2017 SPRING EDITION 34 CONTENTS 3 the season of 4 welcome to mount 18 formation update 1 from the chair creation alvernia college 20 reflection 2 editorial 6 ministry updates From the Chair Greetings to all THE LAST COUPLE of months have been very busy for the Council of Mercy Partners, as I am sure it has been for those working in the ministries. As we approach the Plenary Council of the Church in Australia to be held in 2020, the lay people of the Church will be called on to participate and offer their insights into a range of issues. dr raymond campbell dr raymond council chairperson, mercy partners This edition of the newsletter has the theme of ‘embracing lay leadership’ and I have reflected on the intentions of the Congregations who set up Mercy Partners and those who have since joined us. These Sisters were explicit in their desire to see lay people leading ministries and the sponsorship of those ministries into the future. They were careful to ensure a pathway for lay leadership in the apostolic works of the Church. I am reminded of the Church’s document, Christifideles Laici (1988) that focussed on Jesus’ command “You go into my vineyard too” (Mt 20:3-4). ‘You go too. The call is a concern not only for Pastors, clergy, and men and women religious. The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world. In preaching to the people Saint Gregory the Great recalls this fact and comments on the parable of the labourers in the vineyard: “Keep watch over your manner of life, dear people, and make sure that you are indeed the Lord’s labourers. Each person should take into account what he does and consider if he is labouring in the vineyard of the Lord”. The Vatican Council made “an earnest plea in the Lord’s name that all lay people give a glad, generous, and prompt response to the impulse of the Holy Spirit and to the voice of Christ, who is giving them an especially urgent invitation at this moment.” (CL n.2) Being part of Mercy Partners, whether as a Councillor, a Board Director, or an employee working at the coal face, is one way in which we respond to this invitation. We are called to labour in the vineyard of our workplaces and recreation spaces, in our families and communities. MOUNT ALVERNIA COLLEGE, KEDRON; MERCY PARTNERS HALLOWS’ SCHOOL HALLOWS’ PARTNERS MERCY KEDRON; COLLEGE, MOUNT ALVERNIA See From the Chair, page 2 PHOTOS: © PHOTOS: www.mercypartners.org.au1 | Mercy Partners NEWS Edition 34 mercymercy partners partners ministry update updates From the Executive Officer OUR THEME FOR THE THIRD NEWSLETTER OF 2017 IS ‘EMBRACING LAY LEADERSHIP’ – A THEME THAT EMERGES FROM MERCY PARTNERS THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK. judith gardiner officer,executive mercy partners WHAT DO WE mean by ‘embracing lay leadership’? When Mercy ago, narrated in the Gospels, and illustrated in paradigmatic Partners was envisioned by the Sisters of Mercy Queensland parables such as the Good Samaritan. Such a founding story has Congregations, there was an explicit hope that Mercy Partners the potential, with theologically literate leadership, to shape would provide a pathway for lay leadership. Of course, the hospital mission and culture into the future.’ (Maher, 2017, BBI idea of lay leadership is not new in ministries – our schools, Christianity at the Cross-roads of Post Modernity). He suggests that hospitals, aged care and community facilities have had lay ‘seeing God in all peoples is a concept deeply embedded in the leaders at the helm for many years as Board Directors and spirituality of Pope Francis, and is the essential modus operandi facility leaders. When we talk about ‘lay leadership’ however, of Catholic health care’. we must not think of this as the default given that there are now few religious available for leadership. Though it might seem We might also suggest that the same concept applies in our that way, we must remember that lay people are called by their Catholic education and aged care ministries. Again, it can Baptism to be active in leadership in the Church. It is easy to be the parable of the Good Samaritan that draws us towards think of the Church as the ‘bishops, priests, nuns and brothers’, leadership. The Samaritan himself was an ‘outsider’, reaching but the Church – the People of God – are those who are baptised out in compassion to the suffering ‘outsider’, the outcast, or in into the life of Jesus, and called by the Holy Spirit to be active today’s Australian context, the refugee we lock up on Manus and undertake God’s mission in and for the world. Island or Nauru. The Good Samaritan as an ‘outsider’ reaching out to another ‘outside’ contains a further