in brief

 

pathways, DECEMBER 2008

 

 

 

Following on from the very successful Year 1 of the Canon Law for Leadership course, preliminary details have been announced for the second year of the course in 2009.

 

It will run from Monday, October 12, until lunch on Friday, October 16, for 100 participants, at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney.Topics are likely to be property and finance matters and governance for example constitutions, chapters, superiors and councils.

 

Enrolments, with a non-refundable deposit, are needed by February 27.  Preference will be given to continuing participants.

 

The course is a joint project of the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand and Catholic Religious Australia.

 

 

 

 

The Christian Brothers have announced the appointment of their former Western Australian leader as the new director of their national disability services network in Papua New Guinea.

 

Br Kevin Ryan CFC, 58, (pictured left) will head Callan Services for Disabled Persons and be based at its national coordinating unit in Wewak.  He replaces Callan Services pioneering director, Br Graeme Leach CFC (pictured right).

 

Br Ryan is a former Province Leader of the Christian Brothers in Western Australia and South Australia (2002-2007). He has had an extensive career as an educator and in working with troubled youth and indigenous students.  He was the foundation Principal of Clontarf Aboriginal College in Perth (1986-1990) and of Catholic schools in Broome.

 

Br Kevin was one of several people who initiated the process which led to the establishment of Edmund Rice Education Australia, the new organisation which now operates the 38 colleges owned by the Christian Brothers within Australia.  He then took a leadership role on a committee which led to the restructuring of the Congregation of Christian Brothers in Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia, East Timor and the Philippines into the new Oceania Province of the Christian Brothers.

 

Callan Services, established by the Christian Brothers in 1991 with the support of CBM and Save the Children, has led the way in building services for people with disabilities.

 

It is involved in training personnel to work with people with physical, sensory and mental disability. The national unit working in partnership with national and international, government and non-government partners and agencies, also addresses social disadvantage, promotes specialist health services and mounts disability prevention programs in rural communities.  Up to 200 staff throughout Papua New Guinea work under the Callan Services network with about 20 staff working from the national coordinating unit in Wewak.

 

To ensure a smooth transition, Br Leach will remain involved as a consultant at Callan Services in the early months of 2009.

 

 

 

 

Queensland's Social Action Office (SAO) is about to close after 16 years of operation during which many dedicated Religious have worked powerfully for social justice.  SAO BYTES will continue and other ways of continuing the work but in a different form are being worked through.

 

All leaders of Queensland Religious congregations and any people associated with the office have been invited to a final get-together on February 4.  This will ritualise and celebrate its collaborative ministry for justice and creativity as well as the successes and struggles of the office.  The function will be held at Justice Place, Brisbane, from 5.45-9pm. 

 

RSVP:  Wednesday, January 28 to craqld@bigpond.com

 

 

 

 

Anglican Bishop Robert Nolan (pictured) will lead the 2009 Toowoomba Churches Together (TCT) ecumenical retreat early in the new year.

 

The retreat, from February 6-8, will focus on themes from the recent Lambeth Conference for Anglican Bishops.

 

TCT involves the Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran and Uniting Churches. The leader of the retreat is chosen from the member churches by rotation.

 

Organisers said past participants have found the retreat weekend fuelled them spiritually for the ecumenical activities for the year ahead.  In previous years the numbers have been deliberately kept small but for the 2009 retreat the whole James Byrne complex has been booked to make the retreat available to all who have a heart for ecumenism.

 

Live-in costs are $120 for single accommodation and $110 for twin accommodation. Day-only participation will cost $30 per person per day.

 

further information and registration: Rev Brian Sparksman, Ecumenical Officer, 68 Lindsay Street, Toowoomba, 4350; telephone 07 4632 8835 or achance@twb.catholic.org.au

 

 

 

 

The people of the controversial parish of St Mary's, South Brisbane, have taken their long and enriching conversation with the leaders of the local Aboriginal community another step with a formal ceremony within the church.

 

This ceremony acknowledged the past wrongs and injustices that have been perpetrated against the Aboriginal people.  It acknowledged the special relationship that Aboriginal people have with land and country and it committed the church and the aboriginal community to a shared journey based on mutual respect, shared hope and an abiding vision.

 

It also paid homage to the traditional owners and custodians of all the tribal lands of the Greater Brisbane and Moreton Bay region, and recognised that Aboriginal people are the primary owners and custodians of all this land and it is they who must lead all people to rediscover and reconnect with the truth and oneness of country beneath God.

 

Within this ceremony as part of the gathering for Mass, there was a traditional blessing and "smoking" ceremony conducted by the Nunuccal dancers from Stradbroke Island (pictured below left). This was followed by the formal signing of a Treaty of Commitment by Fr Peter Kennedy on behalf of the St Mary's Church community and Mr. Denis ( Bejam )Walker, on behalf of the Sacred Treaty Circles (pictured below centre).

 

After Mass, a Bunya Pine was planted in the front forecourt of the church (pictured below right). The Bunya Pine is one of the most sacred trees in Aboriginal spiritual belief and this ceremony honoured the ancient ritual of the "Gurrie-In-Dar-Narmie," which was observed by tribes from across south-east Queensland at the time of the Bunya Nut harvest.

 

The parish hopes that this historic ceremony will be the beginning of an ongoing process that brings about the healing of self and country.  A programme of future cultural exchanges and ceremonies within the church is being drawn up for next year, as Queensland prepares to celebrate it's 150th anniversary.