From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 10th October

Hi Everyone!

Churches will Re-open when 80% Vaccination Levels are Reached (25th Oct)
As I mentioned last week, Archbishop Anthony has decided that we will wait until 80% of the adult population in NSW is fully vaccinated before reopening our Churches.
The reason is so that we not have to single out the unvaccinated and leave them outside, allowing only the fully vaccinated to enter. That goes against our principles, and would be difficult to enforce.So, we need to wait another three weekends until we worship together in person, unless the NSW government brings forward the date that has been tentatively set as Monday 25th October.
Until then our pastoral visits will continue, and we are available for the Sacraments of Holy Communion, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick and so forth. Please contact our office to avail of one of our priests.

Upgrades to Driveway and Pavements at SCB
Cement pouring will commence next week on the driveway and the pavement on the school side of SCB Church.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused and look forward to it all being finished in time for the re-opening of our Churches on the 25th October.
The existing sandstone pavement in front of SCB Church will be extended outwards to the steps, and a reinforced “cove” patterned and sandstone coloured cement driveway will be laid on both sides of the sandstone pavers from the Charles Street entrance to the car park.
We heartily welcome the generosity from parishioners wishing to donate to support these major works, knowing that the Church is a major part of your lives and deserves to be well kept, beautiful and dignified. My deep gratitude goes out to the RGCP benefactors who have already volunteered equipment, labour and funding for the work done so far.

Our Lady’s Kitchen Update.
We had our first meeting of the ‘newly minted’ Executive Committee of Our Lady’s Kitchen last Thursday, formed by Caroline Tuyau, Jenny Bolster, Anna Talarico, Lisa Apostolou, Anna Alessi, Judy Raumer and myself. I look forward to seeing how the 'kitchen' develops over the next few months.
The food delivery service itself is going well, thanks to the many volunteers - particularly Anna Alessi, who is coordinating the deliveries via our Gladesville St. Vinnie’s - but we still need more volunteers to make the deliveries less onerous on the ones who have already volunteered. Archbishop Anthony Fisher, by the way, has learned of the service and is enthusiastically supportive!
Some parishioners have mentioned that they would like to help out but don’t want to have to join our Gladesville St. Vinnies to do so, which is looking after the deliveries to the recipients of the food service. That's not a problem; we also need drivers to pick up the food from St. Merkoriuos’ industrial kitchen, and the bread from the Gift of Bread warehouse. For this, all you need is to have a valid driver’s license, fill out the RGCP Volunteer Registration Form, and be available early afternoon on a Tuesday or Friday. Please note that you do not need a Working With Children’s Check for this part of the joint venture!
The rosters for all the services are worked out on a monthly basis by our Parish Office in conjunction with Anna Alessi. This is to facilitate communication of unforeseen difficulties or absences from the rostered delivery slots in real time.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at SCB Church
With the re-opening of our Churches we plan to once again offer daily exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at SCB Church. For that to happen, however, we are still going to need wardens to ‘man the Church' during opening hours. Without wardens, we simply won't be able to keep the Church open, as -sadly- vandalism and theft is a real possibility in an unattended Church.
This is nevertheless also a wonderful opportunity for you to spend an hour in silent prayer with our Lord, in answer to his question in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Were you not able to keep watch with me for an hour?” (Matt 26, 40). Please contact the Office to get yourself a weekly time slot.

RGCP Parish Pastoral Council
As a result of the disruptions caused by both lockdowns over the last 20 months or so, our Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) was temporarily disbanded. I have convoked a first meeting for the new PPC for the 26th October. Our objective is to bring forward the work of our Pastoral Plan, begun three years ago, align it with the new Sydney Archdiocese Mission Plan (given to us last December 2020).

The members of the new PPC are as follows:
Frs. Greg Morgan, Dan Drum, Daniele Sollazzo and Steve Drum, Judy Raumer, Marie Simpson, Pina Bernard, Philippa Manley, Anna Alessi, Josephine Colosuonno, Simon Janda and Dominic Altakchy. We will be meeting eight times a year, to coincide with important moments of the pastoral life of the Parish. More about this later.

And that’s about it for now. Enjoy the relative freedom of this first week out of lockdowns beginning Monday!

Your brother in Christ’s service, as always

Fr Greg