Birmingham: Two Evangelisation Workers appointed

Maryvale

Following the success of the PROCLAIM 15 National Evangelisation Conference hosted in Birmingham over the summer, the Archdiocese of Birmingham has placed the New Evangelisation firmly at the top of its mission agenda with the appointment of two full time evangelisation workers, Natalie Orefice and Paul Northam.

Natalie comes to the role after more than fourteen years as a Detention Officer for West Midlands Police and describes her new post as a "transformative career move!"

Her focus will be evangelisation at parish level: "It is my mission to produce a lasting legacy for evangelisation in our Diocese, to see that the vision and challenge set before us in the initiative of Proclaim 15 really will have huge impact in parishes. There are many people doing wonderful work in parishes throughout our Diocese; I will produce a network so they can both share good practice and support one another along this journey. Furthermore, I will be available to guide, support and encourage parishes to start then embed their own evangelisation teams."

Natalie is also a national speaker for Catholic Voices "which has given me excellent foundations and strategies to defend the faith which is central to all that I do in life."

Paul Northam is taking on the role of evangelisation fieldworker with a focus on outreach to those 'on the fringes' of faith. He has spent eleven years as a youth worker for the Anglican church: "I will be meeting with specific parishes across our Archdiocese in order to help them think strategically and creatively about how they engage the lapsed."

The two new workers will be based at the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham.

Maryvale director, Father Eddie Clare said: "These appointments represent a great step forward and a major investment by the archdiocese (supported by a generous grant from the Porticus Trust) and is a demonstration of how seriously it takes the Lord's missionary command to "go out and make disciples." The two new workers will be concentrating their efforts on supporting parishioners firstly to recognise their calling to evangelise, and then to acquire the confidence and the resources that will help them to put it into action - which can often be in very simple ways through their day to day encounters with others."