From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 6th February

Hi everyone!

Well, never a dull moment at RGCP! Lots of things are happening this week:


Noah's Ark Cafe Van
As you can see from the photo below, we now have a new 'food/coffee van' parked outside the Parish office! Yes, 'Noah's Ark Cafe' will soon be open for business in our SCB Church grounds. The idea has been floating around for the last two years, but it is now coming to fruition through both God's grace and through Dominic and Jessica Herring (and family).

Many of you will know Jessica as the former Assistant Principal of SCB Primary School, currently on extended maternity leave. It is named after their second child, Noah, and will be open most days of the week to coincide with the busiest periods of Parish and School - more about opening times in coming weeks. 

It is located in front of the Parish office on the concrete concourse, facing the Church and Charles Street, and will be open once final council approval is received, which should be very soon. Stay tuned for more news about this!

 

Catechist Sunday Service Awards
We will be awarding 'Certificates of Appreciation' at the 10 am SCB Mass this Sunday to some of our long serving Parishioners who generously give up their time each week to bring Christ to Catholic kids in State schools. Huge congratulations to Merryl Foster for her 55 Years’ of Service award, and to Christine Oliveri, for her 'Outstanding Service Award'. Three others: Mary Panetta, Marisa Natoli and Edna Palomo will each be receiving awards for 5 years’ service.

We are also awarding a 'Completion of Training' award to three recently qualified Catechists of the Parish: Sanam Dharamdasani, Anna Grasso and Edna Aldana.


We are currently serving four local state schools, at Putney, Ryde, Gladesville and Boronia Park, and will be showcasing their ministry at all our weekend Masses, at which a catechist will speak to encourage others to train as a 'Catechist Helper'. Congratulations and thank you for your selfless service!



Calling All Altar Servers!

Fr. Steve and 'altar friends' will be conducting a refresher course for all altar servers serving at SCB Church to clear up a few practical issues, and give our Altar servers a chance to both have some fun and get to know each other.

It will be run on Tuesday February 15th, from 3:30pm - 5:00pm, at SCB Church. A session for OLQP Church altar servers will also be organised in coming weeks. More about that later.

I must admit, though, I am a little perplexed to see how few of all the servers we've trained over the last three years have served for anything more than a couple of Masses before 'disappearing', only to reappear at a school Mass or at their siblings' First Holy Communion!!

Our hope, however, is that this afternoon will be a chance for them to reaffirm their training and encourage them to serve more often at our Parish Masses. Please see Page 5 for more information.



A/V Operators and Camera Operators for Live Streaming Urgently Needed
I am putting out an URGENT CALL for volunteers to operate our live-streaming cameras and the screens which are used to put the responses up at weekend Masses, both at SCB and OLQP Churches. We currently have next to no Camera Operators at all for weekends at SCB, and we need more AV Operators at both chruches. This is not a difficult skill to learn, and it is a wonderful way to serve the Lord in a much needed ministry at RGCP. Please contact the Parish Office



Alpha Begins This Week
As you know, at all the Masses last weekend we had someone from the Alpha Course speak to invite you to participate. I would encourage anyone who has not had this experience to try it out for yourself. Please see the insert on p. 3 of the bulletin for more information.



And that's about all for now!
Your brother, as always, in Christ's service,

Fr Greg