and the sequel Knowing God Even Better. So far, hundreds of parishes have been using the videos for what David calls 'mini parish missions', and large numbers of occasional parishioners have been coming along.

Exploring the Catholic Church is another course that is proving popular with parishes.  The series features eight talks by a young Catholic theologian from the USA looking at why we need the Catholic Church, the sacraments, prayer and Mary. This course has helped many on RCIA and in other small groups within the Church to grow in their understanding of the Catholic Faith.  It has also been used as a follow-up to the Alpha course in a Catholic context

Similarly, Catholics Making a Different is in demand. "It's a challenging course baking at our responsibility as Catholics to make a difference r.0 the world around us through our words, witness and works. This includes input from Lord David Alton, CAFOD and others. There arc two series by the preacher to the Pope, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, which have been used widely for deeper study in small groups."

CaFE have recently produced a video series for thirteen to sixteen-year-olds called Youth CaFE. 'It is a very fast-moving course of six sessions being used by some to supplement Confirmation and by others in schools, youth groups and chaplaincies. Youth CaFE is equipping many adult Catholics who have a heart for young people but who are often nervous of how to share the Good News with a different generation,' David says/Teenagers watch high-class stuff spewing out of the TV and the Internet, so we want to be able to present the gospel according to the Catholic Church in a modern, hip, trendy, energetic way. The whole packaging needs co be very professional"

Making quality videos is a lengthy and expensive process, he points out. "The process starts with planning a series, writing the script for it, either presenting it ourselves or finding a speaker, filming, editing, producing the art work and marketing it successfully around the world.  At the beginning of it all we have to fund-raise, which is critical. We knock on doors.  We are only  able  to produce such  resources because of generosity of a number of Catholic charities and  individuals in the Church.'

People are hungry to know more about their faith and apply it to everyday life, he suggests, 'We've majored on that. CaFE will help people get the experience of Sunday Mass into the nitty-gritty of their marriages, bringing up kids, dealing with elderly parents, the challenges of employment or unemployment, sickness or whatever.'

David believes that, given the shortage or priests, there will be more of a need for these sorts of resources in the coming years. Additionally, he says CaFE has helped in bringing parishes together when a diocese had decided that they have to amalgamate. "We estimate that around 1,000 parishes in the UK have got our material and many more beyond the UK. We're hearing feedback from many parishes that large numbers of people-are corning each week to rake part in CaFE.  And nor the usual suspects,"

With its easy-to-use format and broad range of subjects and presenters, the CaFE programme is already attracting interest from overseas. Last year, it was launched in Australia, some of its materials are being translated into Dutch, and there is a possibility of a Chinese translation following.

"The beauty of these CaFE resources is their flexibility. We realize that all parishes are different and they can be used individually or as a CaFE process, which tan be run over two years. We offer CaFE training days and there is a training video available. CaFE really is a great way to get more out of your faith and revitalize your parish."

Printed with kind permission of Bible Alive

Click here for a printable PDF version