Preparing for the 11 Feb 2020 AMPJP Council meeting has occupied most of my time since I returned to work on 06 January.
The AMPJP Council meeting has a full agenda with some complex items and lengthy papers to discuss. Thankfully they are all skilled in the etiquette of teleconferences and even complex issues are methodically worked through.
January was also seen large parts of Australia struggling with the impact of the ongoing drought, heatwaves, bushfires and now flooding in parts of Queensland. You will read in this newsletter about the Church’s new disaster response structure, Catholic Emergency Relief Australia. The AMPJP was not invited to be a signatory to this initiative. If we were it would take considerable time for us to respond as:
- The AMPJP cannot bind or direct its members. Each of the eleven member MPJPs is an independent Church Authority and each would need to decide to authorise AMPJP to sign, or speak, on its behalf;
- While the AMPJP Council is comprised of a representative from seven of its eleven MPJP members, no individual person is authorised to make decisions on behalf of his/her MPJP;
- Each MPJP is constituted as a collegial entity which requires decisions to be made collectively by all of its Trustees/Canonical Stewards; and
- Each MPJP’s Statutes/Constitutions clearly specify that all issues related to the management of ministries (health, education, aged care and social services) are the responsibility of that ministry’s Board/s. This means the MPJP must first wait for that Board/s to make a determination.
I imagine that many MPJP ministries will support the initiative of Catholic Emergency Relief Australia. I have heard of MPJP hospitals releasing staff to work in fire affected communities, donating medication and materials to wildlife hospitals, collecting donations and conducted prayer services. I’m sure aged care, schools, community services and other ministries are also assisting individuals and communities impacted by the bushfires and other disasters.
I found the poem below in mid-December before the bushfire crisis engulfed some many parts of Australia. I decided to keep it as my January 2020 reflection as its awestruck message has a resonance within and beyond our current experience of destruction in creation.
