Online Webinars 2025
Join us for these exciting online webinars in the Jubilee Year 2025
This series of online webinars features graduates and senior students from CTC. These thought-provoking sessions will explore faith, leadership, and contemporary challenges in ministry, and inspire us to be pilgrims of hope.
General Information:
Each session is unique so you can come for one that may interest you or come to all the live sessions.
Fee is $20 per webinar or $100 for all 6 webinars.
All live sessions are done on Zoom online platform and will be recorded so you won’t miss out. The link to join will be sent to your registered email address once payment is made.
To register, click HERE.
Topics:
Reflections on Jubilee 2025 – Pilgrims of Hope
Wednesday, 26 November 2025
Speaker: Fadi Yalda (CTC Biblical Studies Lecturer)
Fadi Yalda was born in the Babylonian Region, near Baghdad, in Mesopotamia, modern day Iraq. Due to persecution, he moved to Syria with his family for over twelve years. In 2012, he came with his family to New Zealand as refugees. Soon after that, he joined Holy Cross Seminary for three years and decided to pursue religious education in Catholic secondary schools.
He finished his Bachelor of Theology at Good Shepherd College and received his graduate diploma in teaching from Auckland University. He taught religious education at Sacred Heart College in Glen Innes in 2018 and at Sancta Maria College in Flat Bush from 2019 to 2021. Fadi then did his Master’s degree in biblical studies at the University of Divinity in Melbourne for two years. His thesis topic focused on Luke 7:36-50 in discovering Jesus’ relationship with sinners from socio-historical and Middle Eastern perspectives as he was invited to dine at Simon the Pharisee’s house.
Fadi belongs to the Chaldean Eastern Catholic Church and is also involved in the Church life of the Roman Catholic Church in Hamilton and Auckland. He is fluent in Aramaic, his mother tongue, Arabic and English and has studied Greek and Hebrew as part of his biblical studies. Fadi is assigned to teach at Level 7 at Te Kupenga in 2024 in the biblical studies field and run Level 5 and 6 biblical studies courses for teachers at Catholic schools in the Waikato region.
Fadi enjoys sports and outdoor activities such as biking and hiking as well as philosophical, theological, biblical and linguistic arguments and discussions.
Past Webinars:
Reflections on Dilexit Nos
Recording available
Speaker: Fr Monty Bamford (Christchurch Diocese)
Fr. Monty is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch and is currently an Assistant Priest at the Cathedral Parish and Chaplain to the Te Rangimārie Māori Chaplaincy . He was ordained in 2022. Before entering the seminary, he studied a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Lincoln University and worked for over three years for a rural supplies company. Fr. Monty studied at CTC (formerly Good Shepherd College) between 2016 and 2022, gaining a Bachelor of Theology and a Graduate Diploma in Theology.
Role of Social Media and Digital Publishing in the New Evanglisation
Recording available
Speaker: Rebecca Taylor-Hunt (Director, Catholic Enquiry Centre)
Rebecca Taylor-Hunt is an English woman who has made New Zealand her home for the last twenty years. She has two teenage daughters and resides in Wellington.
Rebecca is the Director of the Catholic Enquiry Centre until the end of the month (May 2025), when she will take up a position with the Sisters of Compassion in Island Bay as their Partnerships, Education and Engagement Lead.
She is in her last year studying for a graduate diploma in Theology.
Pastoral Ministry among Māori and Pasifika in the Third Millennium
Recording available
Speaker: Rev Hemi Ropata (Deacon, Society of Mary)
Rev. Hemi W. Ropata SM is a transitional deacon of the Society of Mary. He completed his theological studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome, and is currently undertaking a Licentiate in Canon Law. His whakapapa links him to Ngāti Raukawa, Ngai Tai, Ngāpuhi, and Tūhoe.
Parish Ministry in Aotearoa New Zealand
Recording available
Speaker: Emily Sit (Director of Mission & Evangelisation – Palmerston North Diocese)
Emily Sit serves as Director of Mission and Evangelisation for the Diocese of Palmerston North. In this newly established role, she is focused on encouraging spiritual renewal and mission-oriented leadership across parishes, schools, and diocesan life. Working alongside clergy, parish teams, and school leaders, she supports faith formation, fosters parish–school collaboration, and seeks to nurture a culture of discipleship rooted in the Gospel.
Emily is passionate about walking with leaders and communities as they rediscover their missionary call and respond to what the Holy Spirit is stirring in Aotearoa New Zealand today.
Prior to this role, she worked with the Franciscans Friars at St Francis Retreat Centre in Auckland and was actively involved in the early stages of parish renewal efforts at Our Lady of Fatima, Meadowbank. As part of the parish mission leadership team, she worked alongside the parish priest to help introduce Alpha and support other evangelisation initiatives.
Raising a Catholic Family in the Third Millennium
Recording available
Speakers: Cameron and Cheryl Surrey (Catholic Parents – Cheryl is the Regional Lead for Divine Renovation NZ)
Cameron and Cheryl Surrey have been married for 14 years. They have three children – Daisy-Ann aged 13, Abigail aged 10 and Joachim aged 7. They enjoy the challenge of educating and handing on to them the Catholic faith. Cameron and Cheryl both have theological degrees, but for them the most important qualification for raising a Catholic family is the sacrament of Baptism. While nobody can be an ‘expert’ in the area of forming a Catholic family, they are delighted to have the opportunity to share on this important topic.
