A SERIES of forums next month will lay the groundwork for a landmark summit on the future of Catholic education in Brisbane archdiocese.
Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane has tentatively set November 1 as the date for the summit.
Australian Parents Council president, Leo Dunne, has been chosen by Archbishop Bathersby to facilitate the summit process.
The summit will be preceded by four preparation forums, in which stakeholders will develop likely scenarios for the future of Catholic education in the archdiocese.
These will be further refined at a scenario workshop to decide recommendations for the summit.
Mr Dunne said invitations were issued during the week for the forums, which would be held on September 5, 6 and 7 at Mercy Place, Bardon. The scenario workshop will be on September 13 and 14 at the O’Shea Centre, Wilston.
The summit will be held at Mercy Place.
Archbishop Bathersby’s calling of the summit was prompted by a number of proposed changes to Catholic schooling provisions in the archdiocese.
These include the ongoing issue of providing and missioning new schools in growth areas, and proposals by a number of religious institute secondary colleges to offer some primary grades.
Mr Dunne said the archbishop called the summit because such moves could have had disruptive impacts on other schools.
‘He was wanting to avoid that conflict in the schools sector and he was looking for a process that may lead to increased dialogue among schools across the archdiocese,’ he said.
Announcing the summit in June, Archbishop Bathersby said that as chief teacher of the archdiocese he was responsible for fostering co-operation among all Catholic schools of the archdiocese.
He said he hoped all Catholic schooling providers would place their plans before the archdiocesan community ‘so that there might be a shared responsibility for significant, agreed changes’.
