Talking Mission - Lana Turvey-Collins

Can you please introduce yourself and your role at formation.org.au?

I’m Lana Turvey-Collins and I am the Lead Facilitator of formation.org.au. I have had the privilege of working in the space of formation for leadership for mission for more than ten years as part of Catholic Mission’s Formation and Mission Team. Additionally, I worked for five years, facilitating the journey of the 5th Plenary Council for the Catholic Church in Australia. Along the way I have met incredible people, all of whom have taught me something, inspired me in some way and open my mind and heart to better understand and see God’s mission alive in the every day.

Working in close collaboration with my colleagues and friends in this space of mission, formation, faith, and church, the idea for a professional membership association emerged. I am excited to see it come to life and delighted to be a part of its future.

As the Lead Facilitator, what led you to create formation.org.au, and how would you describe its role as a professional association?

formation.org.au is a platform for dialogue and connection, for collaboration and discovery. It is a professional membership association for all people of faith who are working to provide formation for mission for others in the Catholic Church in Australia.

The time is right for this association to come to life now, because of a few significant events in our church life in recent years. Australia’s Plenary Council (2017-2022) emphasised the need for all of us to be engaged in the work of formation, and the universal church’s Synod on Synodality prioritised the need for inclusive dialogue and a discerning approach to the work of Mission.

This association is about building community and professional cooperation. It creates time and space for being with one another, talking and listening to one another, crossing the borders of ministry and sectors of church, reaching out across geographically vast distances, and connecting on topics related to the professional skills, work and strategy of Formation for Mission.

What values or principles have guided you from the beginning of this project?

Connection, creativity, collaboration and courage.

Grounded in faith, the primary nature of formation.org.au is connection with one another, with God and one’s innermost self. Separate from one another, or separate from God, we are unable to be nourished, and the work we do, the ministry of leading, designing, guiding, facilitating and directing Formation for Mission cannot flourish.

This began as an idea chatted about by a few friends during serendipitous encounters with one another. It grew into a more concrete concept, when friends in mission and colleagues in formation generously gave their time, shared their wisdom and dreamed about what might be possible for our collective emerging future of formation.

With focussed prayer, ministerial collaboration, brain (and heart)-storming, dialogue sessions, courageous questions and reflection, hard work turned concept into a reality.

formation.org.au is a courageous and hope-filled initiative. It offers the whole of the Church in Australia an opportunity to connect and collaborate on the work of formation, to be creative, and to do so emboldened by the Holy Spirit, who gives us courage.

In this Jubilee of Hope, what are your hopes for the work of formation, and how do you see formation.org.au playing a part in achieving them?

My hope is that the community of people who live and lead Mission in the Church in Australia, particularly those people who lead, facilitate, design, deliver and direct Formation for Mission come together in this association and are able to do more and greater work for God’s Mission.

Formation has so many diverse and beautifully nuanced facets. The dialogue about what is formation?, who is formation for?, how is formation best facilitated?, who is going to continue to do this work?, what skills and experiences are needed in someone who is doing this work?, how do we best nourish, skill, support, fund and utilise formation leaders and workers in order to ensure the mission of our organisations and agencies thrives in contemporary Australia?

All of this and more will be a part of the conversation and the work together.

I wholeheartedly hope that all who can help in this mission, will respond to the call to connect and collaborate.

If you work in formation, then formation.org.au is for you. It’s for all. It’s for Mission.