VANCOUVER (CCN) — On the Feast of Pentecost, Archbishop Richard Smith offered his reflections on his first year as Archbishop of Vancouver and issued a plan for renewal in the archdiocese.
“It feels like I’ve stepped into something wonderful here that’s been flowing for quite some time,” he told Deacon Zak Santiago in an interview marking the anniversary. “There is an energy here [in Vancouver], there is a dynamism.”
Archbishop Smith said he spent his first year meeting with and listening to parishioners and organizations across the Archdiocese. He has been excited by its diversity in the cultural and ethnic groups that call it home and in the forms of outreach and ministry that serve the people of Vancouver. “It’s beautiful to see all the different ways in which the one universal faith finds [expression],” he said.
The Archbishop had special praise for the vitality of the Church in Vancouver at the Door is Open and its work in the Downtown East Side, as well as for prison ministry and Providence Health Care.
The chief lesson learned from his travels has been the presence of a hunger to listen to the Holy Spirit and renew the life of the Church.
“The phrase that I’ve heard is that there is some sort of a holy dissatisfaction with status quo,” he told Deacon Santiago. “It’s not to say the status quo is bad … There’s a lot of good here, but we can’t be resting on laurels—we can’t be complacent.”
Many people have asked him for his vision for the future is, but he insists that’s not the right question. “The question is: what’s the Lord’s vision?” he said. “Where is the Lord leading us and how do we discern that together?”
The one common theme has been a call for renewal, he said. “Renewal doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It doesn’t mean that some things have to be set aside and we’re going to do something new.”
“Renewal is always happening in the Church,” he said, “because the Lord himself promised, ‘I make all things new.’”
He described renewal as “moving history towards that definitive culmination of absolute newness in Christ when all is recapitulated in him and the eternal life.”
Practically speaking, the call to renewal comes with a plan for discernment. Five taskforces have been created to tackle each of five key areas: priestly life and culture; parish renewal; liturgical renewal; school renewal; and property and infrastructure renewal.
Each task force is headed by a layperson and supported by members of the clergy who will report to an executive committee headed by the Archbishop.
The emphasis will be on discernment. “I’ve asked them over the next year just to imagine, think big, pray big,” he said.
Quoting St. Teresa of Avila, he said, “We tend to pray so small, and what we ask of God is usually confined within the very, very narrow limits of the human imagination.”
Nothing, however, is too much for God, he said. “Come and take over, Jesus. Come with the power of the Spirit, no holds barred, no limits, and just show us what you can do and bring us along.”
“God just continually surprises … and this is what we want to see happen. It’s certainly what I want to see happen here in the Archdiocese … I can’t think of anything more exciting than that,” he said.
Archbishop Smith elaborated on specifics in the official video announcing the initiative on Pentecost.
“I’m asking each group to envision how they sense the Holy Spirit moving us toward that horizon,” he said, “to picture how things need to develop in their area—and to propose a pathway forward. I will then receive those recommendations, discern the direction we should take, and we will move into a period of implementation,” he said.
The groups will spend the next year in prayer and reflection, with the plan aimed at bearing fruitful outcomes by 2033 in time for the Jubilee of the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Prayer is the best way for the faithful to participate in the process, he said, and they’ll also have opportunities to follow what is unfolding and offer feedback and ideas.
Archbishop Smith wrote this prayer for discernment, asking God for his grace and guidance.
O God, who make all things new in your Son, Jesus Christ,
grant us, we pray, a new and mighty outpouring of your Holy Spirit
and renew your Church in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
Open our hearts to the cry of your poor and enliven our pastoral charity.
Make our celebrations of the Sacred Liturgy fitting offerings of praise to your great glory.
Sanctify our Archbishop and priests and send them anew as compassionate shepherds of your people.
Revitalize our schools as communities of Catholic faith and authentic humanity.
Grant us new wisdom to steward our resources well in service of the Church’s mission.
Infuse our parish families with apostolic boldness to announce the joy of the Gospel.
Thoroughly renew us all, Heavenly Father, by your love and mercy. Inspire us to embrace once again our baptismal call to holiness and mission.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
For more details about the renewal process, visit rcav.org/renewal.
The Archdiocese of Vancouver’s renewal initiative is aimed toward 2033, when the Christian world will mark the 2,000th anniversary of the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Archbishop Richard Smith has placed the Archdiocese’s renewal initiative within that wider horizon, calling the local Church to prepare through prayer, discernment, and a renewed commitment to mission. The Archbishop has also pointed to 2031, the 500th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as an opportunity to entrust the renewal to Mary’s accompaniment.
The anniversary is expected to carry exceptional significance for the universal Church. Similar extraordinary years were celebrated in 1933 under Pope Pius XI and in 1983 under St. John Paul II, marking the 1,900th and 1,950th anniversaries of the Resurrection.
Pope Leo XIV has already pointed toward 2033 as a moment of Christian unity. Speaking to Christian leaders in Turkey last year, he expressed hope that they could meet in Jerusalem in 2033 to celebrate together the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Later, in a joint declaration with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Pope Leo called on Christians of East and West to agree on a common date for Easter.
According to the Vatican press office, Pope Leo also spoke to the leaders about the possibility of a Jubilee 2033 celebration in Jerusalem. He expressed a desire to celebrate “in the Cenacle, place of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, where he washed their feet, and the place of Pentecost,” the press office said.
To make such an encounter possible, he told them, progress toward full unity would be necessary, citing his episcopal motto, “In Illo uno unum,” or “In the One, we are one,” referring to faith in one Lord.
The website Jubilee 2033 says the year will mark the 2,000th anniversary of the Redemption and is expected to draw millions of faithful from around the world. Rome will serve as the focal point of the celebrations, with the four papal basilicas — St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls — at the heart of the pilgrimage experience, including the symbolic passing through the Holy Door.
The central message of the Jubilee is expected to be spiritual renewal, peace, reconciliation, and solidarity, inviting the faithful to reflect on Christ’s sacrifice and to seek grace through prayer, the sacraments, pilgrimage, and acts of mercy.
Preparations are already underway, with plans for prayer gatherings, catechesis, cultural events, concerts, and exhibitions highlighting the connection between faith and art. While Rome will remain the centre of the Jubilee, dioceses around the world are also expected to participate, reinforcing a sense of global Christian unity.
