AMPJP Executive Officer’s Report on April 2023

The few posts on the AMPJP website, shouldn’t be taken to mean that I have not been busy over April.

I had in-person meetings with: John Mooney, Director of Formation and Mission at Sophia Education Ministries, Jane Comensoli, CEO Good Samaritan Education, and with Marita Winters and Chris Raeside from Mary Aikenhead Ministries. It was like pre-COVID times when I used to regularly with people face-to-face rather via videoconference.

I also had phone meetings with Ursula Stephens and Michael Lavarch of ACSL and with Neville Owen. These meetings were part of the AMPJP’s review of our engagement with Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd (ACSL). In 2020, MPJPs agreed to contribute towards the funding of ACSL via the AMPJP, for the calendar years 2021, 2022 and 2023. The March 2023 AMPJP Council meeting decided that a review would assist MPJPs and AMPJP make a decision about the most appropriate way for us to engage with ACSL beyond 2023. Needless to say, the various components of this review have consumed a considerable amount of my time in April 2023.

I have also been busy with preparations for the MPJP Canonical Steward Wisdom Circle gatherings in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Three of these gatherings take place in May 2023.

The AMPJP Council will meet via videoconference in early May which means I have also been preparing the various papers.

Making Our Souls Great

To pray is to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings,
the divine margin in all attainments.
Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.
It is all we can offer in return.
Who is worthy to be present at the constant unfolding of time?
Here we are admist the meditation of the land, the songs of the water, the humility of the flowers,
flowers wiser than all alphabets –
Suddenly we feel embarrassed,
ashamed of our complaints and clashes in the face of tacit glory.
How strange we are in the world!
Only one response can maintain us:
gratefulness for the gift of our unearned chance to serve, to wonder, to love life and each other.
It is gratefulness which makes our small souls great.