(Part of the Finding Faith series)
Call it the power of advertising, power of suggestion, or a basic desire to go back to your religious roots.
Whatever it may be, the pews in Catholic churches across the Lower Mainland are getting a little more crowded these days.
Thats the initial observation following a two-month long, TV advertising campaign last December and this January, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Vancouver, called Catholics Come Home.
While the final results have yet to be compiled to identify just what effect the campaign has had, Catholic church officials are pleased with what they are hearing so far.
But its not numbers they are mainly interested in its the connections and re-connections the campaign has made.
Paul Schratz, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Vancouver, said that in his own parish one of the parishioners, who had not stepped foot inside the building since she made her first communion as a youngster, had recently returned to the fold.
She was around seven years old and something had happened in her parish, some type of dispute, and a falling out. And her family pulled out of the church and she never went back.
Never, that is, until now, when in her 80s, a connection was re-established.
She saw the TV ads and decided to return, Schratz said.
So how was that, and other similar re-connections, made?
Schratz said the TV ad campaign addressed a shift in attitude within the church to be more approachable and inviting.
The thing that weve noticed is that there was a real need for our parishes and parish communities to become more evangelizing in spirit, Schratz said. And thats one thing we noticed has happened.
There is more of a sense in the churches now of welcoming, prayer and personal outreach.
Previously, the perception was that all parishioners had to do was attend mass regularly and not look outside the churchs boundaries to address the rest of the population. At the forefront of the new approach was extending a personal invitation.
Most people who come to the church do it because of personal contact somebody reaches out to them and invites them, Schratz said. And I think we have more of a sense now of whats necessary. We cant just be, sort of, pew occupiers. We have to be out there and inviting people to come to church.
And given the complexion of Lower Mainland residents when it comes to their relationship with religion, there is a perceived larger community to address.
Vancouver is the second-most secular city in the world I think Berlin is first. So, there is obviously a lot of people here who dont know about Jesus and have never been invited, Schratz said. And we realized this was a perfect opportunity we had been missing.
As for how much of a boost the campaign has had, the hard data is yet to be reviewed. But the population of Catholics estimated at 450,000 across 79 parishes from Squamish to Hope, including four in Richmond was already in good shape before Catholics Come Home was launched.
Our numbers had been steadily increasing, Schratz said. But we realized we were missing a lot of people, who, if you look a the size and growth across the Lower Mainland, a lot of them are already Christians, previously Catholic, but fell out of the practise of their faith.
We realized we were missing a large opportunity to spread the good news, as well call it, and to share that faith with other people.
