After several months of group discernments and newsletter updates, we are pleased to provide the submissions provided to the Plenary Council 2020. Thank you to everyone for your commitment, contributions and support during this lengthy process.
 
The outcomes for the first discernment were agreed by a vote of the parishioners:

1. How God is calling us to be a Christ Centred church in Australia that is inclusive, participatory and synodal? 

1. As the parish community of St Ambrose Woodend, we make known to all within the ambit of St Ambrose Parish, Woodend, that we encourage full participation by all people identifying themselves as Catholics in the activities, faith and sacramental life of our parish community. Come, join us.
2. As a local parish discernment group in the Plenary 2020 Council process, we recommend to the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne that all parishes in the archdiocese be invited to frame a resolution similar to ours above.
3. That, in our submission to the Australian Plenary 2020 Council, that a similar resolution to ours, in Resolution 2 part 1 (above), be promoted to all archdioceses in Australia. Having listened to the Spirit we have come to the view that this is 'How God is calling us to be a Christ-centred Church in Australia that is inclusive, participatory and synodal.’

2. How is God calling us to be a Christ-centred Church in Australia that is prayerful and Eucharistic? 

3. How is God calling us to be a Christ-centred Church in Australia that is open to conversion renewal and reform? 

1. “The Church in Australia proclaims that the sacrament of Matrimony involves a dynamic relationship in which the community of the family grows in a similar way to the community of love in the blessed Trinity. It acknowledges the theological construct of the family as “the domestic Church” is in fact true and that growth in faith is known and lived as a covenantal relationship between God and the family and not simply as an aggregation of religious facts. Taking as its vision “Gratissimam Sane”, Pope St John Paul IIs letter to families, it undertakes to study the characteristics and growth of this relationship within the family from the earliest years to old age, and proposes to the people of Australia that this is the truly Christian course of the sacrament of Matrimony and the family in spiritual growth and growth in faith.”
2.  We proposed that:

1. That Parish Councils for Pastoral Support, Conversion, Reform and Renewal be established in all Australian archdioceses – elected by parishioners, without pre-selection or veto by parish priest, bishop or archbishop.
2. That Archdiocesan Councils for Conversion, Reform & Renewal be established - elected by Parish Councils and representatives of Lay organisations within the archdiocese, without pre-selection by the archbishop or his delegate.
3. That a National Council for Conversion, Reform & Renewal be established as a consultative forum, meeting online quarterly, with voting delegates from archdiocesan councils supported by a full-time secretariat. This council sits on an equal footing, alongside and consults with the Catholic Bishops Conference, but is not accountable to the Bishops Conference. Recommendations from National Council are distributed to Archdiocesan Councils for implementation in consultation with delegates from Parish Councils."