Evangelium Conference: Energising Catholics to share the Good News of Jesus

By Wendy Shaw

Inspiring Catholics to become missionary disciples is the theme of a special conference in Launceston next month.

The Evangelium Conference, on 13 August, aims to introduce participants to different pathways for forming missionary disciples and to get them excited about introducing others to Christ and His Church.

The keynote speaker is Daniel Ang, the Director of the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation, who is looking forward to his first visit to Tasmania.

“I’ll be speaking on the fundamental call to discipleship and the difference that Catholic discipleship makes to the culture, priorities and the fruit that parish, schools and others Catholic communities can see and experience as centres of Christian life,” he said.

Mr Ang explained that it takes at least two things to energise and inspire Catholics to mission: a firm grasp of the urgency of the situation and a clear vision of the breadth and depth of Christ’s call to make disciples.

“Their commitment to evangelise others will be a graced result of their own deepening relationship to Jesus, and this means knowing who He is, what He has done for us and how He remains with us to this day in the mystery of the Church,” Mr Ang said.

“Once we grasp that Jesus is risen and with us in His Holy Spirit, we want to share this good news with others.”

While the conference is aimed at furthering the spiritual journey of Evangelium Project participants, all Catholics are welcome to attend. The Evangelium Project is a faith formation program of the Archdiocese of Hobart to help Catholics become missionary disciples, running over three modules this year. Module two is about ‘Understanding our identity as Catholics’ with weekly instalments from 19 July to 16 August.

Stanley hub co-leader Elisabeth Ryan described the Evangelium Project as “a great outreach program”.

“We are finding that the talks are very easy to understand,” she said.

“The Archbishop explains the Bible passages beautifully and each week we build another level of the theme. Participants are starting to open up [and] talk about scripture thus our discussions are interesting. Our group finds that being so far away now does not mean we miss out.”

To find out more about the Evangelium Project or to register, go to evangeliumproject.com

Early bird tickets for the Evangelium Conference, which is in the Presentation Gym, Sacred Heart School, Launceston, from 10am to 4.30pm on 13 August are $35 (including lunch).

Register here. A bus will travel from the Hobart area. Bus tickets are $30, via EventBrite.