12 Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst Year in Review 2023 The Sandhurst Mission and Pastoral Council (SMPC) is the peak consultative and advisory body to Bishop Shane Mackinlay, and it is my privilege to serve as its inaugural Chair. I was appointed by Bishop Shane on 15 July following a process of prayerful discernment by the members of the Council. Along with Bishop Shane and Fr Joe Taylor (Vicar General), the fourteen Council members are faithful women and men drawn from each of our Diocese’s three Deaneries. They bring a wide range of pastoral and professional experience and skills to the important deliberative and synodal work of the Council. After being commissioned by Bishop Shane at the Annual Mass of Oils (Chrism Mass) in Holy Week, the Council has held four meetings in 2023. The first two meetings were devoted to our initial formation as Council and we were blessed to have the expert assistance of Mr Dean Mason, a professional facilitator from Melbourne. Dean led the members in this formation, helping us get to know each other, set expectations, develop meeting protocols, and practise the skills of listening and dialogue. The August and November meetings have largely focused on developing a Strategic and Pastoral Plan for the Diocese. This plan is emerging directly out of the four Strategic Directions from the preparation and consultation conducted across the Diocese in 2022. This also includes the two hundred and fifty-two concrete proposals for action from the Diocesan Assembly held in Kialla on 15 February. It is through this important work that the Council is becoming a body that listens, discerns and acts on behalf of the whole Diocese in service of the Church’s mission. It is our intent to publish and promulgate this Strategic and Pastoral Plan in 2024. The Council is deeply committed to prayer and ongoing spiritual formation. Council members lead prayer, reflect on scripture and celebrate the Eucharist together. All members have considered their own personal calling to the ministry of leadership and service on the Council, developing an understanding of the significance of Pope Francis’ call to become a more synodal Church. At the November meeting, Bishop Shane presented to the Council an ‘up close and personal’ insight into the first General Assembly of the “Synod for a Synodal Church”, held in Rome in October. As Bishop Shane shared his experience and broke open the Synthesis Report “A Synodal Church in Mission”, each member was encouraged and challenged by the vision and task of being and becoming a Church on the journey together; the people of God proclaiming and living GABRIELLE DOWNIE From Sandhurst Mission and Pastoral Council “Being and becoming a Church on the journey together; the people of God proclaiming and living communion, participation and mission.”
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