message for us. In this edition we have some great examples of ‘embracing lay Conceivably we need to be ever mindful that we don’t become leadership’. Leadership can be undertaken by everyone – taking too comfortable in the ebb and flow of secular culture, too at the lead to celebrate God’s grace, being with people and helping home on our side of the river that we can no longer feel empathy those in need; taking the initiative to contribute to the well- for the homeless, those on the ‘other’ side of the river, on the being of the planet. margins of society. As Confoy says, ‘Pope Francis challenges all Christians to exercise a ‘Samaritan praxis of justice and love’, Lay leadership is taking up the challenge that Jesus gives us – to showing the importance of ‘compassionate action on behalf of be a servant to the poor, the needy, the marginalised; the sad justice, particularly for those who have no voice or who have and distressed. To challenge the forces in our civil society and in become invisible.’ (Confoy, in Maher, p7) our Church that makes people poor and marginalised. We can all be leaders. We should all be leaders – that is our In a recent paper about leadership in Catholic health care, calling. To show others the way, as Jesus was for us, the Way. Set scholar Anthony Maher stressed that ‘leaders…never lose sight out on the path of leadership – embrace the challenge. of our founding story taught by Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years from the chair Continued from page 1 Recently too our Director of Formation, Dr Caroline Over the past year the Council has been active in the Thompson, and myself participated in the annual Catholic establishment of the Association of Ministerial Public Juridic Health Australia Conference, along with many people Persons (AMPJP), an association created to bring together from Mercy Partners ministries. This organisation also the eleven or so PJPs sponsoring apostolic ministries that demonstrates the dedication of many lay people who were established originally by religious men and women. contribute by ‘going into the vineyard’ to make God’s Word Some of these people continue in that apostolate, and known in our own time and place. in sponsorship roles, but there are now many lay people willing to take up this leadership, and work towards the It is the mission of the laity “to transform the world”. All sustainability of the ministries as works of the Church, those working in Mercy Partners at all levels contribute to this into the future. The Holy Spirit is our guide, and Jesus our mission. companion on this journey. Wishing you all the Lord’s blessings, Mercy Partners Councillor, Mr Kieran McCarthy is on the newly established Council of the AMPJP and we wish him and the Board well as it takes up its role as a peak body in the Church. 2 | Mercy Partners NEWS Edition 34 mercymercy partners partners ministry update updates mercy partners update The Season of Creation From September 1 to October 4, Christians around the world are praying and caring for creation. It’s the “Season of Creation” celebrated by Christian churches around the globe. Pope Francis issued a joint message with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for the World day of Prayer for Creation. Here are some extracts. The story of creation presents us with a panoramic view of the world. Scripture reveals that, “in the beginning”, God intended humanity to cooperate in the preservation and protection of the natural environment … The earth was entrusted to us as a sublime gift and legacy, for which all of us share responsibility until, “in the end”, all things in heaven and on earth will be restored in Christ (cf. Eph. 1:10). Our human dignity and welfare are deeply connected to our care for the whole of creation. However, … our propensity to interrupt the world’s For Reflection delicate and balanced ecosystems, our insatiable desire to Be still and feel the presence of God, manipulate and control the planet’s limited resources, and the presence pulsing, pulsing through Earth, our greed for limitless profit in markets – all these have be still and feel the pulse of God. alienated us from the original purpose of creation. We no longer respect nature as a shared gift; instead, we regard it Be still and hear the Spirit of God, as a private possession. We no longer associate with nature the Spirit breathing, breathing through Earth, in order to sustain it; instead, we lord over it to support our be still and hear the breath of God. own constructs. Be still, discern the Wisdom of God, … We urgently appeal to those in positions of social and the wisdom guiding, guiding this Earth.