Theological Reflection on Pastoral Practice in this Time– From Maintenance to MissionEamonn FitzgibbonI have been very struck in these times by the phrase that we often use in Pastoral Renewal – ‘from maintenance to mission’. Donal Harrington says that “this implies a shift on focusing effort on maintaining what is there already to focusing effort on striking out in order to put something different in place”; essentially it recognises that maintaining the status quo is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of a rapidly changing cultural context. A strategy primarily built on maintenance was perhaps appropriate fifty years ago when church practice, vocations etc were all in such high numbers.