If churches do not offer a warm welcome at Mass they risk losing those who are searching, and can hardly regard themselves as the people of the Cross and Resurrection that Christ requires them to be ARRIVING IN a new parish presents the priest with acute challenges – and even more so for one who has been the proud owner of a Freedom Pass for four years. Rather than taking on new pastures, he should be spending more time in the celestial waiting room like others his age. Instead, I arrived in Christchurch as parish priest in December and have been getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of my new flock; and likewise, the parishioners must get to know my own strengths and weaknesses. After spending 22 years in my last parish, I took a sabbatical of four months before coming here