Missionary Parish Symposium 2025: Our Parish, the Cornerstone of Mission
The Missionary Parish Symposium marked a milestone in the Archdiocese’s journey of pastoral conversion. Inspired by the Dicastery for the Clergy’s 2020 instruction on “The pastoral conversion of the Parish community in the service of the evangelising mission of the Church”, that same year, the Office for the New Evangelisation (ONE) began working with parishes to strengthen their missionary character.
Providentially, Pope Francis initiated the Synod on Synodality in 2021. Locally, this initiative led to the formation of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council (APC) in 2023, who then studied the Singapore Church’s feedback from its synodal conversations. The APC subsequently released the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan on 8 September 2025, with one aspect of the pastoral priority being the need to enhance the missionary focus of parishes.
Five years after beginning its first parish pastoral conversion work, ONE was ready to share its frameworks more widely. Coupled with the launch of the Pastoral Plan, the Missionary Parish Symposium was a timely initiative to support parishes in living out their missionary mandate to form disciples and evangelise.
On 13 September 2026, the inaugural Symposium gathered 376 parish leaders and key ministry leaders —including 32 clergy—from 27 parishes at Catholic Junior College. The Symposium was also supported by 10 Archdiocesan Organisations who were present to connect with the parish leaders on various areas of help. With the theme “Our Parish – the Cornerstone of Mission”, participants explored how parishes can embrace pastoral conversion and intentionally grow into missionary communities.
Keynote by Cardinal William Goh
Cardinal William Goh, the Symposium’s keynote speaker, issued a clarion call for parish leaders to take the lead in converting their parishes into missionary communities. Such parishes must nurture vibrant, evangelising faith, responding faithfully and creatively to Christ’s invitation: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), the scriptural anchor for the event.
In his keynote, the Archbishop highlighted three key points:
- The Church is Mission
- Cardinal William reminded participants that “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature” (Ad Gentes 2). The Church exists to evangelise.
- The Call to Pastoral Conversion
- The parish stands as a “house among houses”— an indispensable organism of primary importance in the visible structure of the Church —called to move beyond maintenance into mission.
- The Three Marks of a Missionary Parish
- Missionary parishes can be recognised by three characteristic marks:
- A culture of encounter
- A discipleship pathway
- An evangelising presence in the neighbourhood
- Missionary parishes can be recognised by three characteristic marks:
Click here to watch Cardinal's Keynote address.
Real-Life Examples of Pastoral Conversion
A plenary session featuring parish leaders from three parishes showcased how pastoral conversion has taken shape through concrete steps towards missionary renewal.
- Church of the Holy Cross :
- Parish priest Fr Henry Siew and Philip Lim, chair of the Pastoral Conversion Team, shared how the parish established Missionary Disciple Teams. These teams were tasked with fostering a culture of relational and spiritual vitality among parishioners.
- Church of St Michael:
- Parish priest Fr Terence Pereira and Jenny Ang, chair of the Pastoral Conversion Team, recalled the early days when the church was quiet and dark at night. Gradual changes transformed the parish culture: parishioners grew accustomed to greeting one another with “Peace be with you”, and spaces within the parish grounds were intentionally reorganised to encourage people to linger after Eucharistic Celebrations, building community bonds.
- Church of St Bernadette:
- Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) leaders, Bernadette Ho and Christopher Ow, shared their initial discouragement upon seeing the results of an early assessment of their parish’s evangelising situation. This spurred their PPC to collaborate closely with their parish priest and fellow team members to design an intentional, strategic pastoral plan centred on three key goals for renewal.
Aside the panellist parishes, in the open sharing segment, three parishes also shared about their initiatives.
- Church of Divine Mercy:
- This parish collaborated with a neighbourhood social service centre where elderly or stay at home parishioners were roped in to engage the centre’s seniors who attend the centre’s activities. This gave such parishioners the opportunity to show Christ’s love in action.
- Church of St Anne:
- The parish worked on planning a pathway for their parishioners to be disciples, called ‘A Clear Path’.
- Church of St Francis Xavier:
- The parish sent out its teams of volunteers to do door-to-door visits with its parishioners, reaching out to those who were registered within their database.
Missionary Parish Framework
In the latter half of the Symposium, ONE introduced its Missionary Parish Framework, inspired from Evangelli Gaudium. The three-part framework focus: the 3Rs – Revitalise, Reorientate, Restructure.
Looking Ahead
With the Symposium, the clarion call is for our parishes to embrace a parish pastoral conversion in service of the evangelising mission of the Church. The Missionary Parish Symposium was more than a gathering; it was a moment of grace for our Archdiocese. Parish leaders, clergy, and lay members came together in prayerful reflection and courageous dialogue, united by the desire to renew their parishes as living communities of mission.
As ONE continues to accompany parishes on this journey, the frameworks, testimonies, and shared experiences from the Symposium will serve as seeds of renewal. As we continue to use the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan as our lens, we look forward to helping parishes become ever more vibrant, evangelising, and missionary—faithful to Christ’s command to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19).
Together, as one Archdiocesan family, we walk forward in hope, trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide our parishes to be true cornerstones of mission.