This year, for the first time, three priests are undertaking the Areté Centre for Missionary Leadership’s Foundations of Missionary Leadership Program alongside lay participants, in a development that points toward a new model of collaborative formation for parishes.
That model is already being supported within the Archdiocese of Sydney, with the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation helping eligible Sydney Catholics access the program through subsidies, while also contributing lecturers and mentors to its delivery.
The partnership comes as calls emerged from this year’s archdiocesan Synod for greater opportunities for clergy and lay leaders to be formed together as collaborators in mission.
Rather than priests and laypeople undertaking separate formation and later being expected to collaborate in parish life, the Areté model puts them in the same room – learning, praying, discerning and wrestling with the challenges of evangelisation together.
Areté Centre director Rev Dr Chris Ryan MGL said the change is a “great blessing”.
“When clergy and laypeople learn together, it strengthens the unity, trust, and shared purpose our parishes are longing for. This was a clear theme in the Synod, and Areté is helping to make it a lived reality,” he said.
“Some renewal may begin simply with clergy and laypeople sitting around the same table, allowing themselves to be formed in Christ, united by one evangelising mission.”
Now in its eighth year, the program combines theological and spiritual formation with human development and practical leadership skills shaped for the Australian context.
Its 2026 cohort includes parish volunteers, emerging leaders, experienced ministry practitioners and Catholic educators, alongside the three priests.
Fr Vince Casey of the Diocese of Broken Bay is undertaking the course with three lay leaders from his parish, while Fr Trung Nguyen and Fr Vince Onesi have joined the cohort from the Diocese of Palmerston North in New Zealand.
Current participant Ma Becina said studying alongside priests had allowed the cohort to encounter them not simply in their clerical role, but as fellow disciples continuing to be formed by Christ.
“It’s been wonderful to experience this journey alongside priests, not just because of who they are, but to also hear and be inspired by their own stories,” she said.
“They have given our cohort a humble witness that no matter where you are on your journey, you can always go deeper in your relationship with Christ, and this mission is for all of us to carry out together”.
The program reflects a clear emphasis on mission, integrating spirituality, theology, leadership principles and the practical work of evangelisation.
Priests bring their pastoral and sacramental experience to conversations, while laypeople bring their experience of family, work, education, ministry and life in the wider community. Neither vocation is diminished by the encounter; rather, each can deepen its understanding of the contribution of the other.
Weekly online lectures, in-person intensives and monthly mentoring also allow participants from across Australia and New Zealand to undertake the journey together.
At its heart is the conviction that mission belongs to all the baptised.
