Remembering, recognising, celebrating and serving

A message from Acting Executive Dean of Theology and Philosophy Associate Professor Richard Colledge.

 Incredibly, it has now been more than nine months since Australians voted on the referendum proposal to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament. On 2 July, the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy (FTP) and The Loyola Institute hosted a gathering at our North Sydney Campus to remember and reflect upon that event and its outcome, what led up to it, and its implications for the future.

The occasion, which brought together a very sizable audience in the Peter Cosgrove Centre in Tenison Woods House, was the launch of books by Reverend Professor Frank Brennan SJ (Lessons from Our Failure to Build a Constitutional Bridge in the 2023 Referendum) and Dr Damien Freeman (The End of Settlement: Why the 2023 referendum failed), both published by Connor Court. Following an opening address by our Chancellor, The Honorable Martin Daubney, Dr Freeman and Fr Brennan were joined by Kelly Humphrey, ACU Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), and Dr Lisa Buxton, executive officer of the Archdiocese of Sydney’s Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, for a fascinating panel discussion, followed by some extended Q&A with the audience.

Of course, even beyond ACU’s ongoing commitment to Reconciliation in recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's spiritual and cultural connection to Country, the evening’s conversation had a particular poignancy given its location at the North Sydney Campus. The campus was the site of a series of key meetings, which were led by senior ACU leaders more than a decade ago, and did much to prepare the way for a national conversation on Constitutional recognition.

That event came just a week after the faculty hosted another event at the North Sydney Campus. The annual conference of Spiritual Care Australia brought together more than 160 delegates from an inter-faith Australasian network of practitioners. The gathering included pastoral carers, chaplains and professionals working in other capacities within hospitals, aged care facilities, emergency services, defence forces, prisons, schools, universities, workplaces and community. Through the active involvement of a number of FTP pastoral theologians, professional networks were enhanced, research and engagement strengths were showcased, and award and non-award offerings in this area were highlighted.

Meanwhile, two FTP theologians – Reverend Associate Professor Ormond Rush and Dr Sandie Cornish - have been named by the Holy See among the members of fifteen study groups that have the task of deepening the theological, pastoral, and canonical reflections on themes that emerged during last year’s Synod on Synodality. Father Orm will contribute to the study group on “synodal method” while Dr Cornish is part of the group focusing on the Church’s “listening to the cry of the poor”. Along with other colleagues, such as Associate Professor Maeve Heaney, ACU continues to provide strong theological leadership at senior levels of the Church, across a number of its dicasteries. 

The faculty’s active involvement in the life of the Church has also recently been highlighted in its confluence with a developing research engagement and impact portfolio through securing a one year €150,000 (A$242,000) grant from the UK’s Porticus Foundation. The project, titled “Good Governance in a Synodal Church: Exploring the scope and suitability of Ministerial Public Juridic Persons (MPJPs)”, is led by recently conferred ACU Honorary Doctor, prominent Australian governance and Church leader Susan Pascoe, and Chief Investigators Associate Professor Jamie Calder and Associate Professor Maeve Heaney. The aim is to identify canonically distinct bodies within the Catholic Church that allow lay people to be the decision takers. Many such MPJPs have been initiated by religious institutes in anglophone countries over the last 30 years to ensure the ongoing governance of their health, education and other ministries.

Finally, the last few months have also been a time to mourn and to celebrate the passing of much-loved and much-respected colleagues: Reverend Professor Anthony Kelly, and Professor Elaine Wainwright. Father Tony – “Priest, Poet and Theologian” to take the title of his 2015 Festschrift – died after a long illness back in March. His funeral at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne was followed by a memorial mass at the Brisbane Campus’ Holy Spirit Chapel on 22 May. A living “pillar” of Australian Catholic University - and FTP in particular - for many years, Tony will be much missed. So too Elaine, an expert on the Gospel of Matthew and feminist readings of New Testament texts, who was known to many especially on the Brisbane Campus before her move to Auckland University, where she was Richard Maclaurin Goodfellow Professor in Theology until her retirement in 2014. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them!