The Inaugural Cathedral Lecture was given on Wednesday 3rd August, 2016 with the help of Professor Richard Lennan, Professor of Systematic Theology in the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College, Massachusetts. The Lecture was titled Tradition: Engaging God’s Future, Our Past, and the Challenges of the Present.
The Cathedral hosted perhaps 100 people on a wintry night for this exciting development, and were treated to some light refreshments in the adjoining building.
Richard Lennan grew up in Newcastle and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in 1983. Richard has a degree in history from the University of Newcastle, a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology from the Catholic Institute of Sydney, a Master of Philosophy from the University of Oxford, and a doctorate in theology from the University of Innsbruck in Austria, where his dissertation was on Karl Rahner’s ecclesiology.
The Cathedral Lecture Series is being launched in 2016, the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle’s first resident bishop, James Murray, and will be hosted each year thereafter in the Sacred Heart Cathedral at Hamilton.
The annual Cathedral Lecture offers the opportunity for engagement between the Church and Society on contemporary Catholic themes through the opportunity to listen to lecturers of significant standing in Australia and internationally.
Sacred Heart Cathedral stands at the centre of the life of the diocese, and aims to be a place within the local civic community where Church and Society meet and interact.