From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 20th June

Hi everyone! There is still a lot of 'good news' to share with you all this week, now that the 'dust has settled' after the Ordinations and first masses.

RGCP Parish OAM Recipient. Firstly, our own Bruno Maurel has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Queen's Birthday honour lists this year, for his outstanding "service to the community through charitable initiatives." Bruno has been heavily involved with Tour de Cure as its "Founding Chairman since 2007". Tour de Cure has set a goal of raising a whopping $11 million this year for research, prevention and support for cancer patients. So far they've raised $8.1 million, with six months to go on their target! That is quite an achievement, and although Bruno would stress that there is a whole team to thank, it's not just him, nevertheless it takes a great leader to get something like this going and keep it running and growing over 14 years. Congratulations Bruno!

Bruno's Additional RGCP 'Charitable Services'. Not included in the citation is that, in addition to his work with Tour de Cure, Bruno is heavily involved in our Parish. Apart from being one of our leading Acolytes, serving at the altar in both St. Charles Borromeo and Our Lady Queen of Peace, among many other things Bruno has chaired the Parish Pastoral Council, and was instrumental in leading our Parish Forums for Pastoral Renewal at RGCP back in July - Oct 2019 alongside Br. Aengus Kavanagh. He is currently helping redraft our Parish Pastoral Plan 'Post-COVID' in line with the recently commissioned Sydney Archdiocese Mission Plan, and mentors me on leadership matters. As such, he gets our thumbs up as well!

Re-forming our Parish Pastoral Plan and Parish Pastoral Council (PPC). One of the outstanding items on our 'things to do' list is to revise our previous RGCP Pastoral Plan over the coming months, and bring it in line with the Archdiocesan Mission Plan "Go Make Disciples", initiated throughout the Archdiocese of Sydney last December. The Archdiocesan Mission Plan is very well devised, drawing on the wisdom of many leaders in pastoral renewal of Parishes from around the Anglo world, such as Fr. James Mallon ('Divine Renovation') and Mrs. Sherry Weddell ('Forming Intentional Disciples'), and has many helpful insights, tips, tools and criteria for us to enrich our present Parish Pastoral Plan and help bring it to fulfilment. Once revised and implemented, I will be inviting nominations of people to comprise the new RGCP Pastoral Council, which I intend to form with parishioners who are willing and able to advance this vital parish renewal effort. More about that in weeks to come!

Catholic Care Worker at RGCP - Wednesdays from 9am to 5pm. Every Wednesday, from 9 am to 5pm, a Community Care Worker from Catholic Care will be on site at SCB Parish Hall, Ryde to confidentially connect parishioners to the most relevant social services available. If you know of anyone in need of counselling, or challenged with relationships, parenting, ageing, disabilities, addictions or mental health issues, Patricia might just be your first port of call. She will be offering a similar service at Holy Spirit Parish North Ryde on Thursdays and is available via phone on other days (see insert on page 7). Please call 13 18 19 to arrange an appointment with her. Please note that, for the sake of confidentiality, the SCB Hall will be unavailable during that time. All other parishioners and ministers should organise themselves either before or after these times on Wednesdays as no access will be permitted to anyone else while counselling services are going on.

Retreat Absences for Our Priests. Next Monday 21st June Frs. Alfredo, Daniele and Dan will be leaving for their annual month of retreat down the south coast. As many of you are aware, all five of us belong to the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity, and our constitutions require us to take a month-long preached retreat in silence every year. In order to not leave the Parish bereft of priests over that month, we will take it in turns this year, with Fr. Steve and myself manning the Parish, until they return and we go off for our month of retreat in late July. Please respect our need for this annual retreat and refrain from initiating contact with us while we are away. I am sure that you will appreciate how vital our spiritual life is for the life of the Parish, and how beneficial it will be both for us and for all of you. Happy Retreat, Frs. Dan, Daniele and Alfredo! See you in July!

Capital Works at the Parish. I am certain that you will all have noticed a number of capital works going on at our Parish over the last six months. Here is a brief rundown on what is happening.

New SCB Church Light Fittings. The old halogen lights both inside and out SCB Church have been replaced and, in some instances, moved for greater effect. The lighting on the sides has also been upgraded and the lights over the choir area have been moved to avoid some strobing effects. We rescued one of the old 'lanterns' and installed it up in the choir loft, and centred the one that was behind the lectern so that it is now over the main Altar. These new LED lights save a lot of money, improve the illumination and yet beautifully fit in with the unique aesthetics of SCB Church. One added advantage is that we will no longer have to wait for the lights to come back on (i.e. as at the Easter Saturday Vigil service), which left us literally 'in the dark' for about 15 minutes after the Exsultet had been sung.

Upgraded SCB Car Park Lights. The car park and street lamp lights at SCB have all been upgraded, and the car park is now brighter and safer at night. The two large halogen lights at the front of the Church have also been upgraded to LED’s and it is serving to highlight the Church quite nicely.

SCB Sandstone Pavement. Over the next few weeks the entrance to SCB Church will be upgraded using large sandstone pavers similar to the ones currently gracing the front of the Church at SCB. We have already begun to replace broken sandstone pavers outside the Church due to unwarranted parking of wedding cars up on the pavers (the base underneath is sand!!) We will also be upgrading the pathway leading to the back entrances of the Church from the Parish Office in a similar fashion. Should look really nice afterwards!

OLQP Church and Grounds. Work on the facade at OLQP Church is progressing well, even though we have had to wait a bit... The Cross on top will be cleaned and given a PVC coating and spikes to protect it from the elements (and Kookaburras, Cockatoos, Crows and the like!). The domes, presently painted with cream paint, will be painted a light grey colour. The roofing near the altar will be fixed to prevent rain water entering. Our endearing thanks goes to our mechanic Mr Keith Stanshall, who is braving the cold to get our Church in shape.


And that's about it for now! God bless!

Fr Greg