Read our Apostolic Blessing from His Holiness, Pope Francis

Fr. James Mallon is the part-time Episcopal Vicar for Parish Renewal and Leadership Support for the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Although now former pastor of Saint Benedict Parish in Halifax, he is still very much part of this faith community.

Fr. James is the author of the best selling book Divine Renovation: From A Maintenance to a Missional Parish and the Divine Renovation Guidebook, engaging guides for parishes seeking to cultivate vibrant and dynamic faith communities centred on missionary discipleship. The message of Divine Renovation has resonated in the hearts of tens of thousands of pastors and laity throughout the world. It has inspired and motivated the transformation of faith communities worldwide.  To answer the needs of these communities, Fr. James began the Divine Renovation Ministry.

His Eminence Cardinal Lacroix was ordained a priest in 1988. Early in his priesthood he served the Church as a missionary in South America and as the General Director of the Pius X Secular Institute. Cardinal Lacroix was President of the Canadian National Office of St. Andrew School of Evangelization and member of the Board of Directors for the World Conference of Secular Institutes (2008-2012). In 2011, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI named him Archbishop of Quebec. His Eminence Cardinal Lacroix is a member of the Board of Directors of the Quebec Assembly of Catholic Bishops (AECQ), the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), and the Permanent Council.

Pope Francis designated Cardinal Lacroix a Cardinal in 2014, the 8th Cardinal of the Archdiocese of Quebec. He has been a member of the Vatican Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture. In 2016, he was appointed a member to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. His Holiness Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Lacroix a member of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life in 2018.

Michael holds degrees in Philosophy, Business Administration, and Theology including a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. He is the founder of the New Evangelization Summit, Mission of the Redeemer Ministries, and is co-founder of uevangelize.org, a new online membership forum dedicated to the New Evangelization.

Michael speaks globally about the New Evangelization where he inspires lay Catholics to live out more fully their vocation, teaches and encourages priests, and equips parishes for renewal. He inspires and equips Catholic laypersons to become missionary through “relit,” a program that prepares parishes to effectively proclaim the Gospel. Michael lives with his wife and young family in Ottawa.

Fr. Jon was ordained a Catholic priest in 1990 in the Plymouth Diocese, UK. In 2015, Fr. Jon combined the role of Episcopal Vicar for Evangelisation, Catechesis and Schools with running a busy parish. Fr. Jon has been inspired by the phrase, “the church exists to evangelise” and has recognised a huge gap between knowing we should evangelise and how to go about it. For this reason, Fr. Jon along with Michele Thompson, developed the Genesis Mission.

The Genesis Mission is an effective program of formation and enables ongoing continuing personal growth. It works in a very practical way that is uniquely adaptable to every baptised person; dismissing the myth that evangelising is only for those with “the gift” and enabling each and every faithful Catholic to proactively share in the great commission. Many Parish Evangelisation Teams equipped with the Genesis Mission have since sparked across the diocese of Plymouth in the UK. “The Genesis Mission Parish renewal is inextricably linked with the formation of missionary disciples who have learned to evangelise by evangelising.”

Michele is a cradle Catholic who was brought up in Cornwall, UK. She began her ministry with young people, as a Parish Youth Leader, Catholic University Chaplain and a Counsellor at a Catholic High School. Michelle realized a need for her personal call to evangelize during a local door-to-door mission. After witnessing the “almost instant visible change” of others after sharing the Gospel with them, she knew that she was being called to “look for a way to empower others to do the same”. Thus, Michele developed the Genesis Mission with Fr. Jon Bielawski.

The Genesis Mission began in 2015 as a program for parish renewal and has since spread across the Plymouth Diocese. “Our energy, focus, unified vision and prayer is explicitly to raise up a new generation of people who have such a deep and integrated sense of discipleship that sharing their faith in Jesus Christ is the central purpose of their lives from which every other aspect of their lives flow. We aspire to create habit and tradition and a shift in culture that will deeply and permanently affect Catholic Christians for generations to come, sending people out as Agents of Life and Change into a world of desperate need”

Michelle and her husband Peter are founder members of Sion Catholic Community for Evangelism and have been involved in full time ministry for over 30 years. Michelle graduated from London University with a B.Ed. in Religious Education and Sociology, and taught in a college for 5 years before ministering full time in Sion Community. In 1998, she completed her MA in Pastoral theology at Cambridge.

She is a widely travelled preacher, teacher and evangelist. She is an author of several books and numerous articles on evangelisation. Michelle served as President of International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, based in the Vatican from 2006-2017, and was a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 2008 - 2016. Most recently, Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has personally appointed Michelle to work on establishing new structures for the service of Renewal and Mission in the Church.