CONFERENCE

Annual Conference

The Association holds an annual conference, usually in July.

The conference is open to members. More details about the conference can be found in the Members Area.

To become a member of ACTA please see Article III of the Constitution. If you believe you qualify, download the application form, approach an existing member, or fill out the Contact Form on the website and we will direct you to the appropriate channels.

Member Application Form

2025 Conference: “I am with you always”: Hope within a Living Tradition

Venue: Greg Craven Centre, St Patrick’s Campus, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne.
Date: July 3-5, 2024 (Thurs afternoon – Sat evening).

Pope Francis has proclaimed 2025 as a Jubilee year with the theme of hope.
In his Bull of Indiction, Pope Francis calls for Christians as “pilgrims of hope” moved to a deeper encounter with Christ, especially through recognising “signs of the times” and grounded in the living tradition that “encourage and sustain hope” (#1, 5, 25).
Pope Francis, Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025

This Jubilee year also marks a number of significant anniversaries, on which we invite reflection: the 1700thanniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed; the 60th year anniversary of the closing the Second Vatican Council, including the promulgation of Dei Verbum and Gaudium et Spes; and the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’. The Jubilee Year will also follow the second session of the Synod on Synodality and its movement into the implementation phase, about which we invite continued reflection.

Anthony J Kelly Emerging Scholars Essay Competition

The Australian Catholic Theological Association is a body of Catholic professional theologians serving the Church and society in Australia within the area of systematic theology. ACTA’s Executive invites current HDR students and early career scholars (within 3 years of completion of doctoral studies) to submit a theological essay (5000 words) for the Anthony J. Kelly CSsR Essay Competition. Essays will be reviewed by the ACTA Executive. The Executive reserves the right to withhold the award, depending on the number and quality of submissions. Download more information below.

Anthony J Kelly Emerging Scholars Essay Competition Submissions Due: 28 May, 2025

2024 Conference: “Synodality”

Venue: ACU Leadership Centre and Banyo Campus, Brisbane (tbc)
Date: July 4-6, 2024 (Thurs afternoon – Sat evening).

“The world in which we live, and which we are called to love and serve, even with its contradictions, demands that the Church strengthen cooperation in all areas of [the Church’s] mission. It is precisely this path of synodality which God expects of the Church of the third millennium.” Pope Francis Cited in Letter of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to the People of God, Vatican City, Oct 25, 2023

The Instrumentum Laboris and Synthesis of the first session of the 2021-2024 Synod call for a process of listening, walking, and discerning together, and name communion, mission, and participation as priority issues for a synodal church. These priorities are addressed to us in IL in the form of questions: “How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?”; “How can we better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel?”; and “What processes, structures and institutions [are needed] in a missionary synodal church?”

In the ACTA Conference of 2024 you are invited to consider the themes of your own theological work in light of the synodal process and the three named priorities. How might theology be undertaken in light of the “way of proceeding” of the Synod? Is there a “hermeneutic of synodality” that might inform our theological endeavours? How does the theology that emerges from ACTA and its members contribute to a church marked by synodality? What themes emerging from the synod are drawing your attention, and why?

2024 ACBA/ACTA Conference Participants

2023 Conference: “Being Human: Biblical and Theological Anthropologies”

Venue: Mary MacKillop Place, 7-11 Mount Street, North Sydney
Date: July 6-8, 2023 (Thurs afternoon – Sat evening).

“I cannot truly encounter another unless I stand on firm foundations, for it is on the basis of these that I can accept the gift the other brings and in turn offer an authentic gift of my own.” (Fratelli tutti, 143)

Pope Francis’ call for synodality and dialogue is connected with his call for a deep and considered engagement with the foundations of Catholic theology and the contexts in which theology takes place. The chosen theme for the 2023 ACTA/ACBA Conference takes up this challenge, as we seek to explore the biblical and theological anthropologies that underpin and inform theology in Australia and around the world.
Being Human: Biblical and Theological Anthropologies is both a theme and a lens for the conference. It invites us to consider how our theological starting points and disciplinary lenses enable us to engage with and respond to themes that have emerged from the Plenary Council (such as reconciliation, gender justice, sacramentality, leadership, ecology and mission), and it also invites us to articulate some ways forward for the Church in Australia and the world.

2023 ACBA/ACTA Conference Participants Photo

2022 Conference: Hybrid “The Radical Paradigm Shift of the Church in Australia”

The Conference was held in Melbourne & Online from July 14-16, 2022.