Anglicare Sydney is launching a series of seven specialised workshops to assist local churches undertake more effective caring or mercy ministries.
The new workshops follow on the heels of the "When people need help' workshops conducted in each of the five regions of the Sydney Diocese last year. The original workshops helped to provide parishes with strategies to assist people who approach local churches for assistance to deal with a wide range of issues including homelessness and financial hardship.
The new workshops will focus in on seven specific areas of need and will encourage participants to have a better understanding of the often complex issues being faced by those requiring assistance.
"The new workshops offer training that raises awareness, identifies resources and most crucially builds empathy among groups and individuals that leads to mercy ministries in their local community", says Mat Teakle, a training officer with Anglicare Sydney's Parish Partnerships team.
"That's why we've decided to call the workshops "Doctrines "n' Actions or "DNA', because the idea is to generate sympathy " which is about identifying with and understanding another person's situation and acting on it. The intent then is to have this increased understanding underpin more effective gospel-centred action in the local community.
"Good works and the gospel are so closely tied, but sometimes even the most mature believers in local church settings are unaware of the great needs in their own community, or they feel "unqualified' or not sure if they can really make a difference," says Mat.
Anglicare Sydney's Parish Partnerships Team Leader, Darren Farrell, says DNA workshops are based on a community development model and not a service delivery model.
"It's about God's people doing good works in their local communities and doing them as well as they possibly can under God's sovereign guidance," says Darren.
"DNA is about learning together using the wisdom and experiences of people with very close ties to each of the seven key areas."
"For example, we are very close to finishing work on developing the "Caring for Carers' workshop which includes empathy-building exercises that have been fashioned out of extensive input from actual carers".
Each of the seven DNA workshops includes what the Parish Partnerships Team refers to as "content partners'.
"They're not consultants", says Mat, "but partners in our ultimate goal of getting people who need our help together with believers who are real about doing mercy ministry."
Mat says their stories, their frustrations and their needs are all being put "unfiltered and raw' into the Caring for Carers workshop which also includes discussion, role plays and the use of the 2007 Hollywood film Lars and the Real Girl which explores how a local church can support a family faced with a sudden mental health crisis.
