Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Luke 10:25-37 - The Good Samaritan: Looking with fresh eyes

Lisa Bright is the co-director of Synodal Consulting working to empower community development and engagement within the Catholic Church and not-for-profit sector.

Lisa has spent the past 20 years working for not-for-profits, religious orders, parish and diocese in all areas of ministry. She is passionate about people and connecting them to safe and welcoming spaces both physically and online, to grow and share life and faith and experience life to the full.

Lisa enjoys volunteering with her local faith community and is a member of several committees. She is proud of her Maltese heritage, working with other networks to bring awareness to the story of Maltese immigrants to Australia and ensuring Maltese traditions are remembered by new generations.

Lisa holds a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Human Resource Management and a Bachelor of Theology. She has recently completed a graduate certificate in Leadership for Mission.

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

Elizabeth Lee is a Spiritual Director, Retreat Facilitator and Professional / Pastoral Supervisor with a passion for being a listening presence among the fringes and fostering human connection through deep listening.  She has had the privilege of offering pastoral care among those living with homelessness and life-giving ministry as a Prison Chaplain. Liz originally trained as a Food Technologist and has had a very varied career as a research scientist, museum curator, health promotion and community development worker and teacher of science and religious education.

While currently enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Research Methodology with Pilgrim College and the University of Divinity in Melbourne, she also holds a Masters of Arts (Theology) as well a Bachelor of Science, Graduate Diploma in Education and a Masters of Education.

For 59 years Liz identified as Catholic but now is not contained by denominational boundaries.  She is a member of Pitt St Uniting Church.  She has been married to John for nearly 40 years, is a mother of 3 adult and partnered children and grandmother to 2 delightful pre-schoolers.

Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Luke 9:51-62 - Together on the Way

Dr Jill Gowdie is known across Australia and overseas as a speaker, writer, facilitator, educator and system leader with wide and deep experience in Catholic education, mission and formation.

She has qualifications across the disciplines of theology, spirituality, leadership, religious education, journalism, education and governance. She holds a PhD in Educational Leadership, awarded summa cum laude. She also holds a Master’s degree in Religious Education and Theology, receiving an inaugural award for excellence in research.

Jill has taught and led at primary, secondary and university levels and in adult and school consultancy contexts. A faculty member with BBI-TAITE and visiting fellow at Oxford and KU Leuven universities, she is also a member of 4 international networks/thinktanks, a peer reviewer for Sage Publications and is currently Vice President of the Association of Practical Theology in Oceania. Jill is also Deputy Chair of the Lasallian Mission Council (Australia, Pakistan, New Guinea and New Zealand), Chair of the Gerard Rummery Institute and member of the Australian Mission and Education Board and the International Network of Researchers in Catholic Education.

Jill has pioneered work in Australia in contemporary spiritual formation, founding a national network (FACE Australia), and has been a leader in the National Catholic Education Commission in Australia in formation and the international work in Catholic Identity. At archdiocesan level, she has created and implemented a new system model and strategic approach to growing spiritual capital in school communities through staff engagement. The work she has done here has spread to other places including New Zealand, England and the Netherlands.

Her innovative work has included the development of a companioning program for pre-service teachers in conjunction with the Australian Catholic University; the development of  a new College Middle Leaders Formation Program currently in pilot in Sydney and the PEARL Project (Program for Emerging and Aspiring Religious Leaders) piloted in Brisbane. Her 2017 book Stirring the Soul of Catholic Education: Formation for Mission has become a sought-after text for those studying and leading in Catholic education or church ministries. Jill has also published numerous articles, chapter contributions and a variety of resources. Her most recent work has been as a contributing writer for the Holy Bible CEV Catholic Edition with Encyclopaedia (2021). She is currently writing a guide for staff and student retreats due to be published early 2023.

Jill is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is currently Director, Catholic Identity & Mission for Catholic Education, South Australia (CESA).

Jill and husband Geoff have four adult children and have belonged to St Anne’s Catholic Community in Brisbane for a very long time.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ - Luke 9:11-17

Anne has lived and loved, prayed and protested, searched and served in Adelaide, Ballarat, Melbourne, Santa Clara (USA) and Sydney.  Her qualifications range across education, history, liturgy and theology – with a particular focus on the nexus between liturgy, pastoral care and social justice.  Anne is inspired, animated and challenged by her spiritual hero – Mary Ward – and nurtured by the creative and performing arts! Although socially awkward, Anne is fascinated by group dynamics, distributed leadership and reframing of organisational dynamics through the lens of introversion. In 2022 Anne has written material to mark Laudato Si Week for ACBC Office for Justice, Ecology and Peace, arranged stunning floral displays, explored images of God with Year 2 students, run workshops for staff on the transformative potential of liturgy in schools, worked on the campaign of her local federal independent candidate and cared for her 99 year old mum. Anne is moving through her second Clinical Pastoral Education placement at Peter MacCallum Cancer Hospital in Naarm, where she is learning heaps from patients, their families and staff about love and loss, grief and grace, healing and hope.

Trinity Sunday - John 16:12-15

Angela Marquis works as a chaplain in a Tasmanian local primary school, and with the Passionists at St Joseph’s Hobart Parish. She studied teaching after completing a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy. Her undergraduate Honours Thesis was entitled, A Theopoetics of Feminist Faith.

Angela has taught in primary schools throughout Southern Tasmania and in an Indigenous Community in the Tiwi Islands, where she undertook a Graduate Certificate in Religious Education. She continued this study with BBI and completed a Master of Theology in 2022. Angela is currently studying Biblical Hebrew with the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies.

