Fruits of First Plenary Council Assembly published

More than 270 Plenary Council members gathered online for the first assembly in October, spending much of the week in small groups discerning responses to the 16 agenda questions.

Their discussions arose from and were enriched by contributions from across the Australian Church over the three-and-a-half years of preparation.

The document published today reveals the directions of the small groups discernment and offers them as a basis for the ongoing preparation for the second assembly.

“These dozens of pages cannot come close to capturing all that was shared in the assembly, but there is great richness in what is contained, including the many proposals the small groups and individual members have put before us,” Plenary Council president Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB said.

Archbishop Costelloe said the first assembly was “inspiring, challenging and sometimes unsettling” for the members. The report, as much as possible, “retains the original voice of those who spoke, without attempts to produce a harmonised or homogenous account”.

“This is another document in our years-long journey that can help carry forward the hopes of the members of the Council and, indeed, the hopes of the People of God across the country,” he said.

The proposals already put forward will be used to identify thematic focuses for the second general assembly of the Council in July 2022.

Final versions of the propositions, which will form the agenda for the second assembly, are expected to be published in June.

Access the document at: https://bit.ly/FirstAssembly