I call you friend

The Friends Group at St. John Chrysostom gather to ensure that all may participate fully in the life of the parish community

By Pat Champagne
July/August 2008

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We are a group of volunteers and mentally challenged adults who meet monthly at St. John Chrysostom Parish in Newmarket, Ontario, to share faith and friendship. The group began in March 1991 under the guidance of Fr. Richard Hockman and with the support of Catholic Charities to draw mentally challenged parishioners into fuller participation within our parish. Since then, some of our group have served as altar servers and distributed the parish bulletin, and some have joined other social groups within the parish.

Members of the Friends Group of St. John Chrysostom parish, Newmarket, Ontario, take part in a Golden Rule reflection. The author of this article and longtime member of the group, Pat Champagne, stands far left.

Today, about 25 group members continue to gather monthly. We share news and reflect on a spiritual message with an accompanying activity or craft. We end with prayers for special intentions, a song and a social time with refreshments.

Music is a big part of our gatherings and we are fortunate to have an excellent vocalist and guitarist to lead and accompany us. We also incorporate sign language into our music.

Volunteers take turns facilitating the monthly gatherings with themes such as Earth stewardship, when we planted vegetable seeds in pots and discussed their care and the greater care of the planet. On a spring day we did a symbolic hike and made stops to picnic and talk about the various steps on the Easter journey. Every June, we gather for a backyard barbecue and singalong. And in December we celebrate mass or a Christmas ritual, followed by a potluck Christmas dinner and carol sing.

At one of our gatherings, someone suggested that we do a reflection on the Golden Rule. Some of us were familiar with the Golden Rule poster after attending the Ontario Mission Council weekend seminars at Scarboro Missions.

The meeting began with a short discussion about what the Golden Rule means and its universality throughout the many faith traditions of the world. People took turns reading aloud the phrases from the various faith traditions that express this rule.

Our activity consisted of giving to each person a cardboard cutout of a yellow “happy face” and a blue “sad face”. In groups of three or four, we talked about the things that we like people to do to us and wrote these on our happy faces. We also talked about the things we don’t like people to do to us and wrote these on our sad faces. As we gathered again in the circle, we read aloud all of our findings.

The message was simple, yet with profound implications: try to do to others those things that make us happy, and avoid doing to others those things that make us sad.

At the close of our meeting, each person received a small copy of the Golden Rule poster. We thank the Scarboro Missions Department of Interfaith Dialogue for providing us with resource materials.

Throughout the years, members of our group have become friends, getting together for concerts, community gatherings and in our homes. It has been a very enriching experience for us all.

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