Bishop Tim Harris is seeking expressions of interest for delegates from our Local Church to the Plenary Council 2020.
Have you been a part of the Plenary Council process of listening, prayer, dialogue and discernment? Download the Expression of Interest form and information sheet below.
Once you have completed the EOI form, please email it to plenarycouncil@tsv.catholic.org.au.
Expressions of interest close Monday 27 January 2020
It is this question that has moved the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to announce a Plenary Council of the Church in Australia to be held in the year 2020.
The Bishops Conference has received approval from Pope Francis for the celebration of this Council, the first such Council to be held in Australia for some 80 years.
A Plenary Council is the highest formal gathering of all local churches in a country. Our Plenary Council 2020 is being held so that we can dialogue about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia. A Plenary Council is a particularly graced instrument for seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance and it has the authority to make church laws on the results of its discernment.
Although in the end it will be the bishops who will vote on any future directions for the church in Australia, they will be making those decisions in the light of a long listening to the Holy Spirit speaking through the voices of any of the faithful who wish to speak around Australia. This makes the Plenary Council 2020 different from the last one in 1937. Everyone has a chance to participate and to express whatever the Spirit is saying to them in their heart.
There are many reasons for having a Plenary Council for the Catholic Church in Australia: Pope Francis has invited the local church to dialogue; the contemporary society of Australia has changed significantly, and the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse has been a significant and influential event that requires deep consideration and response.
When the Australian Catholic Bishops announced the decision to hold a Plenary Council, Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge said that “the Church is not the presence in our society it once was. We need to take a measure of that and make decisions accordingly. The culture in which we have to proclaim the Gospel is very different to what it was even 20 or 30 years ago.”
It is being held in 2020 in order to give the Catholic community in Australia time to listen, dialogue and discern with one another and, guided by the Holy Spirit, about the future, the role and the relevance of the Catholic Church in Australia.
Come, Holy Spirit of Pentecost.
Come, Holy Spirit of the great South Land.
O God, bless and unite all your people in Australia
and guide us on the pilgrim way of the Plenary Council.
Give us the grace to see your face in one another
and to recognise Jesus, our companion on the road.
Give us the courage to tell our stories
and to speak boldly of your truth.
Give us ears to listen humbly to each other
and a discerning heart to hear what you are saying.
Lead your Church into a hope-filled future,
that we may live the joy of the Gospel.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
bread for the journey from age to age.
Amen.
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us.
St Mary MacKillop, pray for us.
In October 2020, the Catholic Church in Australia will gather for the first Plenary Council to be held since the second Vatican Council. In 2018, the entire People of God in Australia began preparing for this historic moment by listening to God, by listening to one another’s stories of faith.
More than 222,000 people participated in listening and dialogue encounters and contributed 17,457 submissions during the first stage of preparation for the Australian Plenary Council. The voices of the faithful help all of us to understand something of the historical experience and the current reality of the Catholic Church in Australia. This gathered data also reveals some deeper hopes and questions, and the diverse yearnings, that we are now challenged to consider together. The National Themes for Discernment named below are inspired by the data and call us toward the future.
We invite the groups who participated in Listening and Dialogue to now reconvene in communal Discernment on any one of the six themes. Each Discernment session is expected to result in a submission that can be summarised in 1000 characters and that can be submitted through a form on the Discernment page (to be opened September 1). Our Writing and Discernment Groups will then meet and discern on these submissions, with prayer and from their own theological knowledge, towards publishing thematic papers and fleshing out the agenda for the first session of the Plenary Council in October 2020. This period for group discernment and submissions will be open until the first few months of 2020.
For more information about the Plenary Council and how you can be involved, please contact the Townsville Diocesan Office on 07 4726 3200 or email plenarycouncil@tsv.catholic.org.au
PC2020 Snapshot 1 Missionary
PC2020 Snapshot 2 Inclusive
PC2020 Snapshot 3 Prayerful
PC2020 Snapshot 4 Humble
PC2020 Snapshot 5 Servant
PC2020 Snapshot 6 Renewal
Listening and Discernment Guide FINAL
Missionary Adapted Participant's book
Prayerful Adapted Participant's book
Inclusive Adapted Participant's book
Joyful Adapted Participant's book
Humble Adapted Participant's book
Conversion Adapted Participant's book
scripture-Prayerful and Eucharistic
scripture-Open to conversion, renewal and reform
scripture-Missionary and evangelising
scripture-Inclusive, participatory and synodal
scripture-Humble, healing and merciful
scripture-A joyful, hope-filled and servant community
Poster Prayerful & Eucharistic
Poster Mission and Evangelising
Poster Inclusive and Participatory
Poster Humble, Healing and Merciful
Poster Joyful
Poster Conversion
Intercessory Prayers
Bulletin Missionary
Bulletin Prayerful & Eucharistic
Bulletin Inclusive
Bulletin Humble & Healing
