AUSTRALIAN Catholics are being asked “to join in the conversation” and help shape the future direction of the church.
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The Catholic Church has reached the midway point of the “Open Listening and Dialogue phase” of preparations for the Plenary Council in 2020, which in turn will help determine the future of the church.
The last time the Australian Catholic Church held a Plenary Council was in 1937, and much has changed in the last 80 years.
In that regard it’s now seeking feedback from the Catholic community about what the church is called to do, what it is called to be and how it needs to change.
To help answer these questions, Catholic Churches across the Central West, including Bathurst, will host sessions this weekend with the community which will be “an open and inclusive experience of listening, dialogue and discernment about the future of the church in Australia.”
Information gathered during these sessions, being held Australia wide, will be used to help consider the future of the church’s governance, laws and practice with organisers taking submissions from church organisations, agencies, parishes and individuals to help form an agenda.
Plenary Council facilitator, Lana Turvey-Collins, will visit the Diocese of Bathurst this weekend and facilitate the sessions.
“The discernment and listening process helps all people participate in to consider the Plenary Council’s central question: “What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?” Ms Turvey-Collins said
“The Plenary Council will, like no other event in the church’s history in Australia, allow all Catholics to shape a discussion about the future of our church.
“Everyone’s experience of faith and the church is unique and it’s important that the Plenary Council hears the voice of as many people as possible,” Ms Turvey-Collins said.
She said this includes hearing from people who no longer, or may never have, attended church.
Input is invited from all people, from all walks of life.
The sessions will be held in Bathurst on Sunday, November 18, at the Cathedral Parish Centre, Keppel St, Bathurst from 11.30am to 1.30pm.