The prayer that began the meeting of members of the Maitland-Newcastle diocesan community with Cardinal John Dew from the archdiocese of Wellington, New Zealand, urged them to “see signs of hope in a sometimes seemingly hopeless world.”
“After a few hours of easy yet profound conversation with Cardinal “call me John” Dew, I concluded that he is one of those signs of hope,” Tracey Edstein wrote on mnnews.today.
Edstein is the editor of Aurora Magazine the official magazine of the diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in New South Wales.
Dew has been in Australia where he was a guest speaker at the conference of NSW Catholic school principals, Encounter New Horizons.
He took time to meet up with the people from the Maitland-Newcastle to tell them about the Wellington archdiocese’s leadership program, Launch Out.
Launch Out forms women and men for lay pastoral leadership roles in parishes and chaplaincies in the archdiocese.
He told them about the partnerships formed among ordained leaders and lay parish leaders, strengthened by mentoring, spiritual direction and professional supervision.
Rather than a response to crisis/opportunity, this strategy recognises that “We share co-responsibility because of our baptism.”
Citing the first parish leader who emerged from Launch Out, Dew told the people in the parish in which she ministered, “Cushla is not working for Father, she’s working with Father.”
Launch Out is grounded in prayer and scripture, contemplative listening and a desire to serve.
Asked what is required of those who would lead, Dew offered two essentials:
- “Leadership is always about service – foot-washing – looking for opportunities to serve the People of God.”
- Quoting US President Harry Truman, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Source
- mnnews.today
- mnnews.today
- Image: mnnews.today
News category: New Zealand, Top Story.
