And in brief ...

 

 

The Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia has a new website which has been described by one reviewer as "perhaps the most advanced religious congregation website on the world wide web".  The reviewer for CathNews' featured website (Monday, October 29) said that the website could "more appropriately termed a communications facility". It is a product of the Mercies' Fraynework Multimedia in Melbourne.

 

More than 100 Sisters of Mercy and their colleagues witnessed the launch of the Institute's new website during a gathering of Mercy leaders in Geelong, Victoria, on October 17. The event was broadcast live on to the computers of Sisters of Mercy throughout Australia.

 

"Our new website represents an extraordinary and wonderful feat demonstrating the use of cutting edge technology!" the Institute President, Sr Nerida Tinkler RSM said at the launch. "It is indeed a rich avenue for our contemporary mission of mercy, and in this we rejoice and experience hope and great excitement."

 

Sr Adele Howard RSM, Director of Fraynework Multimedia, said her production team had tried to be faithful to the requests of sisters to develop a website that was interactive and story- based, mission-focussed and alive.

 

The website used the highest levels of new technology, together with the cutting edge of multimedia, she said.

 

"This facility includes a new public website, a new intranet, a content management system, a webmail service and a video conferencing facility. It also has the capacity for video story-telling, a music player, a conversation space through the blog facility and a prayer environment in the spirituality section," she said.

 

visit the site      further details 

 

Eighteen Presentation Sisters from around Australia will travel to India early in November for a meeting of the International Presentation Association (IPA).

 

They will gather with about 70 other Presentation leaders from around the world under the theme Listen ... the Cry of the Earth, the Cry of the Poor.

 

Guest speakers will include Medha Patker, an activist for the poorest of the poor, who sees her first responsibility as being with her people to fight with them to achieve justice and human rights and Devinder Sharma, an award-winning journalist, writer and thinker whose books and articles offer a uniquely Indian perspective on global trade issues.

 

The gathering will host a group of disabled children who will share their music and dance; it will celebrate a Eucharist according to the Indian Rite and take a one-day to visit some of the groups in the local area who through working for structural change try to offer better life circumstances for the poor, disabled, women, children.  Both the Australian and Papua New Guinea Sisters will present reflections and questions from their reflections on their actions for justice.  They will also lead the group in prayer at times, using Australian themes, songs, prayers.

 

IPA, which meets every four years, networks the various congregations of Presentation women around the world to foster unity and to enable collaboration for the sake of mission. It comprises the Union of Presentation Sisters, the Conference of Presentation Sisters of North America and the Australian Society of Presentation Sisters which includes congregations from Lismore, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria, Wagga Wagga, Western Australia  and the Papua New Guinea Mission.

 

Two Australians feature in the IPA leadership group - Sr Bernadette Keating PBVM as President of the Australian Society and Sr Marlette Black PBVM (pictured right), as the IPA Networker.  Other members of the leadership group are Sr Teresita Abraham PBVM (Union) and Betty Rae Lee PBVM (North American Conference) and Sr Sharon Altendorf PBVM, the NGO Representative - IPA has consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations.

 

The previous gathering, the Fourth International Presentation Assembly, was held in Queensland, in November 2003, under the theme A new Dreaming Seeking Wholeness in Creation.    The November 2007 meeting will be held in Bangalore, India, from November 14-21, culminating on the feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple.

 

 

 

 

Circles of Peace are helping bridge cultural differences and build respect and understanding, in Western Australia.

 

Loreto Sister Marg Finlay IBVM (pictured) says that the Perth Circle of Peace was formed about five years ago.

 

"Initially, we read, reflected and shared our thoughts and understandings on a variety of texts that related to our lives as Catholic women. These we found both stimulating and challenging. It was from our circle conversations that we found ourselves drawn to explore ways to engage in interfaith dialogue," she said.

 

"We invited to our monthly gathering two young women from the Muslim Women's Support Centre. They shared with us 'A day in the life of a Muslim woman'.  We were delighted with this and decided to continue our interfaith conversations."

 

This was done with the help of the Abrahamic Alliances which arranges gatherings in which people can share basic life values and social events like picnics.

 

"We came to know some of the Islamic women quite well," Sr Marg said.

 

The interfaith circles have opened up discussions on topics including prayer and reconciliation.

 

"Perhaps the best outcome of these circles of peace is we set out to build bridges of understanding and respect and we have become friends."

 

Sr Marg said the circle was not a traditional meeting.   "Our Circle of Peace is a gathering of women in a non-hierarchical circle where everyone's place is equal. It becomes a sacred space where the truth is spoken, communication is in the spirit of dialogue, leadership is shared, and a person speaks and listens from the heart. Some call this spirituality, prayer or faith.

 

"Circle members witness, model and experience spirit and soul connections with each other that lead to possibilities beyond our expectations."   (further details)

 

 

 

 

The Office for the Participation of Women is currently undertaking a project to produce a prayer book containing prayers, reflections and meditations from Catholic women throughout Australia.

 

The aim is to produce a prayer book which reflects the diversity of the Australian landscape, along with the cultural heritage and backgrounds of women in the Australian Church.

 

Invitations are invited from women of all ages, experiences and cultures for a prayer, reflection or meditation which is no more than 250 words in length.  Original artwork or photographs that could be included along side the compilation of prayers also will be considered.

