Our Mission Director, Abbot Hugh Allan O'Praem, offers a reflection for Evangelii Gaudium Sunday 2025.
On Evangelii Gaudium Sunday the bishops of England and Wales ask parishes to pray for the work of evangelisation across our countries and to look for ways in which we can all do our part in sharing the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus Christ. This is very much our mission.
Reflecting the importance of sharing the good news is an essential part of our mission at home, and next year this annual Sunday will return to its former title of Home Mission Sunday. The joy of the gospel is where we should feel ‘at home’ but also challenges us to be missionary disciples in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
This year, the Church has been celebrating a significant anniversary. It is 1,700 years since the Council of Nicaea. This great gathering of Bishops from around the Church began the work to formulate the creed we proclaim Sunday by Sunday. It is the content of this creed that is our mission, so that we may know and love God in this life, in order to be happy with him forever in the next.
The creed begins with a profound proclamation, “I believe.”
In his book, Priests for the Third Millennium Cardinal Dolan tells the story of an American Bishop who faced a difficult problem with a college in his diocese where the staff and students were deeply divided. The Bishop tried bringing a sense of calm to the situation and everyone complained. Eventually former students started picketing outside the college. They had signs saying some pretty awful things about the Bishop. So, he went to the college to confront them. Of course, it was a nightmare. The poor Bishop was surrounded by angry comments and snarling faces. He was questioned by journalists about what he was going to do, what was his reason for being there, why did he bother etc. Confronted by so much anger and frustration, the Bishop simply replied, “I believe in God” and continued with the Creed, the same creed we say every Sunday, which began to be formulated at the Council of Nicaea 1,700 years ago.
In the face of a world of anger, apathy, doubt, turmoil, the Bishop did the one thing he could and proclaimed, “I believe.” They are the first words of the creed, but they sum up the heart of being part of the Church, because when we say, “I believe”, we also say “I belong.”
In what can sometimes be the chaos and messiness of our own lives, the answer God invariably gives us is to join with the whole family of God and say, “I believe.”
At the heart of it all, the Christian must be a believer, to be able to say, “I believe,” someone who converses with God. If this is not the case, then all our activities are futile. The most important thing we can do for ourselves and for each other is, first of all, to be a believer. Through this we let God come into the world. And if God is not at work, our work will never be enough; when people sense that someone is there who believes, who lives with God and from God, hope becomes a reality in their lives.
Through the faith of the Christian, doors open up all around for people: it is really possible to believe, even today. All human believing is a believing-with, and for this reason the one who believes before us is so important. Where were we inspired to believe? Who handed on to us the gift of the faith? This year, we celebrate the faith and belief of the Bishops at Nicaea. They handed on to us a way in which we can proclaim the truth of who God is and who we are as the people of God.
As the gospel of St John reminds us, “Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (John 6.29). To do the work of God is to believe.
To help in this great commission, the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has a mission team which is based at their secretariat in Eccleston Square in London. This office supports the bishops in their work to promote the proclamation of the gospel across England and Wales. The Mission team does this in several diverse areas, but all of which help to serve the kingdom of God. Catechesis and evangelisation; helping to deepen knowledge of the beauty of Holy Scripture; marriage and family life; the National Office of Vocations; loving and protecting the great patrimony of our historic churches and cathedrals; serving the liturgy of the Church; promoting Christian Unity and Interreligious dialogue; supporting the work of chaplaincy in Higher Education and in Prisons; and in supporting the work of those who do much to share the gospel with young people today.
To aid the work of the directorate, there is an annual collection in every parish to help us in helping you.
If you can, please be generous in supporting the work of the Mission team. We know there are many demands on your time and on your purse, but we remain truly grateful to you for any support you can give.
The greatest support remains your prayers and your own dedication to sharing the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.
St. Augustine tells us that God made us to make the times, not the times to make us, and unless we make the times better with the light of Jesus Christ, then the times will make us worse with the darkness of despair. This is only possible when we say with honest and open hearts “I believe.” Hope is despair overcome and the way we enkindle hope in the hearts of all is to believe.
As we rejoice in the gift of the creed, 1,700 years since the great Council of Nicaea, through all the ups and downs of life, may we be able to say with joyful hearts, “yes Lord, I believe.” Amen.
Abbot Hugh Allan O’Praem
Director of Mission
What’s in a Creed? The Biblical Basis of our Faith
