Editorial

Dear members of the Kildare Ministries community

It is definitely late in the year to be wishing you a prosperous start, nonetheless, we do that wholeheartedly given it is our first newsletter for the year. We have embraced this year’s theme of Hope- bringing a sense of purpose to those we educate and those we serve. We have long maintained that the value of HOPE for Kildare Ministries is not about blind optimism where, as long as we think positively, do the groundwork and offer our best, all will be well.  Theologically speaking, the virtue of Hope is deeper than this. Hope sustains us through difficult times when all else seems hopeless, we find it in the deep sense that justice will prevail, that we are working with purpose dreaming of a better future and that good will find a way forward. It is not something we control with our willpower, like we imagine optimistic thinking can do. It is the humble realization that we are not masters of our destiny, but we do hope that we will help bring others to fullness. Oscar Romero says it so much more poetically: 

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. 

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Kildare Ministries 10th Anniversary Conference 2024 is an opportunity for hope. It brings together all thirteen of our ministries, across five Australian cities with colleagues who share in our Vision, Mission and Values.  We will learn from numerous notable experts in the fields of theology and social justice. Moreover, we will volunteer to share our own work for mission, to plant some new seeds of hope that will be our future work. We will listen, learn and share our responses to the new things we learn. Committed to the transformative action of God in our lives, we will encounter each other and injustice amidst the sharing of ideas new to us, faith held close, and passions pursued in our work. 

We will dream of a future where Jesus’ mission of living justice and peace is continued, and we will decide together what we need to do as a community. The quality of our speakers will set us thinking so that we might all come away from the Conference knowing that we have been led to a richer, deeper sense of our commitment to God’s mission. The diversity and scope of our own Kildare Ministries presenters speaks in particular of the abounding talents and gifts that exist in our communities. We are truly blessed with amazingly generous people.  We have a unique opportunity to celebrate each other’s successes and reflect on what Kildare Ministries has grown to be. The excitement is building, the anticipation is immense - we cannot wait.

Erica Pegorer

Executive Director

Kildare Ministries

The Mission and Ministry Team 2024

Peter Houlahan, Gina Steryos, Niluka Perera, Renee Oberin, Pádraig McCahey

Mel Sherrin, Erica Pegorer, Monica Lang