Plenary Council 2020 Update

Welcome to PlenaryPost The Plenary Council process so far has been an exercise in listening, in dialogue, in conversation -- in changing the way the People of God communicate with one another, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It has also been a process of numbers. Over 10 months, at least 222,000 people chose to be part of that period of listening and dialogue with one another. Their voices were represented in the 17,457 submissions that were received by the National Centre for Pastoral Research. From those submissions, quantitative and qualitative analysis pinpointed around 120 subject areas. And after a period of analysis, prayer and discernment, six National Themes for Discernment emerged, and will now shape the next stage of the Council's preparation period: Listening and Discernment. There's a lot more information below on the National Themes for Discernment, the process so far and going forward, and on initiatives around the country to start quickly on this new stage. At Pentecost, the Plenary Council website was also re-launched, with new material added to help people understand the National Themes for Discernment and how they can continue to be involved in the second phase of preparation.

Video: The National Themes for Discernment Click here for video FacilitatorFocus: Listening, dialogue and prayer have carried us to this point by Lana Turvey-Collins It is a beautiful work of the Holy Spirit that the Church in Australia has reached this point in the journey toward the Plenary Council. As we begin the second stage of preparation – Listening and Discernment – I have been thinking about what has brought us here. The past 18 months have been an experience of personal growth and professional inspiration and I am deeply grateful to every person who is a part of shaping this journey. Each person who has given time, prayer, skills and energy to any part of the Plenary Council journey is invaluable. Thank you from all of us here at the Facilitation Team. Earlier this year, Dr Trudy Dantis and her team at the National Centre for Pastoral Research began reading all of your submissions and then, in late May, the Bishops Commission joined by the Executive Committee and the Facilitation Team came together at St Peter Canisius House in Pymble, NSW, for three days of listening to Trudy and her team explain to us what all of you had shared so generously. They were days of deep prayer, open-hearted listening and intense conversation that I found personally very challenging and profoundly faith-filled. The six National Themes for Discernment that resulted from your submissions and those days of prayer provide for all of us a framework for taking the next step forward together. Now we are challenged to look forward, to face some “big questions”, to listen to one another even more deeply as we discern: How is God calling us to be a Christ-centred Church in Australia that is missionary and evangelising; inclusive, participatory and synodal; prayerful and Eucharistic; humble, healing and merciful? How are we called to be a joyful, hope-filled, servant community, one that is open to conversion, renewal and reform? CuriosityCorner We will address a new question in each e-newsletter. To catch up on previous editions, you can check out the Plenary Council FAQ page. If you have a question, email it to us and we will include it in future editions of PlenaryPost. The question for today is… What will be on the agenda for the Plenary Council in 2020? The agenda for the Plenary Council will be developed over the coming 12 months (2019-2020) in response to the fruits of discernment. During this second stage of preparation for the Plenary Council, Listening and Discernment, every person is invited to take time to read and reflect on the responses given during the Listening and Dialogue stage, to listen to all the many and diverse voices of the People of God in Australia. Each of the National Themes for Discernment will have a Working Group established and it will be the groups' task to write the working papers that will be the foundation for the agenda for the first session of the Plenary Council. TalkTheology How Pope Francis calls us to mission by Fr Noel Connolly SSC, Plenary Council Facilitation Team Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheistic, “death of God” philosopher, was fond of taunting his Christian friends with: “I’ll believe in your redeemer when you look more redeemed.” Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium makes a similar challenge. He asks, what kind of missionaries are Christians who look like “Lent without Easter” (6), or people “who have just come back from a funeral” (10), “querulous and disillusioned pessimists, sourpusses” (85), “defeated generals” (96)? He prays, “May the world of our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive the good news not from evangelisers who are dejected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ.” (10) So, even at a time when the Church has never been more criticised and questioned, it is important that we rediscover our joy in being Christian and share this with our secular brother and sister Australians. We may never be a perfect Church, but hopefully we can come across as a more attractive, “redeemed” and servant Church. Click here to read Fr Noel's full article. Click here for previous post

Update on Plenary Council 2020

PlenaryPost

It covered almost 10 months and culminated in a flurry of late submissions, but the Listening and Dialogue phase of the Plenary Council has yielded a remarkable foundation from which the people of God can move forward.

Late last week, the National Centre for Pastoral Research (NCPR) completed the statistical analysis and reported that more than 17,500 submissions had been lodged -- thousands of which represented groups. In all, more than 222,000 people either made an individual submission or participated in a group discussion that culminated in a submission. Read more below or head straight to the story here.

The NCPR will continue its quantitative and qualitative analysis of the stories that people have shared over the coming weeks. From that analysis, which will include prayer and discernment, national themes for discernment will emerge and be announced in June. Reports will be published on each of the themes and allow ongoing involvement for the large numbers of people who participated during the Listening and Dialogue phase.

More information on the upcoming aspects of the Plenary Council is outlined below and will be included in future editions of Plenary Post.

Paul Bowell and Trudy Dantis from the National Centre for Pastoral Research discuss how the NCPR is helping coordinate the review and analysis of the more than 17,500 submissions received during the Listening and Dialogue phase.Click here for video

Plenary Council is listening to 222,000 voices Plenary Council 2020 president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB says he and his fellow bishops have been “amazed” by the engagement of people across Australia in the Council’s opening stage. The Plenary Council’s Listening and Dialogue phase ended last month, concluding a period of almost 10 months for people to share their stories and consider the question “What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?” The National Centre for Pastoral Research has compiled statistical data and reported that more than 222,000 people participated in the Listening and Dialogue phase and made either individual submissions or had their voices captured through a group response. “The bishops knew the time was ripe for a defining moment in the life of the Church like a Plenary Council. What we didn’t know is how the people of Australia would embrace a process that hasn’t taken place for more than 80 years,” Archbishop Costelloe. Click here to read the full story.

