Emily selected as delegate to 2020 Plenary Council
- May 14, 2020

Santa Maria past student, Emily Hardbottle (2017), has been selected as a lay delegate for the 2020 Plenary Council. Emily, who is one of the youngest delegates, is also the Youth Coordinator for the Attadale Parish.
Emily plans to use her platform to express the thoughts of young people, with the hopes of leading them closer to Christ, as the ‘Church experiences critical times.’
“There are many negative things that the Church has experienced in the past 10 years, and engagement with the Church has fallen as a result,” Emily expressed.
“We (the Church) need to learn from our mistakes and learn how to better engage people so that they feel welcome and part of the Body of Christ.”

“I think it’s so important that young people in the Church are represented on the Council, and I’m excited that I was chosen to do that.
“Young people are the future of the Church, so it’s important they are in decision making roles as much as possible – we want to keep young people in the Church and engage them,” she added.
A decision was made recently to indefinitely postpone the First Assembly of the Plenary Council which was scheduled for October 2020.
Parts of this story have been reproduced with permission, from an article in The Record on 22 April 2020, titled Plenary Council 2020: Delegates use extra time to reflect on their mission written by Amanda Murthy.
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Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.