Welcome to a new year of Faith Circles resources, made available here for free by the Office of Renewal and Evangelisation in the Diocese of Wollongong. Advent 2022 saw the commencement of Year A of the cycle of readings and, as we enter 2023, we are beginning our Faith Circles journey afresh.
We are very excited to let you know of three significant changes to the Faith Circles resources, which we will outline here below.
Faith Circles Online Firstly, Faith Circles will now be available here at faithcircles.dow.org.au in a blog format. It will be the same great small group resource you are used to but, in the spirit of Laudato Si, we are now giving you an easy way to access the resource without printing, if you so desire. This version will adapt to whatever device you are viewing it on, whether that be on a computer or laptop, mobile phone, or tablet.
Of course, the PDF version will still be available and will continue to be the preeminent way to use Faith Circles. After all, don’t we all spend a little too much time staring at screens?
New Old Voices
Secondly, along with the voice of Pope Francis, we have now included homilies and reflections from Pope St John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Many of these writings have been translated from their original Italian and German. Pope Francis remains our main contributor each week but with the addition of two of his predecessors, we feel it adds a depth to our discussions that might not be there otherwise. It is always confronting to realise that the human issues of the 70s remain relevant today!
New Discussion Questions Finally, we have refined the discussion portion of Faith Circles. We begin with a general invitation to circle members to share what stood out most from the Gospel or Homily/Reflection and why. This then leads to our three questions for each week:
Head – Some aspect of theology, teaching, understanding (What do you think?)
Heart – Our own experiences, feelings, relationship with God or others (What do you feel?)
Hands – How will we put this in action, virtue and habit, life and vision (What will you do?)
The Faith Circles resource for the month of January will be sent out via email shortly and will be available here weekly, beginning December 25th (for 1 January 2023, Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God).
We hope you are as excited to experience the new resource as we are to share it with you and we would love to hear how it goes in your Faith Circle. If you want to contact us to give feedback or to ask for assistance, please see email [email protected].
God bless and kind regards,
Peter Gilmore
Coordinator of Evangelisation and Renewal
Diocese of Wollongong
Account means the account held at your financial institution from which we are authorised to arrange for funds to be debited.
Agreement means this Direct Debit Request Service Agreement between you and us, including the direct debit request.
Business day means a day other than a Saturday or a Sunday or a listed public holiday.
Debit day means the day that payment is due.
Debit payment means a particular transaction where a debit is made, according to your direct debit request.
Direct debit request means the Direct Debit Request between us and you.
Us and we and our means the Catholic Development Fund.
You means the customer(s) who signed the direct debit request. Your financial institution is the financial institution where you hold the account that you have authorised us to arrange to debit.
Debiting your account
By submitting a direct debit request, you have authorised us to arrange for funds to be debited from your account according to the agreement we have with you.
We will only arrange for funds to be debited from your account:
As authorised in the direct debit request; if the debit day falls on a day that is not a business day, we may direct your financial institution to debit your account on the following or previous business day. If you are unsure about which day your account has or will be debited, please check with your financial
Changes by you
If you wish to stop or defer a debit payment you must write to us at least 5 business days before the next debit day.
This notice should be given to us in the first instance.
Your obligations
It is your responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient clear funds available in your account to allow a debit payment to be made.
If there are insufficient clear funds available in your account to meet a debit payment:
you or your account may be charged a fee and/or interest by your financial institution;
you or your account may be charged a fee to reimburse us for charges we have incurred for the failed transaction;
you must arrange for the payment to be made by another method
Please check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct.
Dispute
If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account you should call us on (02) 4222 2444 and confirm the details in writing with us as soon as possible so that we can resolve your query quickly.
Accounts
You should check:
with your financial institution whether direct debiting is available from your accounts offered by financial
your account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement; and
with your financial institution before completing the direct debit request if you have any queries about how to complete the direct debit
Warning: if the account number you have quoted is incorrect, you may be charged a fee to reimburse our costs in correcting any deductions from:
an account you do not have authority to operate; or
an account you do not
Confidentiality
We will keep any information (including your account details) in your direct debit request confidential.
We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you, do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction or disclosure of that information.
However, we may use your contact details to provide information about the fund. Should you wish this not to be the case, please advise the fund in writing.
Disclosure statement
The Catholic Development Fund, Diocese of Wollongong (the Fund) is required by law to make the following disclosure: The Fund is not prudentially supervised by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority nor has it been examined or approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. An investor in the Fund will not receive the benefit of the financial claims scheme or the depositor protection provisions in the Banking Act 1959 (Cth). Investments in the Fund are intended to be a means for investors to support the charitable, religious and education works of the Diocese of Wollongong and for whom the consideration of profit are not of primary relevance in the investment decision. The investments that the Fund offers are not subject to the usual protections for investors under the Corporations Act (Cth) or regulation by Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Investors may be unable to get some or all of their money back when the investor expects or at all and any investment of the Fund are not comparable to investments with banks, finance companies or fund managers. The Fund’s identification statement may be viewed at www.cdfwollongong.org.au or by contacting the Fund. The Fund does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence.
Our diocesan logo is theologically rich and very succinct. As a hand, it depicts our mission as a diocese and as individuals within the diocese, of bearing (bringing, carrying) Christ’s love to one another and to the world around us. In this, we are the hand of Jesus Christ, and we are offering ourselves to him so that he might work through us.
We can be the bearers of his love only as a response to his call and in the strength of his grace. We are reminded of this in two ways—through the symbol of the dove (the Holy Spirit) also present in the logo, and by the incorporation of the cross that segments the logo. The presence of the cross is a reminder that bearing the love of Christ will inevitably cost us if we live it authentically. However, in the way that the Cross is the portent of redemption and life—an echo of the tree of life in the book of Genesis—so becoming bearers of the love of Christ will also bring us to life.
The four fingers of the hand also represent the four regions of our diocese. The first is bluerepresenting the beautiful water of the Shoalhaven. The second is a blue and green combination representing the waters and escarpment of the Illawarra. The third is greendepicting the hills and plains of the Macarthur. The fourth is dark green illustrating the forests of the Southern Highlands.