Catholic world is watching Plenary Council process British journalist and papal biographer Austen Ivereigh has told a Catholic gathering in western Sydney that the Plenary Council 2020 process is being watched by people around the world as it gathers momentum. Dr Ivereigh participated in a conversation with Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long van Nguyen OFM Conv last month on the pontificate of Pope Francis. During their chat, talk shifted to the Plenary Council. According to a report in Catholic Outlook, Dr Ivereigh expressed his enthusiasm for the Council, saying it's an opportunity to engage in true discernment -- an essential "mechanism towards renewal". He acknowledged that there would be cynicism and scepticism about the process, but he encouraged people to keep their expectations modest and to remember that the Spirit is working throughout the life of the Council. Click here to read more from Catholic Outlook.

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Parramatta Diocesan Plenary 2020 - Information & Training Sessions Up And Coming....

Plenary 2020 is the name given to a process initiated by the Australian Bishops who are inviting people to engage in listening, dialogue and discernment about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia ahead of a Plenary Council in 2020. Significantly, a process such as this has not happened in Australia since 1937.  Our voices are needed and we are invited to engage with family, friends and colleagues in this time of renewal.

Information and Training Sessions have already been held. There is a growing interest in Plenary 2020, and so we are now repeating these earlier sessions.

All parishioners are invited as the sessions assist with both a parish level response as well as helping individuals share the Plenary invitation with friends and family.  Our next upcoming Information and Training Sessions are as follows -

Thursday, 20 September     -           7.00 pm to 9.30 pm             -              Parramatta Cathedral Hall (1 Marist Place, Parramatta)

Saturday, 29 September      -           10.00 am to 12.30 pm         -              St Thomas Aquinas Springwood School Hall (168 Hawkesbury Rd, Springwood)

Saturday, 29 September      -          2.00 pm to 4.30 pm             -              Emu Plains School Hall (17 Troy Street, Emu Plains)

**Light refreshments will be provided at all sessions**

The following people will greatly benefit from attending a session:

·         All parishioners

·         Clergy

·         Parish staff, council members, ministry co-ordinators

·         Parish volunteers

·         Ethnic community representatives

·         Chaplains

·         Community group representatives

We strongly encourage you to participate in one of the above sessions and to invite others to attend.  This is a unique and exciting time.  Our voices are important.  Let us speak boldly and with passion and listen with an open and humble heart. 

Please reply to this email with your RSVP to 
marisa.vanderhout@parracatholic.org with date and time and parish or agency as soon as possible.

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All Of Us Can 'Have Your Say' In Australian Catholic Bishops Plenary Council - Parramatta Diocesan

In our society, we all are human beings living together in our wonderful world and that is the great thing. In communities, people live together and as we find each individual is different and has a different life.

We expect all of us to live good and respectable lives, staying on the straight and narrow path of life. When we are adults, we take on certain community roles, that are regarded as highly respectable sand honourable, we must maintain that stance within our community. This must be done with personal dignity.

Most people maintain their dignity within their community When this is not done then all the community respect is lost. Or is it?

With the Final Report from the Royal Commission, on Recommendations of the Australian Institutional Responses To Child Sexual Abuse click here for details, our Australian Catholic Church Parramatta Diocesan, is in the forefront of allowing parishioners and Non-Catholics to 'Have your say'. 

Bishop Vincent Nguyen, Bishop of Parramatta Diocesan is asking, *'What do yous think God is asking us in Australia at this time?'

He is also supporting the Australian Bishops Plenary Council 2020 and our Diocesan Response.

What is Plenary 2020?

• Plenary 2020 is the name given to a process initiated by the Australian bishops.
• Our bishops are inviting people to engage in listening, dialogue and discernment about the future of the Church in Australia around the Plenary Council meetings in 2020 and 2021.
• A plenary council is the highest form of gathering that a church in a particular country can have. It is a process by which lay people and clergy can be heard and has legislative power.

Why are Bishops holding a Plenary Council?

• The contemporary society has changed significantly, and the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse has exposed the significant suffering our Church has caused, revealing our failures, and calling us to change.
• “We must become a humble, listening and discerning church. The Plenary Council… will be an opportunity for us to listen humbly and with open hearts to one another and especially to what the Spirit is saying to us at this time.”
  -Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv

What is the Plenary timeline

• The national dialogue started in May 2018 around the question: What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?
• The four main stages of Plenary 2020 are:
• Listening Sessions: Now till 6 March 2019
• Discerning, Developing & Testing Themes: May 2019 to Dec 2019
• Drafting Council Program and Documents. Meetings Held (2020 & 2021)
• Implementation: 2021 and beyond

Click here for Video on Plenary Council 2020

Click here for video 'Your Voice' on Plenary 2020

How do we participate in Stage One: Listening sessions?

• Go to HAVE YOUR SAY to find out the many ways you can offer feedback.

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For further information go to https://parracatholic.org/haveyoursay/ 

Or contact your local Parish Priest or Parish Pastoral Council

'Your Voice Matters'

Even Non-Catholics are invited to 'Have Your Say' as well

*Details used from Parramatta Diocesan Plenary 2020