Service to mark the Opening of the Legal Year

Legal Professionals gathering for the service

A service to mark the Opening of the Legal Year was held at St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday 31st January 2022. Judges, Magistrates and members of the Legal Profession attended the service along with ecumenical representatives, highlighting the diverse traditions of those involved in the Administration of Justice. 

The service was conducted by the Dean of Melbourne, the Very Revd Dr Andreas Loewe, who said in his bidding:

We meet as people from different Christian traditions with a shared hope: that through our work, justice would be promoted among the people we serve. We know justice to be rooted in the righteousness and mercy of God, to whom we will ultimately give account for our lives and actions.

Therefore, we acknowledge before God the inequalities that remain as barriers to a just society. We commit ourselves afresh to the service of our Nation and State and of all people in the cause of justice. 

The sermon was given by the Very Revd Dr Kevin Lenahan, Master of the Catholic Theological College. Read the sermon here

Members of the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian Bar Council led the readings, with the prayers led by judges of the State and Federal Courts.