The main focus of Angela’s writing is the language of Biblical texts and liturgy, with a particular emphasis on the silenced female voice in major Monotheistic religions. Her paper She who was: Scriptural linguistics and the absent image of God, is published in Pastoral Liturgy https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/pastoral-liturgy/ and she is currently working on a book chapter for an upcoming publication entitled, Rewilding the Trinity: Reimagining the anthropomorphic God.

Angela enjoys rock climbing and long leisurely beach walks with her husband and four-legged daughter.

Pentecost - John 20: 19-23 

Rachel is the daughter of Anne and David, sister to 9 brothers and sisters and today, aunt to 11 nieces and nephews. Family has formed who and how she is. Rachel studied Arts/Law where her desire to understand more about justice and equity was sated. She chose to follow her heart and, for the last 23 years she has been endeavoring to animate and expand her knowledge in classrooms and co-curricula contexts in NSW, Tanzania and Queensland. From her first year as a teacher through to her role today as a leader in a Catholic Education System, Rachel has prioritised her time and energy to work with students to: collaborate and co-create Social Justice advocacy experiences; write and co-facilitate Retreats; and build Immersion programs locally, nationally and globally. At the heart of each of these experiences is dialogue and an opportunity to sit and listen to the wisdom and ways of those who are encountered on the journey. Currently Rachel works in Catholic Education Services Cairns as a Leader of Formation working across 30 Catholic schools in Far North Queensland in the areas of Faith Formation, Religious Education, Outreach, Truth-telling, Healing and Reconciliation. Family and friends are her foundation, Ignatian spirituality is her way of proceeding and music and food fills her soul.

Ascension of the Lord - Luke 24: 46-53

Patricia is a Pastoral Theologian, Reflector, Pragmatist, Activist, Ignatian spiritual director and retreat facilitator, and an Oblate of St Benedict at Jamberoo Abbey. Presently, Grief Care Managing Consultant - Catholic Cemeteries & Crematoria Sydney.

Grief Care is a community of qualified pastoral care practitioners, counsellors, educators, and spiritual directors, offering care, empathy, and compassion in companioning families,  living with the impact of loss, grief, trauma, and bereavement.  Grief Care also offers mentoring, education,

Sixth Sunday of Easter - John 14: 23-29

Rev. Susan Lodge-Calvert writes:

My birth name is Susan Grace but I am known to most as Sue, Rev'd Sue, or if in trouble as Susan. I live on the south coast of Western Australia high on a hill looking out across the various shades of green to the ever changing blues of the inlet and the great southern ocean. It is incredibly beautiful. It may sound idyllic but it is also real life with a community that is a blessing and a challenge at times, a new marriage (even though we are both in our sixties) with recognisable old issues to be addressed yet again, the inconvenient distance from my family and friends in the city, and my own ageing body to be made peace with.

I was born the eldest of four children to wheat and sheep farmers Laurel and Cedric in dry inland Australia. We had a tough but wonderfully free range childhood. At age twelve we transitioned to living in the city after years of drought drove us off our property.  At age thirteen I gave my life to Christ and so began the long and often meandering spiritual journey that has led me here, to this time and space, and to you reading this.

I was a social worker for twenty five years, working as clinician, teacher and consultant, when I discerned a call to the ordained priesthood. Looking back it makes sense but at the time I was fairly shaken and disorientated.

I was then in parish ministry for fifteen years, in two different communities – city and then country. And now I am retired from paid work with a license to officiate when called upon within the Anglican tradition. My website now is my most demanding and satisfying ministry.

Fifth Sunday of Easter - John 13: 31-33a, 34-35 - Our call to radical love

Erin Gillard is a passionate young woman with a deep faith who seeks to empower other women. She works part time as a dietitian at Liverpool Hospital specialising in Gestational Diabetes, helping women make lifestyle changes that will positively impact themselves, their unborn baby, their family and their future.

Erin is passionate about sharing the love of God, and making known the depth of God’s love for others. To create spaces and places within Church communities where people are known, loved and have a strong sense of belonging, rooted in Christ’s love for them. She was privileged to be among the inaugural cohort for Leadership for Mission Program, graduating in 2020 with a Graduate Certificate in Theological Studies from the Australian Catholic University.

In 2019 Erin began serving on the Parish Leadership Team of St Mary MacKillop in Oran Park, Diocese of Wollongong and took up the role of Coordinator of Welcome and Engagement which she now undertakes in a volunteer capacity. Erin has had an active presence in ministry from the beginning of this parish in 2015 being involved in Family Ministry, Marriage Preparation, sacramental preparation and RCIA. Erin is a member delegate from the Diocese of Wollongong for the Plenary Council.

Being married to her husband Kiel and mother to her two young children, Amelia (8) and James (5) is Erin’s greatest source of joy, strength and inspiration to help the Catholic Church become all God calls it to be.

Fourth Sunday of Easter - John 10: 27-30

Gabrielle Sinclair has worked in ministry roles for over 20 years, with parish, dioceses, and nationally with the ACBC’s Office for Youth. Gabrielle has a Bachelor of Arts in Television Production, a Master of Arts in Theology and is currently undertaking a Graduate Certificate in Monastic Studies. At the moment she is very much at home working in the Good Samaritan Benedictine charism at Good Samaritan Education as Associate Director of Communications and Mission Engagement.

Gabrielle has an unquenchable thirst for creativity and beauty and is passionate about facilitating opportunities that ignite authentic encounters that embrace God’s welcoming and loving invitation graced in the whole of creation. Gabrielle's many blessings include her partner-in-crime and husband, Patrick, and their three adult children, Baden, Niamh, and Fintan.