Community for a Better World in Australia have begun a new journey, without the certainties and security of the National Centre in Morisset where Fr Michael Fallon, Ms Jill Gibbs and Sr Tess Connolly worked very ably full-time until July 2010, with Michael and Tess continuing until July 2011.
In March, 2012, Fr Michael Fallon, Margaret Green and Mary Fama presented Spirituality for our Times to the parishioners of the Hawke’s Bay area of New Zealand. The retreat was well-received, revealing yet again how people hunger and thirst for a communitarian spirituality.
At the CENACLE 2011 (the 4-yearly International Meeting of the Community Animation Service) in Rome in September 2011, there were four taking part from Oceania: Bishop Gilles Cote and Fr Roger Purcell from PNG and Mrs Margaret Green and Fr Kevin McIntosh from Australia. They chose Fr Kevin McIntosh as the new Area Coordinator, for Oceania. Fr Kevin McIntosh is the parish priest of Sunbury in Victoria.
In January, Fr. Joseph Cho, National Director of the South Korean Group asked if they could move from the Asia Area and be included in the Oceania Area.
The renewal of the Church in PNG/SI is moving ahead in many dioceses according to different methods and programmes, moving in different phases and stages, with different speed of progress according to the situation of each diocese. The National Team has been involved in the facilitation of a number of activities in different places.
Each year in July the members of Community for a Better World in Australia gather at Manly, a Moreton Bay suburb of Brisbane, for a week of renewal and planning. It enables the participants from the vast distances of our country to get together and socialise, to reflect and pray, and to review their experiences of the previous year while looking in hope to the future.
As part of the work of the Italian Group in promoting the renewal of religious life, Fr. Enzo Caruso, their director, conducted a retreat on “Identity and Options” for a group of sisters of the Sacred Heart Congregation living on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. This enabled them to address the question of their future and the meaning of their presence in the world in the light of the great changes that have occurred in recent decades. The sisters had been mainly of Italian birth but there is now a new situation with vocations coming from a variety of African cultures and traditions.
Community for a Better World in Australia has embarked on a new venture with the publication of this booklet which has been designed as a resource to serve the spiritual, theological and pastoral formation of the many lay persons who minister to the life of their parish communities. It is intended for use in small groups with the hope that the time spent together would be fruitful and enjoyable.
The diocese in Mt. Hagen, like many others, puts resources into providing primary, secondary and tertiary education. In January, the National Team worked with the Diocesan Education Board to prepare and facilitate a Diocesan Education Assembly. Based on the method used for the whole diocese, they helped the participants analyse the situation of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese, with a view to mapping out a plan for an improved and more effective service. The 25 persons present represented those involved at a higher level.
In the second week of May, Fr. Stanislaus and Fr. Wladyslaw, from Poland, returned to Ukraine to conduct the process of reflecting on the situation in three parishes. This is always a starting point for the journey of renewal of a parish. Pastoral workers from these parishes of Krasne, Manikowce and Dunojowce took part. The Bishop came to visit one day and supported the dynamic, organic and all-inclusive pastoral approach we promote.
