Margie Abbott rsm is a member of the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea (ISMAPNG). She has been offering retreats in Eco Spirituality since 1990. Margie’s qualifications in education, spirituality, theology, and counselling, as well as psychodrama, create a foundation for spontaneity and creativity. Her four publications include recently published Cosmic Sparks.

Photo courtesy of: institute.mercy.org.au

Over his 11 years at the Sydney Alliance, David has organised across issues, including transport, employee and energy. He has worked closely with faith groups, unions, schools, charities, and migrant communities to build power for the common good.

Before the Sydney Alliance, he had organised for seven years as the President of the UTS Union Board, the NSW and then the National Union of Students. David plays a leadership role in the Uniting Church as a member of the NSW Synod standing committee and at Leichhardt Uniting Church council. He is proudest of the 200+ diverse young leaders he has mentored over the last decade. He is a nostalgic Coastie.

Charles Burford is an Honorary Professor of the Australian Catholic University where his research and work in leadership, moral literacy, and linkages between leadership and culture over more than 40 years have received international recognition. Charles consults to the University, School, Church, Health, Police, and Business sectors in Australia and internationally. He is a Fellow of the Australian Council of Educational Leadership and was awarded the Willower Award for Excellence by the University Council for Educational Administration (USA) for his contribution to the study of values and ethics in leadership. He has been a Visiting Research Scholar at Pennsylvania State, and Fordham Universities in the US and the University of Verona, Italy.

Some of Charles’ other interests included playing International Rugby for Canada. He is married to Dianne and has three adult children and ten perfect grandchildren.

The CLEM team exists to support the evangelising mission of the Church as it is lived out within Catholic schools.The CLEM team exists to support the evangelising mission of the Church as it is lived out within Catholic schools.

The team aspires to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to make the richness of our Catholic spiritual heritage accessible to the staff, students and their families who form our Catholic school communities.

Albano Da Costa grew up in Goa, India. At 17 he joined the Divine Word Missionaries completing his novitiate in 2002. Albano was ordained priest in 2011. His first mission was to the Australian province of the SVD where he spent four years working in the Catholic parishes of Wainuiomata, Petone, Waiwhetu, and Eastbourne in the Lower-Hutt Valley in Wellington, New Zealand. While in Wellington, he was appointed as the board member for Caritas New Zealand by NZCBC, and member of the Council of Priests in the Archdiocese of Wellington. Between 2015 and 2017, Albano pursued higher studies in Rome where he learnt Italian and did his licentiate in missiology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He then moved to London and underwent further training in academic writing skills, Studies in European Society and Comparative Studies in Culture at the School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), the University of London in the UK. While at SOAS, Albano received an unconditional offer to pursue higher studies at the University of Oxford.

In 2018 Albano moved to Melbourne and began teaching at YTU in missiology and culture.

Steff Fenton (they/them) identifies as a queer Christian. They are due to graduate with a Masters of Divinity from University of Divinity in December 2021. Steff is co-founder and co-pastor of New City Church, a safe, diverse and inclusive community in Sydney for people seeking Jesus on the margins. Steff is also the Chair of Equal Voices Sydney, a network of local Christians networking and equipping the Church to be more LGBTIQA-inclusive. Steff shares some of their experiences on queervangelical.com.

Dominic is a strong advocate of the disability and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) community, with more than 17 years of experience in community work, cultural development and multicultural affairs.

Dominic is a person with lived experience of dual disability, being hearing impaired and living with cerebral palsy. He is from the CALD community, originally from Vietnam and migrating to Australia as a baby in the 1970s.

In the past 17 years, Dominic has had extensive work experience within the disability space, providing support and accommodation to refugees with disability.

Dominic has also worked with small NGOs, doing state election multicultural outreach and providing local council community support. He has worked in two separate Department of Health and Human Services programs – adoption/wardship records and disability, subsequently developing a passion for social policy and service delivery to marginalised communities.

Dominic has two postgraduate degrees – one in social work and the other one by research on intercountry adoption and race. He has also completed a University of Melbourne fellowship (2018) report on refugees and asylum seekers with disabilities for refugee survivors and ex-detainees.

Trish is a retired teacher and educational leader who worked in Catholic Education in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania.

Trish has a lively interest in justice, peace and ecology and is a member of the Catholic Earthcare Australia Advisory Committee. Most recently she was Director of Catholic Education in Tasmania until 2014. Her doctoral studies relate to education for ecological sustainability within Catholic school settings. Trish continues active involvement in adult education related to Catholic Social Teaching and ecological awareness. Trish is an active member of St Vincent de Paul, her local Catholic parish in Burnie Tasmania and of Church renewal and reform groups, especially Women and the Australian Church (WATAC) and Concerned Catholics Tasmania. Trish worked as a member of the Plenary Writing Group addressing the theme: ‘Conversion, Renewal and Reform’. Her hobbies are reading, bush-walking, gardening, music and current affairs. Family involvements, especially grand parenting and visiting her two adult children, are constant joys.

