Congratulations to the Hobart branch of our mission entity, Highways and Byways – A Community of Service, in hosting the 2020 John Wallis Memorial Lecture on 24th November. As with many events this year, the Lecture was held online, and ‘sold out’ in the sense that we reached registration capacity – we had people ‘tune in’ from across Australia.
We’re so grateful to the guest lecturer, Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ from the United Kingdom, who provided a powerful and inspiring lecture on Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, Fratelli Tutti.
The lecture touched on the many global, social, economic and spiritual crises of our time – the vacuum in political leadership, the human pain of isolation and disconnection being felt by many during COVID-19, the lack of will to deal with migration challenges across the world and the apparent loss of the value of the common good. Gemma’s main message echoed the call of Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti – to grow and develop the art of encounter, to build communities of encounter.
You can watch the full Lecture via the youTube presentation, below. It goes for just over an hour.