PM Glynn Institute to be launched tonight

The PM Glynn Institute will be officially launched at ACU’s North Sydney Campus this evening.

The centrepiece of tonight’s launch event will be a panel discussion on the theme ‘Fear and anger, hope and confidence: Reframing our shared landscapes’, taking its focus from the way fear and anger seem to be appearing more in politics and public debate, while hope and confidence in the future are less visible.

Political and social disengagement, a sense that things are slipping out of our control, and the destructive siren calls from the extremes of politics and religion will be some of the other topics explored in the conversation.

Panellists will include Professor Greg Craven, ACU Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Margaret Somerville, Professor of Bioethics at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Sydney and Dr Stepan Kerkyasharian, former head of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Commission and the NSW Community Relations Commission. The discussion will be facilitated by Mr Julien O’Connell AM, the Chair of the Institute’s Advisory Board and Pro-Chancellor of Australian Catholic University.

The discussion will provide an opportunity to open up the brief of the PM Glynn Institute, which is to contribute to deeper thinking and new conversations about important issues facing the Catholic community and Australian society and to develop well-supported and practical proposals to address them.

Director of the Institute, Dr Michael Casey, will also take part in the panel discussion.

“There has been enormous support and encouragement from everyone we have spoken to about the Institute and its work,” Dr Casey said. “I am particularly grateful for the support we have received from the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Craven, who has driven the establishment of the Institute.”

The launch caps a busy period of preparation for the Institute. An Advisory Board, including ten distinguished leaders drawn from the ACU and wider Catholic community, has been established and held its first meeting in August. The Advisory Board plays a crucial role in developing the Institute’s strategic priorities.

The Institute held its first public event in September, with a conference to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on religious freedom. The conference, Protecting Rights, Protecting People, was co-sponsored with the Ambrose Centre for Religious Liberty and attracted 65 people to its two sessions in Sydney and Melbourne.

The launch of The PM Glynn Institute will be held tonight at 5.30pm for a 6pm start at the Peter Cosgrove Centre, Level 22 Tenison Woods House, North Sydney.

Interested ACU staff are welcome to attend the launch and are asked to rsvp to events@acu.edu.au

For more information about the launch please email pmg@acu.edu.au