Could You Help? "Welcomer"

As the build-up to the Eastbourne Festival enters its final stages, there’s a lot to think about and prepare for. We look forward to welcoming Catholics from across the United Kingdom, along with visitors travelling from the United States, to share in the worship, fellowship, and life of our community here in Eastbourne.

Preparing for something like this makes you look at your parish through slightly different eyes.

We know our churches. We know where to sit, where things are kept and what normally happens next. We recognise familiar faces and understand the rhythms of parish life. But when someone walks through our doors for the first time, we can’t take any of that for granted.

And perhaps that is one of the lessons the Festival can leave with us long after our visitors have gone home.

Jesus says something remarkably simple in Matthew’s Gospel:

“I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35)

Those few words should make us think differently about what it means to welcome someone.

Christian hospitality is about far more than being polite or making sure somebody receives a Mass sheet. Jesus places welcome at the heart of our response to him. Later in the same passage, he tells his disciples:

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these  my brothers,  you did it to me.”

In other words, when we welcome another person, we should be conscious that we are welcoming someone made in the image of God, and that in serving them, we are serving Christ.

The Festival gives us a wonderful opportunity to put that into practice. But hospitality isn’t something we switch on for a special weekend and then put away again afterwards.

Every Sunday someone might enter our church who hasn’t been before. They may have recently moved to Eastbourne. They may be visiting family, returning to Mass after many years, exploring the Catholic faith, grieving, lonely, or simply wondering whether there might be a place for them here.

We may know nothing about the journey that brought them to our door.

But we can say welcome!

That has led me to think more broadly about the many people who quietly give their time to make parish life possible, and whether some of us can do a little more.

So, over the coming weeks, we are beginning a fortnightly series called:

Could You Help?

Each time, we will look at one of the voluntary roles within our churches. Some require particular skills or training; many do not. Sometimes all it takes is a little time and a willingness to serve.

And where better to begin than with the Welcomer?

A parish Welcomer may be the first person somebody encounters when they arrive for Mass. A smile, a “Good morning,” handing someone a Mass sheet, helping them find a seat, or simply noticing the person standing uncertainly at the back of the church might seem like very small things.

But small things can matter enormously.

You don’t need to be particularly outgoing. You don’t need to know the answer to every question. And you certainly don’t need to be a professional greeter.

You simply need to be willing to notice another person.

Perhaps, then, the question isn’t simply, “Could you volunteer?”

It’s something more fundamental to our Christian discipleship:

When Christ says, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me,” could that welcome begin with us?