From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 25th September 2022

Hi everyone!
Happy School Holidays' Break
No doubt your kids and grandkids are happy about being on school holidays for the next two weeks! I pray that this time will be full of fun and relaxation, not just for the students but also for you parents and grandparents!

Kid's Liturgy Still on This Weekend at the 10 am SCB Family Mass
Kid's Liturgy is still on this weekend at SCB Church at the 10 am Mass. But, after that, they too will be taking a much deserved break until Sunday 16th October. Huge thank you to all our Kid's Liturgy helpers. Happy Holidays to you as well.
'Seniors Ministry' Update - Info Night with CatholicCare Wednesday 28th September at 6 - 7.30 pm.
CatholicCare Sydney has very kindly offered to help us extend our Senior's Outreach' a little bit more. We already have groups such as the Young at Heart (YAH) and their regular excursions; the Catholic Women's League (CWL), who had their annual Fashion Parade last Saturday; and the RGCP Connect Group, who are active with Advent and Lenten groups and the like.

CatholicCare also wishes to enrich our Parish Seniors' Outreach with their own Seniors' Ministry. They have developed a range of talks and workshops to support seniors as they age, and we are looking to interact with them to make that available to our Parishioners.

The talks and workshops will cover areas such as: health and wellbeing; computer and internet use; companionship training to assist the elderly; 'Ageing Well';, 'Living Well Dying Well'; and in bereavement support. We are looking for people to be trained in these areas and engage with our Parishioners, and have organised an 'information night' to this end to discuss possibilities. Please come along to be a part of this very useful ministry. See you there this Wednesday, 28th September from 6 to 7.30 pm in the Parish Hall at SCB.

Saturday Morning Mass at SCB to be Brought Forward to 8 am from 1st October 2022
As mentioned last week in the Bulletin and at the weekend Masses, the regular 9 am Saturday morning Mass at SCB Ryde will be brought forward an hour to 8 am from Sat 1st October onwards. Our Parish is a dynamic and growing faith community, and there are always 'teething pains' with any kind of growth, but especially with a Parish of the size and vitality of our own.

The numbers of weddings, baptisms and other pastoral activities have significantly increased on the weekends, especially 'post COVID'. We have also chosen to limit the size of candidates at our annual First Holy Communion and Confirmation Masses, to make them more 'special' for the families involved, but that too has meant a 'multiplication of the Masses' offered.

In addition, we have introduced regular retreat days and other pastoral activities at the Parish, that have served so well to augment spiritual formation and pastoral expertise, and we intend to continue to host Archdiocesan formative sessions for Eucharistic Ministers, Acolytes, Youth events and so forth, that naturally compete with the 9 am start time of the regular Mass.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this might cause those who regularly attend this Mass and would prefer it at 9 am. It is after long deliberation and consultation with the Parish pastoral Council that we have made this slight change to schedule. Please let your friends know of this change of Mass time. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will still be offered immediately after this Mass as per usual.

And that's about it for now,

Your brother in Christ's love!!

Fr. Greg