Wellington Archdiocese hosts “Mission Expo”

By Lydia O’Kane

The Archdiocese of Wellington in New Zealand is dedicating 2020 as a Year of Mission. Part of its programme showcases the people and organisations who work tirelessly, and oftentimes behind the scenes, helping others in need.

On Saturday the Archdiocese held one of two “Mission Expos” that are shining the spotlight on the many missionary activities that take place in the Archdiocese.

The Expo includes a variety of workshops, cultural exchanges, display booths, food fares, and games.

Getting involved

Speaking about the Mission Expo initiative, the Archbishop of Wellington, Cardinal John Dew explained that they “wanted to emphasize to everyone that all the baptized have a mission; they don’t just come along to Mass and not be involved at all, but there are endless ways that they can participate in the mission of the Church, and to do that we decided to host two Mission Expos in two different parts of the diocese, to illustrate the many many different ways people are involved in the mission of the Church.”

Cardinal Dew said, he hoped the Expo would “show people from all parts of the diocese the huge variety of the initiatives that are already undertaken around the diocese and hopefully to inspire people to be involved in some of those, or to start other initiatives themselves, so that they can own something of the fact that we all have a mission and are called to be involved.”

Year of Mission and social media

Asked how social media can play its part in promoting the Archdiocese’s Year of Mission, the Cardinal said, it has an enormous role to play “in getting the message of the Gospel out illustrating the kinds of things that do happen, illustrating people who go to work at the soup kitchen, or sometimes we hear about people going out on the streets early in the morning to meet some of the homeless people and just be supportive.”

He noted that "those sorts of things when they’re highlighted on a facebook page or on social media draw a lot of attention and I think we really can do a lot more with social media just because of the following that facebook do get."

The second Expo is due to take place at Garin College, Richmond, Wellington Saturday, 21 March.