In your editorial (“A Church for all”, 3 November), the sentence “the days of confining church government only to bishops have to be over” struck me as prophetic. In Australia, preparation is under way for a plenary council in 2020 and we are all being encouraged to make our submissions about the future of the Catholic Church in this country.

Remembering the enthusiasm and forward-thinking during the gathering in Liverpool in 1980 and the subsequent dampening down by the UK hierarchy, one of my main submissions is that the structure of the Australian Plenary Council be revised so that voting members include priests, Religious and laity, male and female.