St Thomas Chaldean Catholic Cathedral hosting the Plenary Council 2020 – Eastern Catholic Churches coordinators introduction session 18 October 2018

Plenary Council 2020 is an Extraordinary Council which means it is a formal meeting of the bishops and other representatives of all the dioceses and Eparchies of the Catholic Church in Australia. Its purpose is to discern what God is asking of us in Australia at this present time. While the church should be asking that question continually, a Plenary Council is a particularly graced instrument for seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And it has the authority to make church laws on the results of its discernment.

On Thursday 18^th of October, there was a meeting of all the Eastern Catholic Church clergy and coordinators for the Plenary Council 2020 at St Charbel’s Maronite Church in Punchbowl. The program began with a Maronite Mass celebrated by His Grace Bishop Antoine–Charbel Tarabay along with a group of Maronite priests and monks.

The main program of Plenary Council 2020 was presented by Lana Turvey Collins, Plenary Council Facilitator for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. Those that attended the day program were clergy from St Thomas Chaldean Catholic Diocese (all 3 priests in Sydney, Frs. Paul, Hadeel and Rode) as well as from the Maronite Church and other clergy from other Eastern Catholic Churches, such as those from Syriac Catholic Church, Melkite Catholic Church, Armenian Catholic Church and Coptic Catholic Church.

Lana presented those in attendance the Plenary Council 2020 three year timeline where she explained that basically from now till Ash Monday just before the start of Lent in 2019 we will be in open listening and dialogue period. From Easter 2019 to around Easter 2020 the 2^nd stage will be taking place and that is for dialogue and discernment. In early 2020, this will be the period where the council documents will be written up, what is termed as the Instrumentum Laboris, or the working document of the council. The 3^rd stage is from Pentecost 2020 to 1^st Council session sometime in October 2020, this stage is for feedback and sharing.

The first Plenary Council session will occur in October 2020 for 8 days and to be held in Adelaide. Then there will be about 6 months to digest that information from the 1^st Council session and a second Plenary Council session will be held in around May 2021 near Feast of Pentecost and this will be in Sydney.

The open listening and dialogue sessions will centre around the method of listening and reflecting on 3 main questions. The process will be done in 4 parts: 1^st, pray together, 2^nd, read question and reflect, 3^rd, share and listen, 4^th, pray and respond. The 3 questions are:

What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?
What questions do you have about the future of the Church for the Plenary Council to consider in 2020?
Please share a story of your experience of your faith or the Church to give context to your responses to Q1 and Q2.

Later that same evening, all the Eastern Catholic Churches Plenary Council Coordinators came along to a meeting of their own with Lana at St Thomas Chaldean Catholic Cathedral. There were about 9 of them representing their churches for this council. Theresa Simon from Sydney (Maronite Church) is a member of the Plenary Council Executive Committee also attended this evening session along with Lana Turvey Collins who explained this process to them and went through an example of listening and dialogue. We discussed matter relevant to our churches and the uptake of our respective people to this process, the most important part that came out of these discussions was the language barrier and it was decide that the leaflet of the 4 part process needed to be translated into Arabic for wider use by our churches. We also discussed ways into how this process could be fast tracked for our churches and their groups and of practical ways to pass on the information to all our people, especially those that are less than regular attendees of Mass and church activities.

For more information on this Plenary Council 2020 in Australia and resources or videos please follow the link to: http://plenarycouncil.catholic.org.au

Written by sub-deacon Waseem Hermiz

Chaldean Church NSW Coordinator for the Plenary Council 2020