Southwark Report 2020_NEW final -Single pages

IMPACT
REPORT
REFLECTION ON MINISTRY
The fight against the virus
continues and I continue to
stand resolute, as a priest, to
serve in all possible ways my
congregation, local community
and all people I can reach
through social media.
It is an understatement to say we live in unprecedented
times even as the pandemic and its effects lessen. The
pandemic hit when I was serving as an assistant priest at
St Teresa’s Parish in Ashford. Within three weeks of the first
lockdown, I felt everything had been stripped from me: my
congregation had been taken away and a flourishing youth
ministry I was five months into running, and was at a crucial
stage of its development, had suddenly ceased.
However, I was energised by a webinar for priests and lay
leaders that I had recently joined. Someone made the point
that we, as a Church, have always had people come to us,
but as they were now unable to come, we would have to go
to them.
I saw it as necessary to seize these times to effectively
evangelize, to give hope to people in these gloomy days and
to let them know that their priests think about them and
care for them. I therefore became intentional with
our online streaming of Masses. I started making and
sharing short videos on social media. Lengthy and strenuous
work went into shifting my youth ministry online, which
included ensuring all measures were in place for young
people to be entirely safe.
Within the pandemic, I was transferred by Archbishop John
Wilson to Holy Family Parish in Thanet as parish priest. As
everyone has had their share of difficulties, the pandemic
continues to put a strain on my role as a priest, but I remain
positive and hopeful as I continue to seek to serve.
I don’t live each day waiting for the pandemic to end before
I seek to roll out my vision for this new church, but find
possible ways to do it. I am currently engaged in an online
evangelisation process with a group of parishioners, and in
future I hope it will be possible to reach out both online and
in person.
Fr Joseph Owusu-Ansah
https://www.instagram.com/frjoeowusu_ansah
Fr Joseph Owusu-Ansah
Parish Priest of Holy Family RC Church, Thanet
HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY
DURING A PANDEMIC
When COVID-19 was first identified
in China in December 2019 it seemed
quite a distant problem as some of us
in Britain had hoped. This suddenly
changed for our chaplaincy one morning
in early February 2019 when news of
the first cases of COVID-19 infection in
Britain had begun to spread.
We suddenly had to empty and seal the holy
water stoup in our hospital chapel to avoid risk
of people cross infecting one another when they
used it. The notion of being one world had been
brought home. Reflecting on this, these words
of Pope Francis words’ in Fratelli Tutti come to
mind:
“… a worldwide tragedy like the COVID-19
pandemic momentarily revived the sense
that we are a global community, all in the
same boat, where one person’s problems are
the problems of all… The storm has exposed
our vulnerability and uncovered those false
and superfluous certainties around which we
constructed our daily schedules, our projects,
our habits and priorities.” (Fratelli Tutti, n.32)
Indeed, hospital visits by relatives stopped,
and they had to rely on chaplains to visit their
loved ones. Chaplains had to adapt to aprons,
gloves and masks that made interaction with
patients difficult. Attentive presence and
empathy that often characterise the mission of
chaplains proclaiming the Gospel to the sick was
challenged. The idea of being a herald of the
Gospel increasingly became more than the use
of words and facial expressions. Simply being
quietly present and allowing the Holy Spirit to
intervene in such a difficult situation was often
all that a chaplain could do.
Dcn Alfred Banya
Bishop’s
Healthcare
Advisor,
Southwark / Head
of Chaplaincy at
Kings College,
London
11