Catholic Leadership Intensive

Sixteen parishioners who are part of the six Ministry Leadership Teams recently took park in the ten-week Catholic Leadership in the Parish Centre Egan Room via a live-streaming hub from Holy Spirit Seminary. Every Monday evening for ten weeks, these 16 gathered from Maleny, Caloundra and Unity communities to invest in their capacity to lead in a parish context. On Friday evening this week, the participants celebrated their graduation with a Mass and celebratory dinner at the Seminary in Brisbane. It is important that we celebrate investment in leadership and faith because in doing so, we begin charting a new course in church culture – a culture in which lay people have both the right and capacity to lead in a parish context. Thank you to these people who said yes to learning and growing in their faith and leadership.

Peace and blessings,

Fr Josh.

I recently took the opportunity to participate in the 2023 Catholic Leadership Intensive. This has been a wonderful experience for me, both personally and as a part of the ministry leadership teams of our parish. I have grown immensely in my faith and have learned that the Holy Spirit is beside me always, I need to pray and God will answer me, sometimes in unexpected ways. The greatest lesson and life changing moment I experienced on the course was listening to Bishop Tim Norton talking about his journey and how he came to be in Brisbane. Bishop Tim shared the experience of his doubts and prayers around saying “yes” to being Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane. I had recently been asked to take on a role for which I was unsure I was the right person. I prayed for guidance and I truly believe that God sending Bishop Tim to tell his story was God’s way of answering my prayers. I walked out of the room that evening knowing I was going to say yes. I told myself that if Bishop Tim can say yes and get on with it, then so can I. So I said yes to you, God.

Donna Bradshaw, Community Life Ministry Leadership Team.