From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 23rd October

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well! We've got some interesting news this week.

Parish Feast Day Preparations - Sun 6th November 2022.
Our RGCP Parish Feast is now just around the corner, and I am very happy to report that several new 'cuisines' have been offered for our International Lunch! We are also lining up some of our local talent for a bit of entertainment, and we have a professional face painter, thanks to the SCB P & F (thank you!). However, if there is anyone else who knows how to paint faces, we could probably do with a second person to line up to (I am thinking we will have a lot of kids along).
To help with the cooking and serving of the specific 'national foods', here is a list of the 'Go to' person if you could help out on the day.

Aussie Sausage Sizzle - SCB P & F -

Italian - Josie Minni josieminni@bigpond.com

Filipino - Emma Gonzales emmacgonzales@gmail.com

Thai - Song and Diana dianatadjudin@hotmail.com

Mexican - Vanessa Valencia - van_torr@yahoo.com

Argentinian - Carolina Posadas caro_posadas@yahoo.com.au

As you can see from the list, we could still do with a few more contenders. It would be great to get some Lebanese and Croatian foods on board. Indian food has also been offered, but I don't have the contact details as yet. Please contact the Office at office@rgcp.org.au if you have any other offers. We would also love some help with a few more desserts??

We still need volunteers to help set up and serve at the Dessert and Drinks Stations, to take payments and hand out wristbands, and clean up afterwards. Please Note: We will be having a volunteers' Meeting on Monday 31st October at 7 pm in the Parish Hall at St. Charles Ryde. Come along and give me a hand!

Have you purchased your 'Entry Wristband' for the food yet? Please do so via Trybooking: https://www.trybooking.com/CDJPP (Adults: $10 Children: $5 Under School Age children: Free (entry includes all food and drinks).

Roster for Gardening and Lawn Mowing at St. Charles Borromeo Church Grounds.
Summer is almost here, and with it will come the spurt in growth of our lawns. During the Summer period, we always need to mow the lawns at least every fortnight, and do the edging and weeding on a regular basis. I need help with this work of love around the Church and welcome anyone who is willing to push a lawnmower!! Let me know. Please email me at pp@rgcp.org.au with your possible frequency/availability for helping out over the next three months, and I will include the roster in the bulletin each week with the dates and names. If it rains on the Saturday mentioned, which has happened quite regularly this year, you could still help me out by coming at a later time or on another day.

Ongoing Improvements around the Grounds of SCB Church.

New '50 Cent' Garden Patches at SCB Church. You will have noticed that there are now two wooden 'gardens patches' being constructed around the front trees of the SCB Grounds adjacent to Victoria Road. We hope to soon see a lot of colourful flowers in those garden patches, to complement the magnificent gardens lining the pedestrian entrance off Victoria Road. Watch this space!! (I mean, the gardens...)

New Awning Covering the Walkway to SCB Parish Office and Hall.
We will soon be installing an extended awning from the entrance to the Parish Office at SCB to the roan near the School Gate. We hope to have it installed by early December, God willing. The awning will be high enough to cover our Noah's Arc Café and the chairs and tables adjacent to it and should be a welcome respite from the sun and the rain! I have included an 'architect's impression' of how it will look below.

"Cherry Picker" coming to finish the cleaning and sealing of SCB Church
Many people have commented over the past year as to how lovely the SCB Church and surrounds are looking, but we still have one more hurdle to tackle, that being the gentle mould removal and sealing of the upper part of SCB Church. That work should begin just after Christmas, including the historic bell tower, front and back of the Church, and the lower roofs. That way it will match the magnificently cleaned walls and gravestones all around the Church.

The new sandstone walkways from Victoria Road to the Parish Office have also been re-cleaned and re-sealed, as our determined fruit bats like to make a serious mess of the walkways when the berries are in season. [Those bats!! ... I guess I am no St. Francis of Assisi!!

And that's about it for now! Hope you are having a beautiful Springtime, both in terms of the warmer weather, and in terms of your spiritual life.

God bless, and take good care of yourselves!

Fr Greg