Celebrate the Great Jubilee

Broken Bay Diocesan News, October 1997 - Issue #4

With this issue of our Diocesan News comes the prayer card of Pope John Paul II for the Great Jubilee Celebrations.

The celebrations will begin at Easter 2000 and come to a climax with Easter 2001 when all the Churches, both East and West, will celebrate Easter at the same time.  The lead up years are to be used as preparations for the Great Jubilee and the Pope has nominated a special theme for each year.

Here in Broken Bay, Bishop Walker began his 1997 Lenten reflections with the theme of this year – the Year of Jesus Christ. Next Lent, he will continue with the theme for 1998 – the Year of the Holy Spirit (1999 is nominated as the Year of the Father). In response to the Holy Father’s wishes, Broken Bay has taken these themes to reflect on and apply to our local situation.

The Encyclical "The Coming of the 3^rd. Millennium" in which Pope John Paul has outlined his great visionary hopes is available both in an English translation and in a simplified version – both of these are locally available, and are very useful for a Parish to adopt as a basis for some prayer and discussion groups.

Further involvement will be the Australian Bishops participation in the Synod of Oceania – a forum in which local initiatives of the Great Jubilee themes can be begun. So on a world level, the Universal Church is preparing to celebrate the third Millennium in Rome and the Holy Land. Regionally, the Oceania Conference will focus on issues relevant to our part of the world – but also locally, at the Parish level there is much scope to prepare and celebrate this special time.

This column each month will try to highlight some of the more local initiatives that are available to us. Many of these could very profitably be on an ecumenical level.

Through this column, we would also like to report what you are doing, and what you find useful. In this way we can all participate in the Pope’s great visionary celebration.

One Parish resource that is immediately available comes from the Archdiocese of Brisbane – it is a four week Parish Discussion Program called "Look to Jesus".  In the four sessions, the 1997 theme is discussed. Next year a similar program will be available on the theme of the Holy Spirit. The address for the program is at the end of the column.

Sydney Archdiocese produces "Inform" a series of papers that would prove useful to any parish wanting group material.  Parish involvement need not be limited to discussion groups – any Renewal Program you have going can take notice of the yearly themes and use them to enrich what you are already doing.

The Parish may like to nominate one person to be the facilitator for Jubilee 2000. We would welcome any input. 

In the Column in the next issue of the Diocesan News we will highlight the letter written to the Australian people by the Australian Bishops, and a more detailed explanation of the Prayer card.

So, here are a few resources readily available:

"Looking to Jesus" a four part discussion book published by the Catholic Adult Education Centre in Brisbane.  Tel: (07) 3840-0514. It is also available from Sydney Catholic Adult Education Centre: Tel: 9792-3144.

"The Jubilee Challenge of Jesus" a 17 min. video with discussion booklet produced by the British/Irish Columbans, and available from The COLUMBAN MISSION, 69 Woodland St., North Essenden Vic. 3041. The Columbans also have the "popular" version of the Encyclical, set out in discussion format

The official English text of the Encyclical "Tertio Millennio Adveniente " is available from the Paulist Bookstore in Castlereagh St. Sydney.

The Jubilee 2000 Bulletin Kit is a collection of small ‘inserts’ for the Parish Bulletin prepared by Teresa Pirola and available from  The Story Source, PO Box 1106 Maroubra 2035.

The Jubilee Prayer card is available for everyone to use during these years of preparation: More are available if needed - Fr. William Stevens, Willoughby 9958-8846.