Parish Bulletin
PARISH NEWS
JESUS' DIRECTIONS
“You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you”. (Mk 10:43) But sadly it has and does happen amongst us! And so our Plenary Council in Australia strives to bring us into accord with Jesus’ teaching by addressing the insidious disorder of clericalism.
True Christian authority, Jesus teaches, is a call to service rather than an authority which lords it over others but, over time, our church has become overly top-down, hierarchical and clerical. Recognising that we have fallen short of Jesus’ instructions to us, the First Session of the Plenary Council last week explored ways in which a more humble, healing and merciful church might better form lay and ordained leaders for mission and better equip ordained ministers to be enablers of missionary discipleship: the Church becoming more a “priestly people” served by the ordained ministry.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, thinks we need a less hierarchical, less monarchical kind of governance because the current mode of leadership in the church is simply unsustainable. Rather than “great men” doing the decision making, the Plenary Council is exploring how all the People of God, lay and ordained, women and men, might work together on our mission of proclaiming the Gospel. Diocesan and parish pastoral councils were almost universally endorsed while preliminary reports suggest the Plenary Council has begun discerning “the role of women in decision-making within the church with a clear appetite for inclusion, accountability, and equality” notwithstanding cultural and theological barriers. (Prof John Warhurst 4/10/21).
Church structures, ministries and laws need modification and transformation to discard or change those accumulations that distort the revelation of God in Jesus and the Spirit. (Treston, K. The Wind Blows Where It Chooses p96.)
Deacon Mark Kelly
FIRST HOLY COMMUNION 2021
If your child is in Grade 4, or above, is baptised, has received the Sacrament of Reconciliation and is ready to receive First Holy Communion please come along to our parent only information meeting on Wednesday 27th October at St Ita’s Church, Drouin 7pm OR Thursday 28th October at St Joseph’s Church, Warragul. 7pm. We are sending a letter of invitation home with more details via your school. Please keep an eye out within the next day or two. If your child is in Grade 4 and you don’t receive the invitation for some reason please email me. We are looking forward to sharing this very important next step in your child’s faith journey.
Due to the current situation, dates are subject to COVID-19 restrictions. We may need to conduct the above meetings online via Zoom, so we are asking interested parents to please send their preferred email address for receiving the Zoom link if need be. Please send your email address to the following email address.
Email: Warragul.sacraments@cdsale.org.au
For further inquiries please contact Thérèse on M: 0499 116 428
