This presentation focuses on the next steps which follow the four-year journey of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia. Bishop Shane encourages listeners to move on those initiatives which do not require formal approval. The panel responds to Bishop Shane’s keynote, discussing what they have found challenging and encouraging and what the Plenary has meant for their context.

Bishop Shane Mackinlay was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Ballarat in 1991 and has served as a lecturer at Australian Catholic University, Ballarat, and Catholic Theological College, Melbourne. In 2012, Bishop Mackinlay was appointed associate professor by the University of Divinity. In 2019, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Mackinlay as the Bishop of Sandhurst. Known for his good strategic ability, deep faith, and capacity to engage the culture, Bishop Mackinlay is also the vice-president of the Fifth Plenary Council of Australia and will be one of the Australian delegates to the forthcoming Synod for a Synodal Church.