If the priest can let go of what some see as his inherited power and the people are prepared to be active participants rather than ‘consumers’, then a new model of parish can ensue Be bold and be creative! Pope Francis is inviting us to rethink our parishes’ goals, structures, style and methods of evangelisation. His astonishing invitation follows St John Paul II’s to engage with a New Evangelisation and Benedict XVI’s invitation to assume co-responsibility for mission. In Merton deanery, we are considering the idea of following an American model of Church: stewardship, introduced by the US Bishops’ Conference in 1992 as a way of responding to this challenge.Christians believe we are stewards of God’s resources, that everything we have belongs to