Victor Joseph is originally from Thursday Island and lived at St Paul’s Community, Moa Island, in the Torres Strait. He also acknowledges his Polynesian, Melanesian, Torres Strait, Malaysian and Aboriginal ancestry (Wuthathi). Victor’s totems are the coconut climbing crab, the Womer (frigate bird), Galbol (whale), Serar (pigeon), Tabo (snake) and Yama (diamond stingray).

For the last 15 years, Victor has been working at Wontulp-Bi-Buya College and for the last twelve as College Principal. He contributies to this College with his God-Given abilities, skills and strengths.

Born into the Torres Strait Island Culture and traditions is all that he’s known since birth and one of his passions is to share this with anyone who has time to listen.

Rosemary Kariuki is the multicultural community liaison officer for the Parramatta Police. She specialises in helping migrants who are facing domestic violence, language barriers and financial distress.

Fleeing Kenya alone in 1999 to escape family abuse and tribal clashes, her early years in Australia were terribly lonely. Her experience helped Rosemary recognise that isolation is a huge issue for many migrant women. Many aren’t used to going out alone, have no transport and speak little or no English. So Rosemary devised ways to help women leave their house and meet women in similar circumstances.

In partnership with the African Women’s Group, she helped start the African Women’s Dinner Dance. Now in its 14th year, more than 400 women attend the annual event. She also started the African Village Market – a program to help migrants and refugees start their own businesses – which ran for four years.

Rosemary’s warmth, courage and kindness inspire all who meet her. Her work was the subject of the documentary ‘Rosemary’s Way’.

Photo courtesy of: The Sydney Morning Herald

Cecilia is an Affiliate of the Sisters of Saint Joseph who is working as a Dance Movement Therapist and Counsellor. Her ministry involves working with children, families and adults who are impacted by trauma, living with a disability and supporting the carers.

Cecilia began using dance movement as a form of spiritual refection and for personal healing from a very young age. In earlier years, she was involved in the ministry of liturgical dancing in New Zealand and in Australia. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Theatre/Dance, Postgraduate Diploma in Theatre Production and Events Management, Graduate Diploma of Dance Movement Therapy and a Master of Counselling. Her life story involves geographical movement through migration from the East to the West and from the study of performing arts into the inwards process of the brain, the mind and the heart.

Jayce drives and holds the visual practice movement and ongoing visual thinking development in the Asia Pacific region. Born and raised in Taipei Taiwan, she is big at heart, small in size and organic in spirit. Jayce received her BFA in Typographic Design, School of Fine Art from University of Canterbury in New Zealand, when she was a young creative nomad away from her relatives and family in the 1990s. Her relentless passion in using her listening and creative arts to make the impossible possible, the invisible visible, and the intangible tangible is one of the unique personal traits among her peers.

Jayce devotes her time to bilingual visual practice in the Asia Pacific region. She applies deep listening and sensing into the space of possibilities, helping groups seeing and sensing the dynamics in the systems through her authentic marks and scribing. She adapts her innate creativity to capture the essence during conversation and dialogues, listening to the white space and collective heart beats from the social field, and manifest the invisible and quiet voices onto the blank canvas through her presence and being.

Jayce is a core team member of Presencing Institute and The Value Web. She is currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan.

Peter Maher is a Sydney Diocesan Catholic priest. Peter has a Bachelor of Theology Degree from The Catholic Institute of Sydney and a Masters degree in Adult Education (University of Technology Sydney). He has worked in parish ministry, hospital chaplaincy and university chaplaincy. He has been in ministry with LGBTIQA+ Catholics, their families and allies for over 25 years. He is Co-chair of Rainbow Catholics InterAgency for Ministry and a member of the national board of Equal Voices. He is editor of The Swag, The National Council of Priests of Australia quarterly magazine.

Photo courtesy of: nationalcouncilofpriests.com.au

Rev Dr Patrick McInerney is a Columban missionary priest. He was assigned to Pakistan for over twenty years. He graduated from the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Arabic and Islamics in Rome (1986), the Melbourne College of Divinity (2003) and the Australian Catholic University (2009).

Fr Patrick is the Director of the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations. He is a member of various interfaith, academic and mission organizations, participates in interfaith and multi-faith conferences, and gives talks on Islam, Christian-Muslim Relations and Interreligious Relations to a wide variety of audiences.

Gerard is a priest with fifty years of pastoral experience. He has just retired and lives in Ormond Victoria.

