By Amanda Murthy
Perth Catholics can expect a day of prayer, reflection, listening and discussion at an upcoming free seminar, which will provide an insight to one of six Plenary Council (PC) thematic Discernment papers, this time discussing the question “How is God calling us to be a Christ-centred Church in Australia that is ‘Prayerful and Eucharistic’?”.
The hour-long seminar is scheduled for 5.30pm on Thursday 5 November at Newman Siena Centre as part of the Centre for Faith Enrichment’s efforts to provide a safe space, wherever possible, to engage the faithful as much as possible in Plenary Council discussions, throughout its ongoing process.
On 27 August, some 30 laypeople gathered to hear from Archdiocese of Perth’s Episcopal Vicar for Education and Faith Formation Fr Vincent Glynn, who unpacked the first thematic discernment paper, exploring the question: “How is God calling us to be a Christ-centred Church in Australia, that is missionary and evangelising?” in a seminar titled “Towards the Plenary Council 2020: Understanding a Missionary and Evangelising Church”.
Centre for Liturgy Director Sister Kerry Willison RSM will be the speaker for next month’s event. Sr Willison believes that attending the seminar and gathering as a community will provide the opportunity to explore in-depth the sub-topics and reflect on the PC challenge to “Listen to what the Spirit is saying”.
“After reading the six PC documents, there is a very tangible sense of the love the people of God have for the Church in Australia and the desire to contribute to the work of the Plenary Council,” Sr Willison told The eRecord.
“The Catholic-Christian community hungers for prayer and Liturgical experiences that nourish their faith and this flows through each of the papers as grace moves God’s people to ask questions, grounded in the call we received at Baptism.
“How do we better nourish, accompany, give witness, support, invite, welcome, engage and be present to others, such that we all grow in holiness?” Sr Willison posed the question.
In the thematic paper, Perth Archbishop Costelloe SDB acknowledged that the six discernment papers as an important contribution to the Church in Australia’s ongoing discernment towards the PC.
“They are the fruits of discernment and help all the faithful as we work together to listen to God, praying, listening, talking and writing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” Archbishop Costelloe stated.
“Each paper provides a reflection of some elements of the relevant pastoral reality, articulates a theological vision, outlines a number of challenges to be overcome, suggests prioritised questions to be answered and develops some proposals for change.
“These documents [the discernment papers that were supported by Chairs and Members of the Discernment and Writing groups over a few months] now become an important contribution to the challenge and privilege of discernment in which we are all engaged,” he added.
The Plenary Council President added that while it was not the “final word on the six thematic areas which emerged from the Listening and Dialogue process”, he encouraged the faithful to receive them in the “spirit of faith and discernment with which they have been written”.
The other themes of the PC thematic Discernment papers that will be discussed in the coming months, will address the question, how God is calling us to be a Christ-centred Church in Australia that is “Inclusive, Participatory and Synodal?”, “Humble, Healing and Merciful?”, “A Joyful, Hope-Filled & Servant Community?”, and “Open to Conversion, Renewal and Reform?”.