BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Seventy parishes, missions and campus ministries have shown their interest in the RENEW 2000 program by sending teams for preliminary sessions Nov. 7 or 8.

Among the 70 were 14 Hispanic and two Vietnamese Catholic communities, as well as the Atlanta University Catholic Center, according to Father Richard Kieran, coordinator.

A Spanish orientation session paralleled one in English on Nov. 8 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta. An English session was also held Nov. 7 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Alpharetta.

Parishes were represented by teams of three or more at the sessions, which described the RENEW process as the creation of a climate for conversion within the parish through the life of many small faith-sharing communities.

Although RENEW 2000 provides spiritual preparation leading up to the Great Jubilee Year, it is truly intended to develop small faith communities that will endure, speakers said.

"Our vision is long-term, of our parishes being a community of communities made up of eight to 10 people each," sharing Scripture study, applying the Scriptures to their daily lives and supporting one another's faith, Father Kieran said Nov. 7 at St. Thomas Aquinas.

Small faith communities, which he said are modeled upon the example Jesus gave in his devotion to his disciples, "help the parish to become more personal, more communal, more dynamic and more mission-oriented."

"Let's make this methodology, which goes back to Jesus Himself, the methodology of our parishes."

Starting next year, parishes and missions that embark upon RENEW 2000 will support the establishment of their own small faith communities and those groups will together read Scripture related to the liturgical year and to themes for the Jubilee Year 2000. There will be five RENEW "seasons," each a six-week Bible study period, between 1998 and 2000.

Several priests at the Nov. 7 orientation session in Alpharetta said they hoped the RENEW process would enliven faith and build community at their parishes.

"I am confident that this program will bring a degree of unity that we are still hoping to achieve," said Father Serge Ward, pastor of Christ Our King and Savior Parish, Greensboro.

Recently created from two church communities, one in Eatonton and one in Greensboro, the parish will benefit from common faith sharing, Father Ward said. "We are still praying and socializing together as strangers."

Father Gordon Sidler, parochial vicar at St. Pius X Church, Conyers, said priests who took part in a preparatory retreat in October "seemed to be enthusiastic about this RENEW. They seemed to be looking forward to implementing it in their parishes. It was good."

He liked the point made during the retreat that priests, while spiritual leaders, also need to "allow the prayer to renew you."

St. Thomas Aquinas, host parish for one session, currently has 35 small faith communities as a legacy of a RENEW conducted in the parish from 1989-91 through the leadership of religious educator Terry Zobel and then pastor Father Jim Fennessy.

Current pastor Father Albert Jowdy meets monthly with facilitators for the communities and leads an annual retreat for them while Zobel works to develop leaders. Father Jowdy said the parish was made up of 1,700 families in 1989 when RENEW was introduced to strengthen ties and prevent a feeling of anonymity in a large parish through small faith communities.

"After two and a half years of meeting with the same folks, you find you love them and you want to be with them," he said.

Now the parish has 3,000 English-speaking families and an estimated 1,000 Spanish-speaking families. "When the program is presented in Spanish we will be well-represented there," said Father Jowdy, referring to the Nov. 8 session at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.

The turnout at the sessions combined represents approximately 75 percent of the parishes and missions of the archdiocese, Father Kieran said. Any parish that would still like to initiate involvement may contact him. In addition to the parish sessions, 51 staff members who work at the Catholic Center in Atlanta heard a presentation for archdiocesan agencies during the afternoon of Nov. 7.

Parishes and missions participating will now choose a small group to make up the parish core community and submit that list to Father Kieran by Dec. 15. Workshops for this community will be held in January and February.