The story of one Retreat House —
Shalom House of Prayer at Carcoar in the Diocese of Bathurst…

A building 133 years in service to the Church

For 133 years the imposing triple storied, red brick buildings of St Joseph's Convent of Mercy, aka St Mary's Academy for Ladies, latterly as Shalom, House of Prayer, have brooded maternally over the historic village of Carcoar, in the central tablelands of New South Wales. For 90 of those years it was a boarding school for girls, incorporating a co-ed day school which took the locals to the Intermediate Certificate (today's Year 10). For six or so years it was an empty, silent shell, home only to possums, rats, blue tongue lizards and spiders. In 1975 the Convent reopened as Shalom, a lay-run House of Prayer under the authority of the Catholic Bishop of Bathurst.

For 33 years Shalom has been a place of prayer, silence, solace and refuge for thousands of Christians from all denominations, becoming a spiritual home for Anglicans, Quakers, Uniting Church members, Catholics and many not claiming a religious affiliation. Its in-house programmes gave hundreds of Catholics the courage and knowledge to become leaders in their own parishes, and in some cases leaders of parishes. From the day its doors opened Shalom has been a leader in ecumenical relationships, providing a regular home for Anglican Cursillo, Uniting Church Emmaus Walk, Quaker gatherings and numerous Protestant parish retreats and recently Kairos Prison Ministries.

All this will change as the dwindling Shalom Community falls prey to ageing (of itself and the once faithful participants), a rapidly changing society that no longer values or has time for yesterday's religious traditions and social mores, and the increasing cost of car travel. Shalom is going the way of small villages, parishes, once proud service clubs, sporting clubs and religious orders: all affected by an ageing population, a rejection of past values we once held as sacred, and busy families who have both partners working. The working environment no longer recognises weekends, making it very difficult for many parents to commit to coaching teams, joining service clubs, being active in a church community or going off on weekend retreats. Few participants in Shalom's programmes are under 60.

Bigger questions for the whole Church…

Retreat centres nearer to metropolitan populations are faring better than their country cousins, many of whom have closed during the past decade. Long distance driving is undertaken now only after much consideration of the cost. This is particularly pertinent for areas still in drought. One small but positive sign among all this is the number of parishes which now run their own spiritual days and weekends. People can commit to a few hours for a day and still be home with families at night. Realistically we are speaking of very small numbers.

Retreat centres and the like run by religious orders are not immune from these changes. They also are having to cope with ageing members, the necessity to employ full time and highly paid staff, decaying buildings constantly in need of maintenance and upgrading, and a dwindling Catholic population from which to draw retreatants and visitors. Many have closed, others have survived through amalgamation with other Orders or Dioceses. Those which are left are finding it increasingly difficult to meet constantly rising costs with a diminishing cash flow.

The uncertain future of the House of Prayer at Carcoar is a reflection of the movements in our Church at large. Most of you reading this are aware of what is happening, many will know why it is happening, none of us know how to stop it happening. I wrote recently about finding a language of mission to engage the 85% of Catholics who no longer dialogue with the Church. That figure is out of date.

In my own Diocese of Bathurst, the National Attendance Count for 2006 shows the average or usual attendance is now only 11.5% — in real terms, 7700 from a Catholic population of 66,800. This turns the Parable of the Lost Sheep on its head (Matt 18:12, Luke 15:4). Our modern shepherd has to leave 1 and go search for 99!!

My human reasoning does not come up with any answers either for Shalom or the Church at large. That doesn't stop me trying or praying. An article in National Catholic Reporter reminds me that Jesus once prayed for peace for Jerusalem!! With the Christ I'll just have to be patient.

If we are overly sentimental or nostalgic, Ted's commentary makes for depressing reading. You should not blame Ted for that but blame me — a few week's ago I suggested to him that he write from his experience of the situation facing retreat centres. I already had my suspicions that they've been facing an uncertain future along with a lot of other things related to Church. Last evening when I was discussing Ted's commentary with Amanda she mentioned that she had heard of situations where schools were cutting back on offering out-of-school retreats because of the cost considerations on parents.

	The village of Carcoar

It is plainly evident if things go on the way they have been going for most of the lifetimes of those of us still living, in another thirty years, possibly sooner, there is going to be virtually no "Church" left as our parents would have known it. Even if there is some entity still with ownership of the buildings and physical assets, there will be few bothering to rock up on Sunday anymore and few pastors or priests to cater for their needs. I'm not sure that Rome gives a fig about any of this. They seem more intent on playing some little game trying to prove that none of the Popes of the past ever made any mistakes, that they ever changed their opinions about anything in the light of developing human insight into the mind of our Creator, and that they can read the mind of God better than everybody else on earth.

