Chosen and Called: Facilitators get ready to lead Speak Ups
By Kathleen Ogle
Managing Editor
To facilitate means to make easier or to bring about, and that is exactly what 205 men and women will be doing to help make the first synod of the Diocese of Metuchen success. 
Approximately 150 facilitators gathered Dec. 3 at St. John Neumann Pastoral Center, Piscataway, to continue preparing for their role leading Speak Up . . . We’re Listening Sessions in parishes throughout the diocese between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15.
A follow-up to their initial training earlier in the fall, the three-hour workshop included tips for recording input gathered during the upcoming Speak Up Sessions as well as how to submit a parish summary of the input.
Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski greeted attendees at the door and led the facilitators in prayer in the chapel. “It’s a challenging task when we bring people together to speak about what’s in their hearts and on their minds,” the Bishop told the facilitators. “I know that this process will result in something very good for our diocesan family.”
Quoting St. Benedict, the Bishop urged facilitators to “listen with the ear of your heart.”
Before turning the training over to diocesan synod consultant Peg Garvey-Mitchell, Msgr. William Benwell, vicar general and chair, Synod Preparatory Commission, thanked the facilitators for their presence and hard work.
“As you know, a synod is about a diocese — the local Church — listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit as it leads and guides us at a particular point in our history,” Msgr. Benwell said.
“We know that the Spirit speaks in all ways, not only through bishops and priests but through the laity, through everyone who makes up the People of God,” he continued.
“This synod could not be a success if it didn’t hear from the People of God. And it couldn’t hear from the People of God without what you’re doing in the parishes and schools and all the places where we’re holding these sessions.”
Garvey-Mitchell, who designed the Speak Up Sessions and trained the facilitators, led Saturday’s follow-up training. She described the facilitator’s role as that of being an “ambassador of the synod.”
She began the workshop by reminding facilitators of their responsibility to “reach out to friends and family who have found themselves to be the ranks of those who are inactive and or feel angry or alienated.” She emphasized the need for the invitation to be personal. “Offer to give them a ride, get them a ride and most assuredly have a friendly face at the door to welcome them.”
Since their initial training, facilitators have been busy scheduling Speak Up Sessions in their parishes and developing teams to help communicate and conduct the sessions. They have also had to work closely with their pastors.
“We’re asking our pastors to welcome the people who are attending, preside at the opening prayer and then graciously leave the people in your capable hands,” she said.
Garvey-Mitchell said she was particularly concerned that the facilitators feel supported in their work for the synod. She encouraged them to speak up themselves as needed along the way.
“If you find yourself in a sensitive situation, please seek my counsel. I want to help you figure out how to work it out,” she said.
Jim Piccolo of St. Joseph Parish, Raritan, both a facilitator and delegate, described how they planned to accommodate the many senior members of the parish. “We coordinated our Speak Up Session with our senior citizen Altar Rosary Society meeting, which is held in the afternoon,” he said.
Bob Boswell, a facilitator for St. Joseph Parish, Bound Brook, talked about the challenge of reaching out to undocumented people who attend Mass but because they do not have citizenship are unlikely to attend the Speak Up Sessions. “They don’t want to attract attention. They are trying to stay a little below the radar,” he said. “It poses the special problem of how to contact them. We decided that we needed to identify a leader in that community.”
“To reach out to people who don’t attend Mass regularly we’re sending out a letter of invitation from the facilitator with the pastor’s Christmas letter to announce the dates for our speak up sessions so people can start putting them on their calendars,” said Paul Blessing of Immaculate Conception Parish, Somerville. “The letter goes to a lot people who don’t always come to Mass, so hopefully it will start the process of reaching inactive Catholics. It won’t reach them all but it will start.”
The facilitators are also speaking at Masses, Blessing said, asking fellow parishioners to either advise the parish team of inactive Catholics to invite or to personal extend an invitation to attend a Speak Up Session.
At St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Old Bridge, Msgr. John B. Szymanski, created a four-page newsletter about the synod for parishioners. “It describes the synod, has background information and identifies our delegates, facilitators and team members,” said Alice Brown, a facilitator from the parish.
Next weekend, everyone who signs up for a Speak Up Session will receive a bookmark with the date and time of their chosen session. “They can post it on their refrigerator because this isn’t happening until January and February, and they’re signing up in December,” Brown said.
Get more information on the Synod website
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law