I write these few words just after the first night and day sessions of our recent Diocesan Assembly and before our concluding session a few days later. My deep thanks to our organising team for providing such a powerful experience.

My experience, so far, is that it is a moment of grace for us. Every person I met had been touched by this grace. Each had allowed the grace of their baptism to be renewed. Each was more in touch with the call of God, and the call to service and of fostering this communion.

The program on Saturday included morning prayer and a panel discussion before participants broke into 36 groups to discuss a number of key themes arising from the consultation process for the Diocesan Assembly.

Issues included outreach and accompaniment of young people and families, inclusion and healing, parish life and liturgy, responding to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, and leadership and formation.

Each group discussed two themes and through a listening, dialogue and discernment process came up with 144 recommendations.

https://thesoutherncross.org.au/news/2021/08/16/plenary-poised-for-virtual-guidance/

Teamwork and the sharing of wisdom are critical for the success of the Plenary Council and beyond, according to one of the Archdiocese’s lay delegates who will attend the local hub assembly in October. Ian Cameron said he felt privileged to participate in next month’s Diocesan Assembly and the Plenary Council gathering the following month and represent the views of the diverse Catholic community.

“Lay and religious work seamlessly in many areas of Church life,” he explained. “Bishops and lay people need to combine their experience, expertise and wisdom to get the best results. “This teamwork and combined wisdom is critical for the Plenary and beyond – it is critical that Church teachings, rules and laws are written with ordained and lay teamwork, including parents, for more authentic content and credibility.

More than 600 responses have been provided as part of the consultation phase of the Diocesan Assembly since a video message was shown at every parish and community in late June. Diocesan Assembly coordinator Peter Bierer said while the number of responses received via the website and postage-paid postcards was “not insignificant” he was still hoping for more people to share their “thoughts, ideas, feelings and hopes”.

“The responses from this consultation phase, along with the local responses from the Plenary Council listening and dialogue process from a few years ago, will guide the development of the agenda for the Diocesan Assembly,” he said.

“So the more responses we receive from a wider diversity of people, the better the discussions will be at the Assembly.”

There’ll be lots of talking at the upcoming Diocesan Assembly – of course! It’d be a dull event without conversation.But according to Pope Francis, the quality of our gathering will be determined by our capacity to listen to one another. In a major speech from 2015 he urged the world’s bishops to foster a listening church: “It’s a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn…we are one in listening to others; and all are listening to the Holy Spirit.”

So, what should we listen for? And what will we learn?

As the fifth lay delegate named for the Adelaide Archdiocese, Kiara, 35, will be attending one of the assembly’s province hubs, most likely in Queensland, as for the next six months she and her husband Dan and four young sons are heading on the adventure of a lifetime.

“Life has changed since I put in my nomination to be a member…lockdown changed our direction as a family and changed Dan’s work and we have decided to go travelling around Australia for six months in a camper trailer,” she told The Southern Cross.

Having been installed as Archbishop some 13 months ago, I have often in this time thought about the Christian notion of ‘stewardship’. While there is rightly a lot of talk about leadership and governance in preparing for both the Diocesan Assembly in September and the Plenary Council which begins in October, at the heart of all of these and underpinning all that we do, is the quality of being a good steward.

The Council agenda, which has emerged from three years and several layers of prayer, listening, dialogue and discernment, will shape the program of the Council’s assemblies – the first of which opens on October 3 this year.

The agenda’s preamble draws from Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which explores the Pope’s “dream of a ‘missionary option’”.

Parishes and communities will soon receive a video for screening at weekend Masses and postcards for written feedback as part of the consultation process for the forthcoming Diocesan Assembly.

On September 17 and 18 this year, delegates nominated from each region of the Archdiocese will gather with Archbishop O’Regan at Cabra College, Cumberland Park, to reflect on the life of our community, and to discern how we can more fully embrace our calling to be the People of God in this place. The event is being organised by a small committee led by Sarah Moffatt from the Archbishop’s office.

About 400 people are expected to attend a Diocesan Assembly in September to reflect on the life of the local Church community, in conjunction with ongoing discernment for the Plenary Council taking place at a national level in October.