From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 12th September

Hi everyone!

End of Lockdown is in Sight!
The really 'good news' is that it seems the end of the current lockdown is in sight, (even if still a little distance off). The expectation, however, is that the '4 metre square' rule will apply, which probably means having to celebrate the Christmas Masses outside (like we did last year), as only 100 people would be permitted inside St. Charles Borromeo Church, and 80 in Our Lady Queen of Peace. Oh well, that's still better than nothing! And I think we will no longer use the booking system, it will simply be on a 'first come first serve' basis this time: 'Rock on up' to your local church, and find a seat. More about that later on, when we have a better idea as to what the NSW Govt will allow.
'Our Lady’s Kitchen' at OLQP.
Two weeks ago in my Sunday homily I mentioned that we are developing a new kind of parish outreach at RGCP to deliver freshly cooked food and snacks to the needy living in our midst.

To make that a reality, we are creating a small kitchen and food storage venue at our OLQP hall via an extension of the existing kitchen facilities and a renovation of the existing toilet block. We plan to use the hall and car park as a 'launching pad' for a similar food delivery service to what is currently being offered by St. Vincent de Paul in the Roselle area.

You may recall that we advertised last year for volunteers to help run that service. I offered myself as one of those volunteers, as I am also a volunteer for the Gladesville St. Vincent de Paul “ Night Patrol" outreach. Having participated in that “Night Patrol", I wondered why we were going all the way over to my old Parish area at Eastlakes, when there must be dozens of sites closer by where we could do the same? I realised the only reason we didn’t have it locally is simply because it hadn’t yet been created!

So, beginning next week, in a four-way partnership with the St. Merkoriuos Charity, the 'Gift of Bread' foundation and our own Gladesville Vinnies Conference, we will be starting a food delivery service of packaged cooked meals delivered twice weekly to some 25 recipients identified by St. Vinnies in the Gladesville area.

The plan is to start out small and work our way up. We will be doing our runs on Tuesdays and Fridays to these 25 homes. The partnership involves two very experienced charities currently providing food services in the region:: the Gift of Bread foundation providing bread and snacks, and the St. Merkorius Charity, who run their own industrial soup kitchen where they cook, cool and package very high quality fresh meal for the poor.

Using small teams of two people to distribute to, say, ten houses in one afternoon or evening, the food is distributed. If there are 20 households, then we need two teams per day. It would be great to have enough volunteers so that the commitment was once a month, with a rotating roster. Get the picture? If it grows, and it most likely will, then we need more volunteers and so forth. Simple but effective. Beautiful and charitable.

In order to facilitate this service, we need help to organise the teams, pick up the food from their soup kitchen and distribution points, and maintain the fridge, freezer and kitchen areas at OLQP hall in 'tip top' shape (these are currently being installed there). We will need donors to help finance the work and your prayers to our Lady who will be running the whole show, and under whose patronage the Church, Hall and this very food service have been entrusted.

Hence, I present to you Our Lady’s Kitchen as an RGCP parish-based charity, in partnership with St. Merkorius, Gift of Bread, and our own Gladesville St. Vincent de Paul Conference, led by Anna Alessi.

The work won’t be onerous if we have a small contingent of volunteers. If you could help financially with this work, please go online and donate via our website donation button, with a description bearing the words Our Lady’s Food Service to the Poor. If you require tax deductibility for your donations, please write to admin@rgcp.org.au and we will let you know of the options available. Thanks for listening!

Ongoing Maintenance Work at SCB and OLQP.
We were certainly not in hibernation during this winter, nor did we more than momentarily “down tools" during the current lockdown, all whilst abiding by relevant COVID regulations. At SCB Church, as you will have seen, we have enhanced the beauty of the pedestrian entrance to the Church off Victoria Road with large sandstone pavers, resulting in a wonderful backdrop for wedding photos well into the future. The gardens are looking great, and the lighting at night makes our Church all the more prominent to passing traffic on Victoria Road and Charles Street. And more to come in the near future!

But that's enough for now. I will fill you all in on more about this next week.

In the meantime, yes, 'keep safe' ... but challenge yourself to go out of your comfort zone to engage with others who are really doing it tough right now.

Your brother in Christ’s loving service,

Fr. Greg