St Ursula’s official Opening and Blessing of Presentation Place
25 July 2024, Yeppoon
On 25 July 2024 St Ursula’s College held the much awaited Official Opening and Blessing of the College’s new I Block building, Presentation Place. The building is a wonderful purpose built space designed to enhance the learning environment at the College for many generations to come. Mercy Partners Board Director, Cath Parker, was delighted to attend the Opening and Blessing and see first-hand how impressive Presentation Place is and how it will benefit the students at St Ursula’s.
Presentation Place comprises of six teaching spaces and two flexible learning spaces, amenities block and covered seating area. The project was the final piece of the College’s Masterplan.
Catholic Health Australia PJP Briefing
17 July 2024, Melbourne
Mercy Partners Board Chair, Dr Ricki Jeffery, recently attended the Catholic Health Australia (CHA) sector briefing in Melbourne. The purpose of the gathering was to facilitate information sharing between members and build upon the collaboration opportunities emerging from the recent discernment process. The gathering also provided sector updates from noted experts, Prof Suzanne Chambers AO, Executive Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, and Grant Corderoy, Partner at StewartBrown.
At the conclusion of the briefing, the Five Loaves, Two Fishes dinner was hosted by CHA and provided an opportunity for the briefing attendees to share a meal and further connect with each other.
Holy Cross Services’ laundry goes solar
12 July 2024
Holy Cross Services has recently undertaken a initiative to install new solar panels at their laundry at Banyo which was funded by the Nudgee Trust. Holy Cross Chair, John Gilmour and CEO, Wendy Tancred were very proud of this new initiative and were delighted to share details of this project with Leanne Linard, State Member for Nudgee and Minister for the Environment who recently visited the laundry to undertake a site inspection. Mercy Partners Board Director and Nudgee Trust Trustee, Cath Bartolo was also invited to attend the site inspection and learn how the solar panels are not only saving on the laundries power bills, but also creating a cleaner and greener laundry.
Mercy Partners Board undertakes Formation
10 July 2024
Director of Formation Dr Caroline Thompson facilitated a workshop with the Mercy Partners Board entitled ‘New Ecclesial Movements need New Ecclesial Leadership: Leadership of PJPs in the Australian Catholic Church. The session focused on the challenges of governance in Catholic ministries as the growth of PJPs has allowed lay women and men to step confidently into Church leadership positions and to share their gifts, talents and vision with the Catholic ministries of Australia. In particular it was noted that the success of PJPs is determined by exercise of relationships with their ministries and other parts of the church, but also by trustee and ministry leaders formation in the Catholic tradition.
The Board members were challenged to consider the emerging challenges in the PJP space and how the Mercy Partners Board can position itself in this changing ecclesial landscape.
Education Ministries Business Managers Gathering
10 July 2024, Online
On Wednesday, 10 July 2024 the Business Managers from the Education Ministries of Mercy Partners came together online for a two-hour gathering to listen to connect, collaborate and discuss shared learnings. Mercy Partners Board Director Lee Anne Perry facilitated the gathering and was joined by fellow Board Director Patricia Bergin and CEO, John Leahy.
The keynote speaker for the Gathering was Steven Jeffrey, Chief Financial Officer from Queensland Catholic Education who spoke about Benchmarking and Federation Funding Issues.
In addition, the Gathering provided a forum for the Business Managers to discuss programs each ministry uses to automate their internal processes and support their finance, human resources, student management, governance and risk, etc. The Business Managers also discussed opportunities to share resources and create common templates
