Second Assembly of the Plenary Council

For a summary of the Plenary Assembly see the plenary website. Second Plenary Council assembly ends on high note - ACBC Media Blog (catholic.org.au) 

See also https://www.garrattpublishing.com.au/blog/post/plenary-tracker-2022/ for commentary and discussion (from Concerned Catholics Canberra Goulburn in partnership with the Australasian Catholic Coalition for Church Reform and with the support of Garratt Publishing.  

Plenary Council Videos and Resources

Catching up on the first Plenary Council Assembly – after much preparation, the Australian Plenary Council was on 3-10 October 2021. If you are wanting to catch up on what happened see the attachment here to the bulletin which has some suggested links to the Plenary Council website and other online commentaries. Partnered Parishes Plenary Facilitators Group.
   

Themes for the Plenary Council

Ted Jenkins is a member of the group of facilitators, for the Plenary discussions which occurred in our three partnered parishes, just as it was occurring in parishes and organisations Australia wide over the last two years. Ted has prepared a summary of the Discernment Papers which are the result of the work of the Working Groups assigned by the bishops of Australia the task of reading every response submitted to the Plenary Council by the people of the Australian Church.
 
The Writing Groups read, prayed and discerned the key themes and recommendations put forward to the bishops for their discussion and discernment when they meet in October 2021 and July 2022 to make decisions based on the recommendations, for our Australian Church.

You might like to read Ted’s summary. This document is to be read in conjunction with the Discernment Papers available for you to view here.

Plenary Council developments in our Parish

Plenary2020 is the first Plenary Council since before Vatican II, and so is a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity for you to be involved in the process to make major changes for the better in the way our Church thinks and works. We are the Church.
 
Input from Plenary discussions have been considered in the ongoing development of a Strategic Plan for St Mary’s Parish to determine goals and set a timeframe.

The Plenary Council Facilitation Group

The Plenary Council Facilitation Group has been formed to coordinate local actions or activities that have been proposed by the Plenary Council Listening and Discernment process. Parishioners, representing our partnered parishes, have come together to consider what God is asking of us in Australia at this time and to discern those actions that may take us forward as a Christ-centred Church.

The group has developed a Statement of Intent, the Purpose of the Group, a Model for Progressing Plenary Council Local Action Lists and a Governance Statement.  These can be found here.

An outline of the Plenary Council process can be found here.

The following document is a response to the agenda paper for the first meeting of Australia's fifth Plenary Council, written by members of the Partnered Parishes Plenary Council Facilitation Group of Sacred Heart, St Mary's and St Thomas. See document here. It has been forwarded to the Plenary Council Facilitation Team, the Archdiocese of Melbourne and Archbishop Tim Costelloe, Plenary Council President.  All members of the Plenary Council will have access to it.  It has also been forwarded to other interested groups of Catholics:  Sense of the Faithful and Catholics for Renewal.  To view the agenda, please follow this link: https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Plenary-Council-Agenda.pdf

Latest from the Plenary Council

Updates on the Plenary Council can be found here.
 
A number of key themes have emerged from the 'Listening and Dialogue' and 'Listening and Discernment' phases of the Plenary Council.
These themes have been assimilated and presented in a document called 'Continuing the Journey'.
This document can be found on the Plenary Council website at https://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au/instrumentum-laboris/

To assist with working through this document, Ted Jenkins from our Partnered Parishes Plenary Council Facilitators Group presents a guide called 'Plenary Working Document - Problems and Proposals'. This guide helps to highlight the problems and proposals raised in the Continuing the Journey document. The guide can be found here.