I sincerely doubt that anyone is going to convince the neanderthal elements of the need for change — like neanderthal man they will eventually die out albeit that the death is likely to be excruciatingly slow given the claw that sentimentality and nostalgia for the past has in the hearts of the small remnant. In recent times I know that personally I have been involved in a very deep re-envisaging of how I define myself as a Catholic, as a Christian, and as a member of the Body of Christ.

There is still a hankering after a sense of physical community…

On the positive side I have to admit that my life seems to be immensely richer today spiritually than it has ever been in the past. I certainly engage in far wider spiritual reading than I have ever had the inclination, or the freedom to engage in in the past. A lot of this does come from the quite phenomenal volume of serious spiritual material available today via the internet and the mainstream media through radio and television programs. While at significant periods in my life I was a daily communicant, or attended Mass a number of times a week, I have significantly drifted away from a sense of need to be attending Mass as I did in the past. Paradoxically I find myself engaged in prayerful reflection far, far more than has been the case at any earlier point in my life. At the same time I do sense a need for a spiritual community — and some deep sense which I find it difficult to articulate of wanting some sort of structure through which I can give back something to the world, and the community which blesses me with so much.

It seems I am not alone in this process. Others I speak to also seem to be searching for new ways of "being Catholic" — being engaged with the world, being spiritually aware and spiritually directed people, but searching for more effective ways through which we can express our sense of community, our spiritual yearnings to "know God" or to "know the will of our Creator". These yearnings to be part of a body of like-minded and like-hearted people who feel the need to express our hopes and aspirations and share our many questions and anxieties in a similar way to ourselves.

In my own children I have long observed that they place high value on their sense of community. I thought that human desire or drive also came through very strongly in the interview Amanda and I conducted with the three young boys last week. (By the way we now have a group of young women in their early twenties who want to express their opinions in the ways James, Luke and Nick did last week. We'll organise that interview as soon as possible.)

Back in December 2003 on the CathNews discussion board I posed a question out loud that I was posing to myself at the time. I asked "what, precisely, are the core things I need to believe in order to call myself a Catholic?" I've been reflecting on that question virtually every day since then. Some core things have clarified for me albeit that I am still trying to articulate them clearly even to myself.

Unfortunately at this point I have suddenly realised that I have unleashed a book here instead of a brief comment on Ted's perspectives — so let me cut to the chase and not get sidetracked into a long discussion about our core beliefs. It seems to me that in wider society there is more spiritual reading, and viewing, going on today than ever before. And basically we are not accessing that through "Church" but through the internet, through commercial publishers, and through the public media (and public, rather than commercial, broadcasters in particular). People are basically bored with Church liturgy and don't feel obligated to turn up anymore. There is no indication whatsoever that liturgy is going to be freed up so that it "speaks to the real hearts, expresses the real aspirations or is 'owned' by the people at large". They are basically expected to buy the product that is dictated by the liturgical know alls in Rome — and all the indications are that Rome's grip on the ownership is tightening even more making the liturgy even more remote from "the people". I do detect in society though a desire for some form of physical community. The internet, books and the media are not enough. People are searching for like-minded people who they want to discuss their hopes and aspirations with face-to-face — and their fears and anxieties as well.

Is this a new role for Retreat Centres…

The counterpoint I am basically trying to put forward to what Ted wrote is this: I think the need is there for communal places like Shalom and other Retreat Centres where people might use these facilities. I expect in time there will be a plethora of internet discussion communities like what is developing here at Catholica. These communities will not grow large. There are simply not the hours in the day for a large community to be writing and for everybody to be reading it all. These communities will need skilled facilitators just as classrooms need good teachers, or newspapers need skilled editors, or choirs need good conductors. What they will also need though is places where members can meet face-to-face from time to time. That might be something that ends up giving these retreat centres a new lease of life if it is managed properly. It may even be that retreat centres themselves are the places that first bring groups of people together and from what happens in those retreat centres cyber communities spring up.

I have a very real sense that in the future the Sunday obligation might drop away (except for a very small sector of the community who derive security from those sort of rules). Others though will increasingly belong to small communities via these so-called "social network" sites in cyberspace but they will be wanting to meet say for 2 or 3 days at a time perhaps 3 or 4 times a year in some physical space. Effectively they will be putting in far more hours over a year into their spiritual obligations than Sunday Catholics ever did but they'll be doing it in an entirely different manner. Will the institution ever be able to cope with such a radical change in the way we "do Church" or "worship God"?

Links:
Shalom, House of Prayer website: www.allstate.net.au/celtic/
Carcoar community website: www.carcoar.org/

What are your thoughts on Ted's commentary or Brian's response? You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.

©2007 Ted Mason

[Index of Commentaries by Ted Mason]