Category Archives: Lay ministers

Making Sacramental What I Had Been Doing All My Life

Deacon Dr John Collins and Dr Sandra Carroll, 9 November 2023 As a ministerial couple, Deacon John Collins and Sandra Carroll are quite something. Both have done Doctorates in theology, though they don’t like to brag about the fact. They have also spent their lifetimes discerning and living out their baptismal calls in amazing intentionalContinue reading “Making Sacramental What I Had Been Doing All My Life”

Showing Great Resilience

Cathy Murrowood, 17 August 2023 This week, Cathy Murrowood shares her own story. Cathy is a Liturgy Educator with the ACU Centre for Liturgy and is involved in developing online liturgy training programs for communities across Australia. She is a member of the National Liturgical Council and a liturgical consultant. Thank you very much forContinue reading “Showing Great Resilience”

The Richness and Value they bring to the Church

Annette Heinemann, 27 July 2023 What is the value of the permanent diaconate? As the Director of the Ministry Formation Program in Adelaide, it is a question Annette Heinemann grapples with every day. Her insights have developed over years of ministry and formation, and there are no easy answers. Fundamentally, she sees the diaconate asContinue reading “The Richness and Value they bring to the Church”

Apologising and Welcoming

Christine Carolan, 13 July 2023 Christine Carolan is one inspiring woman. At 16 years of age, she made a commitment to work to address social injustice. For her, this was a duty of faith, which her Catholicism continues to motivate. As a teenager, Christine felt that this calling might be lived out in a religiousContinue reading “Apologising and Welcoming”

Now that’s how Mass should be!

Clare Johnson, 29 June 2023 Prof Clare Johnson, Director of the ACU Centre for Liturgy and Professor of Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. Elizabeth: Tell me a bit about your own ministry journey. I was drawn into music ministry as a young child when my school principal pulled me out ofContinue reading “Now that’s how Mass should be!”

Living Canon 517 §2

John and Uta France, 25 May 2023 John and Uta France have been empowered by a Church prepared to be creative, in order to respond to the needs for ministry in the world. In the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese in 2014, Bishop Bill Wright commissioned them to be leaders, and they have received and grown in thisContinue reading “Living Canon 517 §2”

Being Catholic, Imaging Christ and Belisi

Cecilia Tan, 20 April 2023 Elizabeth: Tell me a bit about your own ministry journey. Cecilia: My ministry journey is unseparated from the person I am, from what I understand as the call to live out my Christian faith in the best way possible. I became cognisant of this from an early age, as aContinue reading “Being Catholic, Imaging Christ and Belisi”

Crumbs from the Banquet Table

Robyn Presdee, 30 March 2023 As COVID started to loom large, more and more restrictions came into place. The South Coast Correctional Centre decided that everyone over a certain age had to work from home. This affected one of the chaplains, Deacon Peter Presdee, who was working inside full-time. His wife, Robyn Presdee, was doingContinue reading “Crumbs from the Banquet Table”

It’s Already Here; It’s Alive and Well!

Cathy Jones, 16 March 2023 Some of our readers may recall the story of Sr Gerri Boylan, Administrator and Pastoral Leader of the remote Western Australian gold-mining towns of Mount Magnet, Cue and Meekatharra. Well, recently I had the privilege of hearing from her successor, Cathy Jones, who appears to be the perfect candidate. CathyContinue reading “It’s Already Here; It’s Alive and Well!”