By Father Peter Choy Wai-man
On October 6, the Northeast New Territories Deanery celebrated Mission Sunday with an gospel concert at St. Benedict Church, Shatin. The programme of the concert was mainly provided by the seven parishes in the deanery.
The objective was to evangelise those who have not yet accepted Christian faith through singing, dancing and playing of musical instruments. Since there are no statistics on how many of the attendees were laypeople, and since it is not easy to assess the effectiveness of the programme on that day, it is difficult to say whether the concert has achieved its purpose.
However, in the past two months, I had the privilege of participating in the final stage of the preparation and performance of the concert because of my duties as parochial administrator of the parish. This enabled me to realise the challenges of a synodal Church and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
First of all, the performers in this concert were not popular singers or artists, but came from different organisations in the seven parishes. They were parish choir members, teachers and students of Catholic schools in the area and Filipino community members, ranging in age from Sunday school to silver-haired.
This fully reflects the wide participation of different organisations in the parishes, and also highlights the close cooperation between parishes and schools. One can only imagine how hard it is for a large-scale activity involving seven parish pastoral councils and more than 10 performing organisations to take part together, and how difficult it is to talk, communicate and cooperate with each other. However, when we look back on these days of journeying together, isn’t it a process of listening to each other in synodality?
Then there are the specific problems of preparation. One week before the concert, St. Benedict Church, which was responsible for the venue arrangements, was still unable to ascertain the number of performers for each of the performances on the day of the concert, the number of musical instruments, sound system or backdrops required. So it was really difficult to plan for the whole process.
The main reason for this is that many performing teams were only able to arrive at the venue for rehearsal an hour before the performance on that day. Furthermore, the venue is not a professional stage for performances, and each team only had an average of three to five minutes during the hour-long rehearsal before the performance after a hasty sound check and stage positioning.
I was mentally prepared for mistakes and omissions during the performances, but I ended up being amazed by how smoothly and wonderfully each performance went, and how the Holy Spirit guided and accompanied them in the process! Although they are not professional singers or entertainers, their dedication and lively charisma emphasised the Holy Spirit’s participation and presence behind the scenes.
Indeed, the Holy Spirit has always played the leading role in the Church’s missionary activities, not as an arranged character or a regulated script, but as a stage for creativity and collaboration. It is said that similar celebrations will be held next year for the Jubilee Year and the year after next for the 80th anniversary of the diocese, and it is hoped that they will reveal a more creative and synodal Church.
