Diocese_Of_Sandhurst_YearInReview_2021

32 MISSION AND PASTORAL LIFE A primary purpose of Adult Faith Education is to assist individuals and communities in our Diocese to dream for the future and live life to the full. Listening, learning, sharing and praying are fundamental to this task. We are blessed to have so many committed people in parishes across the Diocese who understand our shared mission and are willing to listen, learn, and pray with their parish communities. Adult Faith Education Sandhurst builds on Teamwork and collaboration with diocesan networks and parish ministries, including our Priests, Pastoral Associates and Lay Coordinators, Parish RCIA Liturgy and Care for Creation Teams to name a few. Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, ministries have continued behind the scenes in parishes to help people stay connected, caring for each other. On the first Sunday of Lent 2021, thirteen Catechumens and five Candidates, with their Godparents and Sponsors, celebr ted the Rite of Election with Bishop Shane Mackinlay at Sacred Heart Cathedral. Families and members of parish Rite of Christian Initiati n for Adults (RCIA) Teams represented the parishes of St Kilian’s, Bendigo; St Liborius’, Eaglehawk, St Mary’s, Heathcote and St Brendan’s, Shepparton. In March the group gathered for an RCIA Reflection Day, led by Br Mark Needham FMS and Anthony Kilmartin, to reflect deeply on the journey they were undertaking. Members of the Adult Faith Education Reference Group have continued to work on Sandhurst ‘Liturgy of the Word with Communion’ and ‘Communion to the Sick’, documents which will be developed further to assist parishes in the future. In 2021 the Sandhurst ‘Care for Creation’ Team continued its outreach, from the Adult Faith Education Reference Group, to support parishes of the Sandhurst Diocese to celebrate the Season of Creation 2021 and to implement our diocesan commitment to ‘Care for Our Common Home.’ Six years after Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, the movement to care for creation, ‘our common home,’ has gained momentum. In unprecedented ways it draws together our understanding and lived experience of faith, spirituality, and commitment to social justice. In 2020 the Sandhurst ‘Care for Creation’ state- ment was launched. In 2021, Adult Faith Education Sandhurst, in collaboration with Sandhurst Caritas Justice and Catholic Education Sandhurst representatives, continued to offer online workshops, prayer, reflection and resources to support parishes, organisations, families and individuals in their efforts to care for our common home. Adult Faith Education Sandhurst “When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.” Brazilian Archbishop, DomHelder Camara In the Sandhurst Diocese, we are going forward in times of challenge and new opportunities, dreaming together and planting seeds for a vibrant future. The Australian Catholic Church’s Plenary Council; the international Synod on ‘Synodality’; the Laudato Si’ Action Platform and Catholic Earthcare, which is now part of Caritas Australia; have all resulted from dreams and now, in turn, they are calling us to dream and to implement the decisions we make that are based on attentive listening and prayerful discernment.