Plenary Council

By listening to young people, the Church will once again hear the Lord speaking in todays world.  As in the days of Samuel (cf. 1 Sam 3: 1-21) and Jeremiah (cf Jer 1:4-10), young people know how to discern the signs of our times. Listening to them the Church can glimpse at the world that lies ahead.

In 2020 the Australian Church will hold its fourth ever Plenary Council. In explaining the reason for this Plenary Council Archbishop Mark Coleridge said,

The church is not the presence in our society it once was. We need to take a measure of that and make decisions accordingly. The culture in which we have to proclaim the Gospel is very different to what it was even 20 or 30 years ago.

The Catholic Education Office Melbourne are planning to run train the trainer

Engaging with the Plenary Council

Every member of the Church is invited to engage with this process and we have until Ash Wednesday 2019 to make submissions. The Plenary Council facilitation team has created a process for any group, ideally a group of four, to listen to each other and to make a submission. To support schools to engage with this process Catholic Education Melbourne (CEM) is offering:

one workshop for students (10 December) at the CLC.

These are intended as ‘train the trainer’ workshops, so that those who attend can facilitate the process in their school with their peers, whether staff or students. Every person in every school should have an opportunity to have their say. If you are a year 9 student and interested in attending the training session please see Ms Dykes or email her jdykes@crcstalbans.com.au. It is hoped that CRC St Albans will have a Plenary Council student discussion group early in 2019.