Manchester: Bishop Davies opens The Well

The Bishop of Shrewsbury Rt Rev Mark Davies has opened and blessed a new centre of evangelisation run by the Neocatechumenal Way. The Well was a former medical centre in Wythenshawe, Manchester, which had been lying vacant for nine years.

Members of the Way, a new ecclesial movement, have taken out a lease on the building and spent six months extensively refurbishing it as a centre of worship and of evangelisation for the local community.

Bishop Davies opened and blessed the building in Woodhouse Lane, Benchill, during a ceremony on Saturday.

In his homily, Bishop Davies reflected on the encounter between Jesus Christ and the Samaritan woman in the Gospel of St John (4:4-26). He told the congregation that “we have dug this well on Woodhouse Lane” and that “it is our desire, our task, to offer again this water of life to all who will come with the openness of that Samaritan woman who came to that personal meeting with Jesus Christ”.

He said that the life of the Church is sustained by the same gift of “living water” that Our Lord spoke of in that encounter. “This is the water that is offered to us,” Bishop Davies said. “Whether it is the parishes or religious communities in all their diversity or the new ecclesial movements, the Way of the Neocatechumenate, we offer this same water of life – Christ’s words and his sacraments. There is no other Gospel that we offer but we will offer it in different ways to sustain the life of all.”

The Bishop continued: “Today I want to acknowledge my gratitude, the gratitude of the Diocese, to the families in mission who came here to Manchester with that same desire that our parishes are built upon, and all our religious communities and schools and forms of apostolate – to offer that water of life, Christ’s words and doctrine, the grace of His sacraments and with a particular mission … to offer those who have never met Christ or who have forgotten Him.”

Paul Hayward, catechist and leader of the Wythenshawe community, told the congregation that the primary purpose of the building was evangelisation.

He said: “We are not a Catholic parish, we are not in competition with any of the parishes round here. We are here to help as best we can to bring people to a meeting with Jesus Christ. That’s what we are here for.”

Mr Hayward said he hoped the centre would attract non-Catholics and lapsed Catholics in particular. “There is a lot of work to do here and the work is to bring people back to the faith,” he said. “This is our job”

He added: “I must stress that none of us are professionals, none of us are heroes, we are all just ordinary people from other parishes who have been so impressed by what God has done in our lives that we want to pass it on to others.”

The Well is an initiative of the four families of the Neocatechumenal Way that in 2012 formed the first community to be dispatched to England by Pope Benedict XVI on “Missio ad Gentes” – on mission to the people.

Two families are from Spain, one is from East London and one is from Sicily. Together with their priest and assistants they total a community of 35 people.

The Neocatechumenal Way was invited into the Diocese of Shrewsbury by Bishop Davies in an attempt to “open up some new paths of evangelisation”.

Mr Hayward’s son, Daniel Hayward, a father-of-13 who relocated to Wythenshawe from Mile End with his family to be part of the mission, said that the Well gave the Neocats the opportunity to meet local people.

“The purpose of the building is to give us a base where we work from, but also to invite people into,” Mr Hayward said.

“We see our mission as getting to know people so we can announce the Good News to them,” he said. “It is a place where we can welcome them. It is a place where we can have liturgies, catechesis, a Blessed Sacrament chapel, where we can have daily Mass. It is for our work of evangelisation. It is a base for the local Catholic community, a base for them to use.”

Most of the refurbishment work was undertaken by the members of the Way themselves with the help of some members of the local community.

It is not yet completed but the centre will be open during Advent for Christmas events such as carol singing. It is hoped that the celebration of daily Mass will be established by January.

Because it is adjacent to St John Fisher and St Thomas More Primary School, the centre will also aim to serve as an “open house” to parents of children there.

The Way is among the new ecclesial movements that successive popes have declared to be among the authentic fruits of the Second Vatican Council, the “convinced communities” pivotal to the success of the new evangelisation.

Founded in Madrid in 1964 by Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernández, it was inspired by the early model of the Church and the desire to form Christian adults in their faith.

Communities are usually comprised of about 24 to 40 people and there are a million living in 40,000 of them around the world, with some 1,000 Neocats in 50 communities in the English dioceses of Westminster, Southwark, Liverpool, Birmingham, Salford, Lancaster and Northampton, as well as Shrewsbury.

Such communities consist of people of different ages and backgrounds but large and strong families are common, with many producing vocations to the priesthood as well as to marriage.