Anne has worked with three year olds to 100 year olds in various forms of mission-inspired leadership roles in Australia and the United States. Her professional ‘trinity’ has always been the connection between liturgy, social justice and pastoral care; areas across which she has considerable experience and expertise. Whether as province rep for a UN NGO, mentor of school mission leaders, conference organiser, writer or liturgical leader, Anne brings creativity, rigor and a deep love of her complex faith to all she undertakes. Her higher level studies in liturgy are matched by experience of prayer within and beyond the institutional church – with boards, kindergarten children, colleagues from diverse faith backgrounds and those mourning loved ones. At present Anne is on sabbatical: learning Ikebana, reading poetry, volunteering, cooking new recipes and taking her 98 year old mum on adventures!

Photo courtesy of: loreto.org.au

Tim was born in Sydney. He studied BSC (applied physiotherapy) after high school and worked in NSW hospitals. In 1984 he joined the Society of the Divine Word (SVD). He took final vows in 1990 and was ordained a priest in 1991. Tim worked for seven years in pastoral ministry in Mexico prior to returning to Australia to work in initial formation (seven years) and then province leadership and administration (nine years). Since 2014 Tim lives and works in Nemi, Italy, running renewal courses for SVD brothers and priests.

Evelyn is a Quandamooka woman of Moreton Bay Queensland. She is very passionate about spirituality, identity and relationship with the Holy Trinity and its people of this ancient land, Australia.

Evelyn’s journey as an Aboriginal Christian is a continuing life story with God and how he made himself known from the time she was a little girl growing up in her community called ‘One Mile’. Over the time Evelyn listened to her country’s Elders and Ancestors, spent time researching in the Western way and studying in the many areas of Aboriginal Culture and Christianity while gaining a Masters of Theology at Banyo University Queensland in 2006. Evelyn went on to teach Contextual Theology to mature aged students at ‘Wontulp-Bi-Buya College in Cairns.

Evelyn is married to Alan and together they have four children and six grandchildren. She participates in her community and enjoys being on the Board of the Minjerribah/Stradbroke Island Museum. Evelyn was recently elected as the Queensland Representative with National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC).

With over twenty years’ experience in youth ministry, leadership formation, event management and advocacy, Eric is dedicated to creating greater pathways of inclusion within the Catholic Church. Eric is an experienced leader, group facilitator and mentor, with a passion for equity and justice. Eric has a lifelong commitment to an inclusive Church that welcomes marginalised groups and champions the many benefits of diversity. Eric’s current role oversees a team in the Archdiocese of Brisbane working in areas of Justice and Peace, Multicultural Pastoral Care, Reconciliation with First Nations Peoples, Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations.

Eric has a great love of music, Everton Football Club and most importantly his wife Tayo along with their three children Olayemi, Akinola and Aarinade.

Sr Noelene Simmons is a Marist Sister. Noelene has been a member of ACRATH (Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans) since 2010. Her work with ACRATH includes raising awareness about human trafficking and slavery, advocating on behalf of those affected by this crime, managing the ACRATH website and social media platforms and networking with other NGO’s working in this field. She was the Oceania Representative on the Talitha Kum International Coordination Committee from 2016 to 2017. From February 2017-February 2020 Noelene held the position of President of ACRATH.

Andrew Skeoch is an educator, naturalist, environmental thinker, and one of Australia’s best-known nature sound recordists. For over 30 years he has documented the world’s remaining wild places, publishing vibrant wildlife soundscapes through his label; Listening Earth.

Andrew’s first-hand experiences of natural habitats from rainforests to the tundra, combined with deep reflection on how to listen to nature, inform his educative work. Through a sharing of ideas, supported by spectacular recordings and visual analysis, he seeks to address the fundamental question of our human relationship with the living biosphere.

Mercy Partners is a multi-charism, multi ministry PJP operating from Brisbane. Caroline has a background in secondary education and adult faith formation. In her work for Mercy Partners, Caroline facilitates workshops for the leaders (directors. executive and senior staff) of the aged care ministries of Mercy Partners, as well as producing resources, conducting retreats and pilgrimages and supporting leaders in creating nurturing communities within the aged care sector. Caroline’s doctorate focused on faith leadership.

In November 2017 Lana Turvey-Collins began with the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference working to facilitate a three year process of listening, dialogue and discernment about the future of the Catholic Church in Australia. Prior to this appointment, Lana worked as the Program Manager for Mission Formation and Professional Development for Catholic Mission. She has studied in the areas of mission, theology and Church, and holds bachelor degrees in commerce and arts and a master’s degree in development and human rights.

Before joining Catholic Mission, Lana worked with teams in business on leadership, implementation of vision, values and organisational culture. Lana is passionate about God’s mission and believes there is great richness amidst the diversity and difference in the world. She has lived and worked in Zambia, Peru, Timor-Leste and Japan.