SENSE OF THE FAITHFUL

Plenary Council 2021: The final steps to the October 2021 meeting

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What issues do you think are important? 

 

A group of parishes from Melbourne and beyond are sponsoring this website to:

• facilitate discussions between parishes in Australia on the key issues facing the Church, and

• articulate and promote via a consultative process a shared view across parishes, to the extent to which such a shared view exists.

We invite all involved in the life of the Church, in their parish or in other ways, to join in a conversation to contribute to effective change.

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We want to use the website to host discussions about issues related to the Plenary Council. We are keen to hear about, and your take on, changes taking place in your diocese and more generally in the Church in Australia.

 

We will focus the discussion on specific issues and run a topic for a few weeks. Once people have had a chance to contribute, we plan to hold an online discussion. This will be similar to the webinar on Parish Lay Leaders in Wellington New Zealand (you will find a copy of the report here), but with the opportunity to have an exchange of views on the topic. 

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At the present time we plan to seek contributions in five areas:

• The Instrumentation Laboris and the related issue of the priority agenda items for the Council

• The role of women in the Church

• The revitalisation of parishes, based on more leadership roles for women

• Learning from, and building closer links with, our Indigenous peoples, and

• Caring for our common home, the Earth.

 

This list is not meant as restrictive, and contributions on other important matters are welcome. For information about the submission process and other guidelines see How to contribute. We seek contributions from all points of view.

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First topic for discussion

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To get the discussion going, we have focused on one aspect of our take on the working document  (Instrumentum Laboris, available here) for the Plenary Council. The discussion opener and means of commenting are to be found on the Forum page here. This draws upon the six Writing Group reports (available here). As we approach the Council, it is vital that the evolving views of the faithful in the parishes, arising from their ongoing discernment, be fed into this process. Expression of these views is actively welcomed by the Plenary Council Secretariat.

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Second topic for discussion

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The second topic for discussion is the Agenda that has been formulated for the Plenary Council (available here). The discussion opener and means of commenting are to be found on the Forum page here.  The Agenda itself calls for the development of concrete proposals based on the agenda questions, and this paper develops some such proposals. As we approach the Council, it is vital that the evolving views of the faithful in the parishes, arising from their ongoing discernment, be fed into this process. Expression of these views is actively welcomed by the Plenary Council Secretariat.

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For any issues arising, please contact us, or email us on this address senseofthefaithful@gmail.com