Plenary Council President, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB recently announced an additional 15 new delegates nationwide, who have been called to join the existing 267 delegates ahead of the first assembly of the Plenary Council (PC) to be held in October 2021.

Plenary Council is a “mission of love”, said Mercy Sister Kerry Willison RSM, Director of the Archdiocesan Centre for Liturgy as a keynote speaker during one of the six Plenary Council seminars held on 5 November at Newman Siena Centre.

“At the heart of the Plenary Council, in its preparation stage (presently underway), in its celebration stage (the two formal Assemblies) and its implementation stage (to be undertaken at both the national level and, more importantly at the local level), we find the call to, and challenge of, discernment. Both the call and the challenge are captured very well in the fundamental question of the Plenary Council and in the foundational theme of the Plenary Council.

Father Vincent Glynn officially commenced his role as the first Episcopal Vicar for Education and Faith Formation and a member of the Archdiocese of Perth Curia on 1 July 2020. His appointment by Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB indicates the importance that the Archbishop places on these areas of ministry in the Church.

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 upcoming commissioning of 12 Perth Plenary Council (PC) delegates this Sunday, 4 October, at St Mary’s Cathedral will be a great opportunity for Perth Catholics to embrace and give the delegates prayerful support and encouragement, as they receive their blessing and commit to their roles.

An important item on the 1905 Plenary Council agenda was the evangelisation of Australia’s Aboriginal peoples. The 1844 first Provincial Council made no mention of this ministry, but the 1869 second Provincial Council decreed that their “conversion” be confided to some male religious congregation, denounced the injustices committed against them, and recommended a special vicariate apostolic for north Queensland. The 1885 first Australasian Plenary produced six policy decrees (nn. 203-208) for ‘propagating the faith among the aborigines’ whom it considered ‘capable of and willing to embrace Christianity’, but the predominantly Irish bishops who had formulated the decrees generally ignored them. The 1895 second Australian Plenary Council merely endorsed the 1885 decrees.

This is the first of a six-part series of articles by Peter Wilkinson looking at the provincial and plenary councils of the Catholic Church held in Australia between 1844 and 1937. It examines the Third Australian Plenary Council held in Sydney from 3 to 10 September 1905.

Two Plenary Council Perth lay delegates feature in The eRecord’s latest podcast recording on Friday 11 September for an in-depth discussion about their hopes and dreams for the process.

The Perth Catholic community is invited to attend the commissioning of the Archdiocese of Perth Plenary Council delegates during Mass at 11am on Sunday 4 October at St Mary’s Cathedral.