 

(further information: Kimberly Davis telephone, 02 62019867 or 02 62019864 or email, director.opw@catholic.org.au)

 

 

 

 

Fr Michael Sims MSC has been honoured for his work in Papua New Guinea. Fr Sims, currently the Superior of the Australian MSC in Papua, has been made an Officer in the Order of the Logohu "for services to the Catholic Church and the people of Milne Bay Province, for 30 years of pastoral work and community leadership".

 

 

 

 

More than 80 Marist Brothers from Australia and overseas joined friends and family to celebrate with Br Anthony Robertson as he made his final profession in St Christopher's Cathedral, Canberra

 

Originally from Young, Br Anthony has taught science and religious education at Marist College in Canberra for the past two years.  Not only did his mother and three brothers attend the ceremony, but 83 Marist brothers travelled from as far away as Cairns and Brisbane, and even Papua New Guinea and Korea to be present.

 

(more details News and Events, Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn)

 

 

 

 

An action resource on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25) provides information about the day itself; identifies the forms of violence against women; provides information about the relevant international human rights instruments; sets out the stance of Catholic Social Teaching; includes information about some regional and international efforts to address violence against women, and sources for further information. The resource offers a range of suggestions for action, but is intended to help local groups to design their own programmes of action.  resource details 

 

 

 

 

 

A national conference on Racism in a Global Context will be held on November 9-11 at Murdoch University, WA  

 

 

 

 

The Emmanuel Pastoral and Spirituality Centre, Launceston, will celebrate 20 years of ministry to the religious community in Tasmania this month with events in Launceston on Saturday, November 10, and a lecture in Hobart on Sunday, November 11.

 

Sydney priest Fr David Ranson will address the topic, Spirituality for a modern world, in two lectures in the Guilford Young Theatre at St Patrick's College, Prospect, on Saturday from 1pm.  Archbishop Adrian Doyle (Hobart) will be the principal celebrant at a Mass in Sacred Heart Church, Newstead, at 6pm before a celebratory dinner that night.

 

On Sunday, Fr Ranson will speak on What is a suitable spirituality for us today? at the Diocesan Centre, New Town (Hobart) from 2-4.30pm.

 

The Emmanuel Centre, run under the auspices of the Sisters of St Joseph, has been at the heart of spiritual development in Tasmania throughout the past 20 years.  Its team is noted particularly for spiritual direction and the training of non-Religious spiritual directors.

 

 

 

 

New Testament scholar Fr Brendan Byrne SJ will deliver Peter & Paul: Conflict and Cooperation in Early Christian Mission, a lecture on early Church leadership with implications for today, on Tuesday, November 13.

 

Fr Byrne is Professor of New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, and the United Faculty of Theology, where he has taught since 1977. He has been a member of
the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome (1990-1996), and has published and taught extensively on the New Testament for academic and general audiences.

 

Among his most recent publications are: Romans (Sacra Pagina Series, 1996), The Hospitality of God (2000) Lifting the Burden: Reading Matthew's Gospel in the Church Today (2004). Costly Freedom: A Study of Mark's Gospel (Collegeville: Liturgical Press) is due to appear in 2008.  Fr Byrne was the Martin D'Arcy lecturer at Oxford in 2007.

 

The function will be held at the Oratory, Newman College, University of Melbourne, 7.30 for 8pm

 

 

 

 

Fr Frank Brennan SJ, a key author of both the 2007 Social Justice Sunday Statement, and the international Jesuit task force report on globalisation and marginalisation, will act as resource person for an afternoon workshop to be co-hosted by the North Sydney / Lavender Bay / Kirribilli Catholic Community and the Loyola Institute, on November 17.

 

Participants will be invited to explore the experience of globalisation -  both positive and negative - and reflect together theologically in order to make a personal and collective response.  There will be a mix of brief inputs, activities and small group discussion.

 

(further information: Frances Tilly telephone 02 8918 4104 or Sandie Cornish mobile 0408 443 000 or email sandie@loyola.org.au)

 

 

 

 

Men who want to seriously reflect on their direction in life and how they can make God a more central part of it and have fun in the process can attend a vocations weekend at St Clement's, Galong. The weekend on November 23-25 will have a particular focus on the priesthood.  Key presenters will be Archbishop Mark Coleridge (Canberra-Goulburn) and Fr Ed Travers MSC.

 

(further information: Fr Emil Milat, telephone 02 6291 6688, email: emil@corpuschristi.insitec.com.au)

 

 

 

Applications close on December 1 for the January summer school that is the collaborative venture of the Sisters of St Joseph and the St Columban's Mission Society. The course provides theological, spiritual, psychological and social understandings for people crossing into an unfamiliar culture in aspects of their ministry. It will held at St Joseph's Centre, 64 Mackillop Drive, Baulkham Hills (Sydney) January 4-25 2008. 

 

(further information / brochure: sandy.leaitua@sosj.org.au  telephone  02 8912 4869.  from SAO Bytes #157)

 

 

 

 

 

 

November is a traditional time to remember and pray for the dead, a time to recall the departed with thanksgiving and appreciation of their lives.  The Chapel of Remembrance has been a feature of Sacred Space since November 2003.