Monday started a big week of travel for me. I went across the harbour to the Diocese of Broken Bay where I met with Bishop David Walker and several officials of his diocese. They call their headquarters “The Curia.” It’s located in the northern suburb of Pennant Hills in a large office building which the diocese recently 
purchased. It houses many of the offices which coordinate the major ministries of the diocese. This was a most productive meeting in which I got another look at how this diocese “does church” here in the Sydney area. The bishop was warm and welcoming and very informal. After a while with several of his staff, I continued with the coordinator of the Curia, a layman by the name of David Penny.
From this connection I took many ideas about creative use of the internet. I learned how they use a system called “CASTnet” to link teachers, students and administrators across several dioceses in the eastern part of the country. This is like an expanded version of our own DOR (Diocese of Rochester) Intranet, only its focus is on Catholic Schools, which in Australia are funded by the state and federal governments. I spent two hours with David and members of his staff, it was most instructive. I also shared what we have done using webcasting of our church services. I showed them our website and gave them the link to our parish webcam system. Boy, were they impressed! They are looking for a way to allow the Bishop to be in touch with all households in the diocese. Our system is giving them inspiration.
On the train ride back to The Centre I started processing the
conversations that I had had and this started me thinking how we might expand our Webcast system to reach out to folks as well. Think about the possibilities of having a scheduled time when anyone in the parish could watch a presentation, bible study or a teaching put on by at the parish. Anyone with an internet connection could join in and they could have live interaction via phone or email. It boggles the mind.
purchased. It houses many of the offices which coordinate the major ministries of the diocese. This was a most productive meeting in which I got another look at how this diocese “does church” here in the Sydney area. The bishop was warm and welcoming and very informal. After a while with several of his staff, I continued with the coordinator of the Curia, a layman by the name of David Penny.From this connection I took many ideas about creative use of the internet. I learned how they use a system called “CASTnet” to link teachers, students and administrators across several dioceses in the eastern part of the country. This is like an expanded version of our own DOR (Diocese of Rochester) Intranet, only its focus is on Catholic Schools, which in Australia are funded by the state and federal governments. I spent two hours with David and members of his staff, it was most instructive. I also shared what we have done using webcasting of our church services. I showed them our website and gave them the link to our parish webcam system. Boy, were they impressed! They are looking for a way to allow the Bishop to be in touch with all households in the diocese. Our system is giving them inspiration.
On the train ride back to The Centre I started processing the
conversations that I had had and this started me thinking how we might expand our Webcast system to reach out to folks as well. Think about the possibilities of having a scheduled time when anyone in the parish could watch a presentation, bible study or a teaching put on by at the parish. Anyone with an internet connection could join in and they could have live interaction via phone or email. It boggles the mind.
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