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MISSION statement:

We are a group of Catholics, some of whom are ordained, brought together by our love of Christ's Church and our anxiety about its future. Still inspired by the Second Vatican Council, we want to contribute fully to the life of our Church so that we may be a more effective sign of the Kingdom of God. To do this, we believe that an atmosphere of openness and dialogue both with each other and with our church leadership needs developing. Accordingly, we aim to supply channels of free and frank communication. We desire to help create a climate of trust and respect for all where this dialogue may be fostered.

THEOLOGY statement:

ACTA is a movement built from below by clergy and laity alike in every diocese in England and Wales. It exists to give those people an effective voice. It is an instrument to establish and promote space for a trusting dialogue within a hierarchically structured people’s Church.

ACTA believes that the reforms of the Second Vatican Council are the only way forward for mission to modern society. It is not a small chapel of selected followers; it believes in the Church as a “big tent”, with open doors. As a free and representative association of believers, it seeks to liberate the expertise in the ranks, so as to bring added energy and witness to the Church in the world.

Visions and Vocations – Catholic Women Speak

This is the second book published by Catholic Women Speak to coincide with a Synod of Bishops. Our first book, Catholic Women Speak: Bringing Our Gifts to the Table, was published by Paulist Press in 2015 in time for the Synod on the Family. Visions and Vocations was published on the occasion of the Synod on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment.
catholicwomenspeak.com

Leadership Team

Martin Bennett - Chair

Joseph O'Hanlon - Vice Chair

Peter Farrell - Secretary

Frank Callus - Media

Gerry Hughes SJ - Vice-Chair

Kathy Bamber

Ken Holden - Treasurer

Jean Riordan - Membership secretary

Diocesan Co-Ordinators

Diocesan Coordinators

Contact your Diocesan Coordinator

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3rd Sunday of Advent Yr C

: Written by Joseph O'Hanlon; Published: 10 December 2018

ACTA COMMENTARY

THE SUNDAY LECTIONARY

THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT

YEAR C: YEAR OF LUKE

Download >>> 3rd Sunday of Advent Yr C

2nd Sunay of Advent Yr C

: Written by Joseph O'Hanlon; Published: 03 December 2018

ACTA COMMENTARY

THE SUNDAY LECTIONARY

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

YEAR C: YEAR OF LUKE

Download >>> 2nd Sunday of Advent Yr C

First Sunday In Advent Yr C

: Written by Joseph O'Hanlon; Published: 26 November 2018

ACTA COMMENTARY

THE SUNDAY LECTIONARY

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT
YEAR C: YEAR OF LUKE

Download >>> First Sunday in Advent Yr C Songs of Wonder

The Priesthood in Australia

: Written by Rev Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM Conv; Published: 23 November 2018

https://parracatholic.org/address-at-the-manly-reunion-gathering/

Reflections on its future in the light of the Royal Commission

INTRODUCTION:

Thank you for this opportunity to share with you some of my reflections on the future of the priesthood in Australia. I am conscious that I am a kind of Johnny-come-lately rather than a native born Australian and that many of you here have a breadth of pastoral experience far richer and deeper than mine. Nor do I claim to have better knowlege of this subject. For I am yet to feel any ontological advantage of my episcopacy (!).

Cribbing For Christmas

: Written by Joseph O'Hanlon; Published: 23 November 2018

ACTA COMMENTARY ON OUR LECTIONARY

A D V E N T

CRIBBING FOR CHRISTMAS

Download >>> Christ the King 2018

Advent begins the Church’s Year. We return to our beginning in order to understand where we Christians were born and to plot our way toward where we are destined to be. The word Advent means ‘The Coming’. It refers, of course, to the coming of Jesus into our world. But it refers, too, to our coming of age as we are called to become what God intends us to be. We need to know where we come from, what we are for, and where we are going. In Advent there are lots of comings and goings.

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The Sacramentary Volume 1 Part 1

The Sacramentary Volume One Part 2

The Sacramentary Volume Two Part 1

The Sacramentary Volume Two Part 2

Missal Comparison 2011 v 1998

ACTA meeting in Plymouth Diocese16 February, 2019Plymouth
Chris McDonnell "Thomas Merton - A Life for our Time"24 February, 2019Birmingham
David McLoughlin on Renewing the Prophetic Imagination28 April, 2019Birmingham
meeting of ACTA members within Plymouth Diocese11 May, 2019Plymouth

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Are we being honest to God?: A critical look at Christian worship, priesthood and authority

The central theme running through all five chapters is the way the image of God shown in and through the person of Jesus Christ has become distorted in the main-stream Churches, resulting in many of the practices and doctrines of worship, priesthood and authority not being ‘honest to God’.

It explores the biblical understanding of worship, particularly with reference to Jesus’ teaching about worship in ‘spirit and truth’, and compares this with the language, terminology and doctrines used in the Churches today which contain neo-pagan expressions of appeasement and obeisance.

The subject of ‘altar sacrifice’ is explored in the context of the rise of a cultic priesthood, the members of which became mediators of God’s ‘grace’. How did such a situation arise in contrast to the teaching of Jesus about himself being the only mediator for our access to God, and about his Father wanting mercy and not sacrifice?

What kind of ‘authority’ did Jesus give and teach to his disciples and apostles? Was it the kind which we now experience in the main-stream Churches, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church, as one in which office-holders rule and govern or was it one in which leaders are to guide, teach, care for and feed the People of God?

Is the Christian Church, particularly in its Roman Catholic form, ‘fit for purpose’? Are there radical changes needed for that purpose to be realised? Are its forms and structures for ministering to the People of God suitable for that purpose? Is it really being ‘honest to God’?

A Catholic Christian for nearly 60 years, as husband, father, grandfather, theologian, Brian Pointer poses radical questions and some answers about the Church.

SaturdayMorningEarly The book's sounding board is my belief in a creator God who can be detected in everyday life, inspiring and enthusing us each day.

Please send cheque for £17 (inc. postage) to Fr Va Farrell, St Winifriede's House, Low Moor Rd Bispham, Blackpool, FY2 0PA or by BACS: 11658163 Sort 16-13-29

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In this book, Gerald O'Collins, SJ, takes a systematic look at the 2010 English translation of the Roman Missal and the ways it fails to achieve what the Second Vatican

Council mandated: the full participation of priest and people. Critiquing the unsatisfactory principles prescribed by the Vatican instruction Liturgiam Authe

nticam (2001), this book, which includes a chapter by John Wilkins:

- tells the story of the maneuverings that sidelined the 1998 translation approved by eleven conferences of English-speaking bishops,

- criticiz

es the 2010 translation, and

- illustrates the clear superiority of the 1998 translation, the "Missal that never was"

Pre-Order Now £11.99

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AWAKENING

'A remarkable contribution to solving women's inequality as one of the biggest problems within the Catholic Church today'.
Luca Badini Confalonieri, PhD in Theology (Dunelm),
Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research