Brisbane Archbishop Shane Mackinlay speaking at the conference. PHOTO: Supplied/Catholic Leader.
Ministry leaders in healthcare, aged care, community services and education gathered from across Australia and New Zealand for two days of talks and workshops at the fourth annual Mercy Ministry Companions conference last month, reports The Catholic Leader.
About 120 participants took part in the conference on September 15 and 16, hosted at the Catholic Leadership Centre in East Melbourne.
MMC formation co-ordinator Sr Annette Schneider said hope and hospitality – two of the organisation’s five core values and part of the conference theme – were “absolutely essential” to living out the mission of Mercy Ministries today.
“You only have to look at the news of the night to see where there’s the lack of hospitality and welcome and inclusion,” she said.
“There’s desperation on people’s faces rather than hope.”
The keynote speakers included newly-installed Brisbane Archbishop Shane Mackinlay and Scanlan Foundation chief executive officer Dr Sonja Hood.
Archbishop Mackinlay spoke about hospitality, synodality and hope.
Sr Schneider said he looked at the major topics in light of the “life of the Church and in the scope of our ministries”.
He drew upon Church teachings as well as insights from Scripture and social research, highlighting ways in which the world was “crying out” for hope and hospitality and how we might respond.
Mercy Ministry Companions was founded as a Ministerial Public Juridic Person in December 2021, to govern ministries which were formerly the responsibility of the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Synodality, Sr Schneider said, “is a strong part of how we (MMC) see our mission in the Church… how we try and do things in our decision making, in our engagement with ministries”.
In her keynote, Dr Hood spoke about the power of inclusion.
From her background in working towards social cohesion and in sports administration, she drew comparisons and similarities between leadership for inclusion in community groups and in sporting organisations.
Dr Hood also highlighted her foundation’s work supporting migrant and refugee women and their families.
Following their keynote addresses, Archbishop Mackinlay and Dr Hood joined conference facilitator Angela Scaffidi for a panel conversation.
In response to questions, they discussed topics including their personal sources of hope, signs of hope in the world and challenges surrounding inclusion, hope and hospitality.
Sr Schneider said that MMC worked to stay true to Venerable Catherine McAuley’s vision when she established the Sisters of Mercy in 1830s Dublin.
“But it’s not 1830s Dublin in which we’re living now, it’s 2025 – so it is important to discern how can we remain faithful to our heritage and tradition but also be engaged effectively in the world in which we minister,” she said.
She said some things had changed since Venerable McAuley’s time but core values like hope, hospitality, respect, compassion and justice remained important.
The conference, she said, was an opportunity to bring people together, to learn from each other and to inspire the participants to engage in their mission and to identify opportunities to work collaboratively to address emerging needs.
The conference also included two rounds of workshops where each MMC ministry explored the theme and showcase initiatives which address emerging and existing needs in education, community services, and health and aged care.
This article was published in The Catholic Leader, the publication of the Archdiocese of Brisbane.