From Fr Greg's Desk: 13th December
Hi everyone!
Well, the 'hard yakka' is on for young and old! Christmas is less than two weeks away, and this year, as you already probably know due to COVID 19 constraints on 'indoor religious services' at our Christmas Masses, we have added on extra Masses and brought four more of them outside.
So we really need your help in volunteering at an extra Christmas Mass this year! Contact our friendly Office Staff on 9807-2966 and at office@rgcp.org.au or visit our website at www.rgcp.org.au for more info about how you could help.
So we really need your help in volunteering at an extra Christmas Mass this year! Contact our friendly Office Staff on 9807-2966 and at office@rgcp.org.au or visit our website at www.rgcp.org.au for more info about how you could help.
This weekend we will be celebrating and acknowledging our RGCP Volunteers at all our Masses. We want to express our huge gratitude to all of you for having made it possible this year to not only respond to the extra challenges COVID 19 has brought us, but also to extend and augment our volunteer base with many new volunteers and in new areas. Much, much appreciated!!
Far from being an 'Anno horribilis' it has been a year of grace, adaptation and growth, reading the 'signs of the times' (Matt 16:3) as Jesus has taught us to do.
And so, we warmly thank all our many and varied volunteers, from the youngest of children as welcomers and ‘kids’ liturgy helpers’, to our eldest and most revered volunteers in their 90's, who have done all sorts of acts of gratuitous service to keep our Parish and its pastoral and evangelising activities up and running this year.
Just in case you were wondering exactly what are the areas in which we field volunteers at the Parish, let me give you a brief rundown of the main ones (we are always open to more!):
Mass Volunteers: Covid Marshalls - keeping our Church open and Covid Safe, six days a week, and the people who continue to donate cleaning supplies,
Far from being an 'Anno horribilis' it has been a year of grace, adaptation and growth, reading the 'signs of the times' (Matt 16:3) as Jesus has taught us to do.
And so, we warmly thank all our many and varied volunteers, from the youngest of children as welcomers and ‘kids’ liturgy helpers’, to our eldest and most revered volunteers in their 90's, who have done all sorts of acts of gratuitous service to keep our Parish and its pastoral and evangelising activities up and running this year.
Just in case you were wondering exactly what are the areas in which we field volunteers at the Parish, let me give you a brief rundown of the main ones (we are always open to more!):
Mass Volunteers: Covid Marshalls - keeping our Church open and Covid Safe, six days a week, and the people who continue to donate cleaning supplies,
Welcomers & Morning Tea providers (hoping to expand to more than just the 10 am SCB Mass in 2021), Musicians, Cantors, Children's Liturgy ministers, Readers, Livestream Camera and AV operators, Acolytes and Ministers of the Altar, Altar Servers, Church Wardens, Parking Wardens, and 'Letterbox Droppers'.
Not to forget the large contingent of volunteers who clean the church, carpets, brass and glassware, put up seasonal liturgical banners, wash & iron altar cloths and linen, and arrange the flowers and the 'Buddies' delivering Bulletins and offering ancillary help to those Parishioners who were unable to come to Mass.
Ministry Volunteers: Catechists bringing their faith to the kids at our four local State Primary Schools, Youth Leaders and helpers, including the parents who cooked and drove busses for our Youth events (busses provided thanks to Holy Cross Ryde), RCIA, Alpha and Sacramental Preparation leaders and helpers , Office Volunteers - manning phones, filling out Baptismal, Confirmation, Marriage and Death registers, preparing letterbox drops, marriage certificates, among other things, Green Fingers Brigade (Garden and Lawn mowing helpers) & their 'Morning Tea' cohort, St. Vincent de Paul, Grief Support, Parish Steering Committee, Finance Committee and Pastoral Council members, providers of meals and other services to support the Priests and Deacons of the Parish, and to all the others not mentioned in this rather long list...
WE, YOUR PRIESTS AND DEACONS, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS AND WE WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A FRUITFUL AND BEAUTIFUL 2021!
May the Good Lord continue to bless you all and please, please keep on volunteering into 2021, as it is definitely going to be another very big year!
Your brother, in Christ’s service, gratefully and joyfully acknowledging the 'hard yakka' our Parish volunteers offer to Christ, our Parish, and its thousands of beneficiaries,
Fr. Greg
Not to forget the large contingent of volunteers who clean the church, carpets, brass and glassware, put up seasonal liturgical banners, wash & iron altar cloths and linen, and arrange the flowers and the 'Buddies' delivering Bulletins and offering ancillary help to those Parishioners who were unable to come to Mass.
Ministry Volunteers: Catechists bringing their faith to the kids at our four local State Primary Schools, Youth Leaders and helpers, including the parents who cooked and drove busses for our Youth events (busses provided thanks to Holy Cross Ryde), RCIA, Alpha and Sacramental Preparation leaders and helpers , Office Volunteers - manning phones, filling out Baptismal, Confirmation, Marriage and Death registers, preparing letterbox drops, marriage certificates, among other things, Green Fingers Brigade (Garden and Lawn mowing helpers) & their 'Morning Tea' cohort, St. Vincent de Paul, Grief Support, Parish Steering Committee, Finance Committee and Pastoral Council members, providers of meals and other services to support the Priests and Deacons of the Parish, and to all the others not mentioned in this rather long list...
WE, YOUR PRIESTS AND DEACONS, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS AND WE WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A FRUITFUL AND BEAUTIFUL 2021!
May the Good Lord continue to bless you all and please, please keep on volunteering into 2021, as it is definitely going to be another very big year!
Your brother, in Christ’s service, gratefully and joyfully acknowledging the 'hard yakka' our Parish volunteers offer to Christ, our Parish, and its thousands of beneficiaries,
Fr. Greg
Comments
Post a Comment