From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 30th October

Hi everyone!!
Parish Feast Day and International Lunch next Sunday 6th November 11.30 am - 2.30 pm
So, we have a big week coming up in the Parish, and we are looking forward to seeing you all with us to celebrate the RGCP Parish Feast Day next Sunday 6th November, with a line-up of really amazing international cuisines to 'feed the five thousand'. Maybe not that many, but you get the idea.

It has been so long since we have been able to come together as a Parish family that we have lost a bit of connection with each other. It is one thing to know that we are all "members of the Body of Christ" as St. Paul so eloquently puts it, and another to actively come together for such a beautiful occasion. I want this to be a real 'spring time' for our Parish after the long COVID winter!!
So, please get online and get your tickets ($10 adults, $5 school age kids, under school age kids get - free!). so that we can get some sort of an idea of how many to cater for. It is one thing to cater for 500, and another for much bigger numbers!

We have jumping castles, games for teenagers, face painters and all our priests will be there to say hello to you. We also hope to have a selection of entertainment for you from our Primary and Secondary schools to showcase their talent and express our joy at them being part of the one Parish with us. More about that in next week's bulletin!

Please note that we will have a Volunteers Meeting for everyone who is going to or can help us out on the Parish Feast Day this Monday at 7 pm in the SCB hall. This is for all our volunteers, or would be volunteers, and we need your help to make this day a really beautiful occasion.

Remembrance Mass Tuesday 8th November 7.30 pm
The other big event is our Remembrance Mass at St. Charles Borromeo Church on Tuesday week. This is a big event each year, and we are very grateful to our Bereavement Committee for having organised this for us in the past.

This year there will be some changes to the Mass, the big one being that the candles this year will be glass protected and that you can take this home afterwards to make your own particular family altar in some corner of your house. We will be looking for photos from you, as to how you do your own Remembrance Altars in your homes, to be published in the weekly bulletins over the coming month.

Thanks to our friends at Candle Supply, who have generously supplied the candles this year, we have 100 gorgeous glass Remembrance Candles on which the names of all those who have died or been buried from our Parish over the last three years will be written. Those families will be invited to come forward to light their candle at the beginning of the Mass, so that we can have them all present both then and at the moment of the Consecration of the Mass.

Please note however, that the candle will only be offered for family members who actually attend the Remembrance Mass. If there are any Remembrance Candles left over, we would be very happy to dedicate them to other loved ones from prior years, but that will depend on availability once all recently deceased loved ones have been covered.

RGCP Remembrance Book for November
For all those who wish to remember their other loved ones, we will have the Remembrance Book for November available. You can include the names of all your loved ones there, for them to be remembered at all the Masses this November. Sections of the Remembrance Book will be read out at all Parish Masses this November.

Green Fingers Going Online
Great news for our Green Fingers helpers ... we are raising a volunteers platform via 'SignUpGenius' so

that you can now take a look at any available Saturday and Book in to help us with mowing, weeding, edging and blowing leaves to keep our Parish grounds in tip top condition.

Gardens and Lawns at SCB
We are gradually progressing with our new '50 cent garden beds' out the front of SCB Church as well. We are putting more topsoil in to even up the hundreds of divits in the lawns, which are due to it being a former graveyard. Please help us by refraining from walking on the loose topsoil until the lawns are stabilised over the next month or so.

Your brother, in Christ’s tireless missionary service,

Fr. Greg