Catholic organisations face a shared challenge: helping employees from diverse faith backgrounds understand the Church’s mission and how their everyday work contributes to it. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
From schools and hospitals to parishes and welfare agencies, staff may bring strong professional skills but have limited opportunities to explore the faith and purpose underpinning their organisation.
Helping bridge that gap is the aim of a new two-part online seminar organised by New Shore founder Bernard Toutounji, featuring Archbishop Mark Coleridge and other Church leaders.
“Working in the Church: Understanding its mission, culture and your place within it” will run across two sessions on November 25 and 27.
It is aimed at people serving in Catholic education, health, aged care, welfare, dioceses, parishes and ministries, including those with little familiarity with the Church.
“One of the challenges before us is helping people understand not only what their organisation does, but why the Church does this work in the first place, and how their own work participates in that mission,” Mr Toutounji said.
The Church’s workforce includes practising Catholics, people with little connection to parish life, members of other faiths and people of no faith.
Mr Toutounji said formation should recognise those different starting points while helping employees understand the purpose of the organisations they serve.
“This is not about assuming that every employee begins from the same place of faith, nor is professional formation simply catechesis,” he said.
“It is about giving people an opportunity to understand the mission they have joined, why it matters, and what it can mean for the way they approach their work.”
Archbishop Coleridge, the Archbishop Emeritus of Brisbane, will open the seminar with a reflection on the mission underlying the Church’s work and employees’ contribution to it.
Sydney priest and former Catholic Mission national director Fr Brian Lucas will lead the principal formation across both sessions.
Sr Clare Nolan RSC will draw on her experience in nursing, health administration and leadership, while Association of Ministerial PJPs executive director Martin Teulan will explore how contemporary organisations carry Catholic identity and mission.
Details: www.newshore.co/events.
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Helping Church workers connect their work with its mission (The Catholic Weekly)
