N.C.P. CONVENTION – 2004

Every two years the National Council of priests – a national association of Catholic Priests, Bishops and Deacons with, currently, over 1500 members – sponsors a National Convention.

The priests of the Toowoomba Diocese in south-west Queensland hosted and organized the 2004 convention from 6th to 10th September. One hundred participants from 17 different Dioceses and 8 Religious Orders spend two days and nights in Toowoomba, and two days and nights in Roma – 360 kms to the west of Toowoomba.

The journey into the bush was an integral part of the Convention. Two coaches left Toowoomba and traveled to Roma – one via Goondiwindi and Glenmorgan, the other via Dalby, Moonie and Surat. Both returned two days later to Toowoomba via Miles, Chinchilla and Dalby.

One Priest from Melbourne shares his experience:
“They say that we learn best by experience. That was true for me with the Toowoomba NCP Convention of 2004. It was inductive methodology at its seductive best. We experienced the tyranny of distance, the hours of travel, the loneliness of the bush, the poverty of resources, the warmth of hospitality, the relief of much-needed rain, and the spiritual sense of being one with it all.”

First and foremost the N.C.P. invited Priest and Bishop participants to listen to the voices of the bush and to experience at least a taste of its gifts and challenges. Indeed, if the Church throughout Australia is to speak clearly and profoundly of life, love, mystery, suffering, death, hope, community …. we would all do well to listen carefully to the voices of the bush.

The organizing committee invited Rev. Tim Costello from Melbourne to be the key-note speaker : his “brief” was to challenge the participants – and the people of Roma who joined us for this session – in the light of the Gospel and the reality of contemporary Australia.

Tim left us with some memorable phrases and challenges –

• Faith is about “choosing to live our lives within THE STORY” – the never-ending Story of God.
• We “indwell THE STORY” in so many different ways. We live always with the duality of the universal and the particular.
• Like God – Three Persons living for each other – we are meant to live for each other.
• God’s face is revealed in the stranger, the other (the “strangers” of the world, the “others” in Australia) we can never properly know God otherwise.
• The vital importance of watching, listening to the language, signs, images of popular culture.
• The “third” Adam – Adam Smith; the father of free-market capitalism but also an advocate for “ethical sympathy” – other seeking.
• Maybe Australia is beginning to take account of Adam Smith’s total message!
• To lose is not shameful – winning is not everything – growth often comes through failure.
• All churches are struggling with some members and leaders who will NOT listen to others: there’s an important tension between certainty and faith!

And finally: The Church is (and ought to be) the ONE FREE SPACE where risks can be taken.

Another important ingredient of the Convention was the opportunity to participate in four different workshops facilitated by leaders who brought both a national and a local perspective to four key areas of ministry.

1. From the very beginnings of Christian history in the life, background and the ministry of Jesus Himself there is a fascinating interaction between Nazareth and Jerusalem, between up-country Galilee (the bush) and respectable, powerful Judea (the city).

Participants were invited through the pilgrimage focus of the Convention to feel, smell, see, experience the bush – its scope and its limitations – and connect the bush voices and experiences with their own challenges and experiences in ministry.

2. The priest participants were challenged in the second workshop by the life story of Mrs. Ethel Munn, an indigenous lady living in Roma. They were invited to face, honestly, the sad story of injustice and deprivation imposed by successive generations of white settlers in south-west Queensland, and to learn something of the voices for justice which were ignored.

The challenge of genuine partnership in spirituality, in ministry, in living together justly, continues. (Indeed – as I am writing this report, 8.40pm Sunday 12th September the doorbell has just rung. An indigenous friend has called, tired and hungry, fleeing a violent domestic situation: he calls me to open my heart, my pantry and walk with him a while. Not just charity but a friendship between brothers!)

We became painfully aware again through this workshop that there was no indigenous Catholic Priest at the Convention, no publicly acknowledged indigenous Catholic Priest ministering in Australia! However, there are quite a number of indigenous Anglican Priests and two Bishops.

3. Last week’s “On-Line Catholics” reported that a focus of the Convention would be “Ministry in partnership/collaboration with women.” This was the focus of our third workshop – an opportunity to share the experiences of women and priests in ministry.

There are many Catholic faith communities where the commissioned pastoral leader is a woman; many instances where leadership is genuinely shared; many instances where the particular gifts and insights of women are fully honoured and exercised.

There is much more that needs to happen, but we can report that this exercise of collaborative ministry is already happening in lots of places in Australia.

4. Running through the Convention was a fourth theme, the focus of our final workshop – ministry in partnership with other Christian communities. Ecumenism is a lived reality in many communities - more especially in the bush. Participants became aware of local covenants, precious experiences and pastoral initiatives that both challenge and inspire.

The formal Convention dinner on Wednesday 8th September in Roma highlighted this particular collaboration. Many/most of the 100 participants found the dinner the most powerful and inspiring experience of the week. The Priests took the opportunity to honour the work of Rev. Dr John Flynn – Flynn of the Inland – the Presbyterian minister, founder of the Australian Inland Mission which began on 6th June 1929 in western Queensland. They honoured also the Anglican Bush Brothers and their wives – and the heroic Catholic Sisters, Priests and people of the west over the past 150 years.

The joy and delight in the faces of Uniting Church and Anglican respondents to the toasts and their words of acceptance were a powerful tribute to a history of practical ecumenism that has gone on in the outback, unknown to many in the big cities of the world.

Three words kept recurring – partnership, collaboration, conversation!

In the phrases used by Tim Costello, this Convention will be known and remembered as a new understanding of how we each “indwell THE STORY of God in Jesus in different ways.”

A reminder that the kingdom depends on each of us – women and men, ordained and lay, rural and urban people, indigenous and non-indigenous people, young and old, Christians of different traditions – living for each other and forever including the stranger.

The success of this Convention relies on these principles and insights being taken forward with passion and perseverance.

NOTE:
An extended open forum at the Convention provided the opportunity for many concerns and hopes to be aired.

Many of these issues will come forward in the coming weeks through press releases and many local initiatives.