10 Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst Year in Review 2025 Bishop, we had to suspend the normal gatherings in our churches and schools as we entered the cycle of COVID lockdowns. For a long time, my big outing for the week was driving to St Kilian’s on Sunday for the live-streamed Mass, with only a handful of people in the church. Of course, that was also a time of connecting in different and surprising ways, as people spoke of the importance of joining in with our weekly diocesan Mass from their homes and presbyteries, and as so many of our parishes set up new ways of nurturing the faith and relationships in our communities. During that time, we also conducted the initial consultations that led to a 2-year process of establishing our Mission and Pastoral Council, which has in turn played a critical role in developing our new program for using the bishops’ parish visitations to help parishes review their current situation and plan for the future, and to a set of Strategic Mission and Pastoral Goals that will help guide decision making and priorities for our parishes, schools and diocesan activities over the coming five years, as we seek to respond to Pope Francis’ legacy of calling us to be more synodal in the way we together live out our mission as Christ’s Church. I’m enormously grateful to all those who have contributed to these processes, and particularly to those who have been directly involved as Council members, Chancery staff, and through taking up responsibilities in their local parishes. Alongside the consultation about leadership structures in the Diocese, we also investigated options for establishing a governance arrangement for our schools that didn’t rely just on the particular skills and experience of individual priests. That led to a decision to operate our schools at a diocesan level through Catholic Education Sandhurst Ltd, which is now in its fifth year as a company and, under the very professional leadership of its board and executive, is making a significant impact in formalising mutual cooperation and support between our parishes and their schools, and in using its diocesan reach to provide enhanced resources and coordination for improving the opportunities for learning for each of the young people who are enrolled in our schools and early learning centres. I think the readings that the liturgy offers us today are very helpful as we look back and look forward. The second reading is a poignant moment of farewell, as Paul, who tells us that he is ‘an old man now’, comes to the end of his missionary journeys and from prison sends Philemon a former slave, Onesimus, who has become Christian and has become Paul’s beloved companion. Paul feels great sadness at saying goodbye to Onesimus, but recognises that their time together has come to a conclusion. As at any time of farewell, including the end of my ministry as Bishop here in Sandhurst, it is clear that while there is much to celebrate, there are also beginnings that have not been concluded and new possibilities that have not begun. However, rather than lingering on regrets and ‘what ifs’, Paul recognises that he needs to entrust Onesimus and his future possibilities to God’s care and to the grace that he is confident that Onesimus will receive from others. In the gospel, Jesus speaks of the commitment that is needed to be one of his followers. He puts this in very dramatic terms, of being prepared to leave behind family, friends, and all that matters to us. I’m not feeling that my going to Brisbane is quite such an absolute rupture as that, but certainly it is a moment of moving further away from places, communities and relationships that I am very connected to, as part of living out my particular call to discipleship in a new place and a new role. And it’s good to be reminded that being open to that call is a characteristic of following after Jesus. Finally, in the first reading, Solomon prays for wisdom. As David’s son, he is King of Israel at the time when it is at the peak of its power and wealth, securely established in the citadel city of Jerusalem that David had captured, and with riches enough to build a temple worthy of the Ark of the Covenant. Yet in the midst of all this success and prosperity, he acknowledges the limits of his own insight and knowledge, and recognises that all that he seeks to do only finds its place as part of God’s plan and God’s path, which he knows that he does not see. In my own life, and for most people that I have known, it’s never worked out too well to try and have things completely planned out in advance. We certainly need to discern carefully about what we commit ourselves to, and then give ourselves wholeheartedly to whatever that might be. But, at the same time, we need to be open to the surprises and unexpected possibilities that God opens before us along the way. Being Jesus’ disciples means following along his way, rather than our own, and being ready to hear and respond to his call along the way, to things we might never have imagined, and new paths that lead us into his future. We are always part of something that is much bigger than what we can see around us in our immediate experience. To be people of faith means taking God seriously, taking seriously that we are building God’s kingdom rather than our own, and being open to serve in the way that he calls us, confident that he promises always to walk faithfully with us. As we look back in thanksgiving today and acknowledge the sadness of this time of farewell, I invite you to join me in looking forward with hope and confidence in the God who continues to call us along his paths and to shape us as his people.
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