Daniel serves as Director of the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation in the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. The Sydney Centre for Evangelisation expresses a renewed and strategic commitment to the mission of Jesus Christ, a commission given anew to every generation, “Go, make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).

As such the Centre will place the encounter with Jesus Christ at the heart of its mission, deliver increased support to parishes and communities in the call to be centres of a new evangelisation, and engage the spiritual needs of a changing city and suburbs.

The Centre will offer a more coordinated approach to parish renewal and parish support. It will include a stronger and explicit focus on parish support with the very language of a ‘centre’ denoting a place where people can come for help, a place that is open and of service. It will also bring closely together the work of communications in service of evangelisation, providing creative expressions of the Gospel and giving voice to the Christian story.

The Centre includes the ministries of Sydney Catholic Youth, a Life, Marriage and Family team, a new Parish Renewal Team to implement our Archdiocesan Mission Plan, “Go Make Disciples” in its spiritual and structural dimensions, a Communications and News Media team, Creative Design Team and the Catholic Weekly.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and a Master of Divinity from the Sydney College of Divinity, undertaken at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.

He is a member of the Executive Committee preparing for Plenary Council 2020, member of the Australian Catholic Council for Pastoral Research (ACCPR) and former Chair of the National Pastoral Planners Network, a professional planning body that promotes and advocates a culture of planning within the Catholic Church in Oceania.

Background to the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation

Soon after Archbishop Anthony Fisher’s installation in 2014, the ‘Parish 2020’ project was initiated as a means of examining the situation and mission of the Archdiocese. During this time the ‘Evangelisation Project’ was also developed to serve the needs of the Archdiocese at this time.

With the Parish 2020 project now entering a new phase in the development of an Archdiocesan Mission Plan, the Archbishop Fisher brings these two projects together to serve the Archdiocese and its 135 parishes into the future. This integration will support the renewal of our parishes in their mission to provide the people of Sydney with new opportunities to encounter Jesus Christ.

We recognise that in times of change we rightly cling to those things that are perennial: one faith, one Lord, one Baptism. But we need new passion, expressions and methods of evangelisation and community-building in Sydney. As a Centre we want to encourage and support every pastor, every member of the faithful and all our parish communities to deep spiritual renewal, to being better connected with each other, and to reaching out better to others.

Diocese of Parramatta

Baptised on the 24^th November, 1999, at St Bernadette’s Parish, Castle Hill, Daniel worked as a media buyer for Mitchell & Partners before assuming the role of marketing officer and editor for the Daughters of St Paul in Australia.

Following five years of theological study at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, he was appointed Coordinator of Parish Services for the Diocese of Parramatta in 2010 by Bishop Kevin Manning and taught courses in theology for the Institute for Mission, the adult education centre of the diocese.

In 2011, now-Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher OP appointed Daniel to lead and coordinate the Parramatta diocesan planning process, in time becoming Director of a Pastoral Planning Office. In this role he co-authored and co-ordinated the pastoral plan, Faith in Our Future 2014-2018, to guide the life, structures and mission of the Church in Western Sydney (the strategic plan is available here in PDF).

The Parramatta pastoral planning process brought together hundreds of people in consultation, articulated a theological vision of mission, supplied practical actions and resources for parishes to grow in faith, harmonised the strategic plans of agencies and diocesan ministries, while identifying areas of review, structural change and partnership to advance the mission of evangelisation in the years ahead.

During this period, Daniel also liaised with the dioceses of Bathurst, Lismore, and Townsville, the Melkite and Maronite Catholic Church, Catholic Mission, Caritas Australia, and Australian Catholic University in initiatives of formation and strategic planning.

Diocese of Broken Bay

Daniel served as Director of the Office for Evangelisation in the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay from April 2015 to June 2019. The Office for Evangelisation served this mission under the direction of Bishop Peter A. Comensoli (now Archbishop of Melbourne) and advocated and promoted the growing missionary outlook of parishes, faith communities and individuals.

With some 220,000 Catholics across the Diocese, 85,000 Catholic families, almost one third of Broken Bay Catholics aged 19 years or younger, and diverse communities from the Northern Beaches, the North Shore to the Central Coast, the Diocese bids great possibilities to build upon the achievements of the past and carry forward the mission of the Gospel.

The Office for Evangelisation brought strategic shape to the mission in Christ that unites the parishes, communities, movements and people of the Diocese by faith, operating on the firm foundation of evangelisation as the deepest identity and vocation of our Church (Evangelii Nuntiandi 14).

The Office included responsibility for sacramental life, liturgy, and RCIA, youth ministry in the Diocese, adult faith formation, Special Religious Education in State Government schools, life, marriage and family outreach, natural family planning, support of parish pastoral councils, and pastoral research and planning.

Other Commitments

Daniel is a member of the Executive Committee preparing for Plenary Council 2020 and former Chair of the National Pastoral Planners Network, a professional planning body that promotes and advocates a culture of planning within the Catholic Church in Oceania. He is a present member of the Australian Catholic Council for Pastoral Research (ACCPR).

Daniel has been published in a number of peer reviewed journals in the areas of ecclesiology, the spiritual tradition, youth ministry, and contemporary issues of pastoral concern in the life of the Catholic community.

His theological outlook is shaped by the scholars of the ressourcement movement, among others. This project of religious revitalisation took place within the French Church from the period of 1930 to 1950 and engaged theologians and historians including Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, Jean Daniélou, Henri Boulliard, Henri Rondet, and Émil Delaye. This movement underscored the theological meaning of history, sought to overcome the recurrent separatio between knowledge and life, and sought a return to a more substantial tradition, accessed through the ‘monuments’ of Scripture, liturgy and the Church Fathers.

A further influence is ecumenism as an integral dimension of Catholic theology. This brings the recognition of a real but incomplete communion with other churches and communities that includes within its ‘bond’ baptism, the work of the Spirit, sharers in holiness, unexpected dimensions of Christian commitment, as well as a call to complete, visible unity in sacraments, faith and hierarchical ministry.

Beyond these commitments, Daniel’s interests include travel and mechanical watches.

In addition to writing timeofthechurch, Daniel can also be followed on Twitter (@DanielAngRC), at LinkedIn or contacted by email (DanielAngRC@gmail.com). He is a married layman with two children.