For the first time, three priests are undertaking the Areté Centre for Missionary Leadership’s Foundations of Missionary Leadership Program alongside lay participants, in a development that points toward a new model of collaborative formation for parishes. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
This model is being supported within the Sydney Archdiocese, with the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation helping eligible Catholics access the program through subsidies, while also contributing lecturers and mentors to its delivery.
The partnership comes as calls emerged from this year’s archdiocesan Synod for greater opportunities for clergy and lay leaders to be formed together as collaborators in mission.
Rather than priests and laypeople undertaking separate formation and later being expected to collaborate in parish life, the Areté model puts them in the same room – learning, praying, discerning and wrestling with the challenges of evangelisation together.
Areté Centre director Fr Chris Ryan MGL said the change is a “great blessing”.
“When clergy and laypeople learn together, it strengthens the unity, trust, and shared purpose our parishes are longing for. This was a clear theme in the Synod, and Areté is helping to make it a lived reality,” he said.
“Some renewal may begin simply with clergy and laypeople sitting around the same table, allowing themselves to be formed in Christ, united by one evangelising mission.”
Now in its eighth year, the program combines theological and spiritual formation with human development and practical leadership skills shaped for the Australian context.
Its 2026 cohort includes parish volunteers, emerging leaders, experienced ministry practitioners and Catholic educators, alongside the three priests.
Broken Bay priest Fr Vince Casey is undertaking the course with three lay leaders from his parish, while Fr Trung Nguyen and Fr Vince Onesi have joined the cohort from the Palmerston North Diocese in New Zealand.
Current participant Ma Becina said studying alongside priests had allowed the cohort to encounter them not simply in their clerical role, but as fellow disciples continuing to be formed by Christ.
“It’s been wonderful to experience this journey alongside priests, not just because of who they are, but to also hear and be inspired by their own stories,” she said.
“They have given our cohort a humble witness that no matter where you are on your journey, you can always go deeper in your relationship with Christ, and this mission is for all of us to carry out together”.
FULL STORY
At the same table: A new model for missionary formation (By Daniel Ang, The Catholic Weekly)
