From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 16th July 2023
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Maintenance and Capital Works at the Parish
One of my obligations as Parish Priest is to ensure that proper maintenance and periodic upgrading work be carried out on the Parish buildings and installations at both OLQP and SCB. For those who attend OLQP Church, you will probably notice the smell of fresh paint inside the Church this weekend. If you look up towards the back of the Church, you will see scaffolding in place, as we have begun a series of maintenance works there.
These are in part funded by your ‘second collection’, ‘tap and go’ and direct debit donations, without which we could not continue to function well. I greatly appreciate your continued financial support of the Parish and welcome new comers to join our ‘Planned Giving’ scheme, as is expected of all regular parishioners.
Please help me by both ‘maintaining’ and ‘upgrading’ your financial support of the Parish, as costs have increased substantially over the last few years, while ‘Planned Giving’ donations have not. You can find more details about how you can contribute on the last page of the bulletin, on our Web pages, or by contacting the Parish Office.
Progress Report OLQP Choir Loft Renovations.jpeg)
The Choir Loft at OLQP Church is undergoing a bit of a facelift, with new tempered glass balustrades now in place, thereby raising the height of the guardrails to meet current W H & S standards. We are also repairing and repainting the plaster walls and ceilings of both the choir loft and the spiral staircase itself. The bottom section of the wooden spiral steps at the entrance to the stairway will be slightly modified to add an extra two cms of headspace, so that tall people like Fr. Dan do not do themselves damage when bringing communion to those participating in Masses upstairs (go, Fr. Dan!).
This will greatly help at large gatherings in OLQP Church, particularly at Easter and Christmas services, funerals, and the like. I am certain you will be pleased to know that several requests for weddings have recently been made for our OLQP Church (three for the last three months of this year!), principally because of the upgrades made in recent years (front facade to OLQP Church, new central doors, air conditioning, etc.) which is a wonderful thing indeed.
Other OLQP ‘Capital Works’ Projects
There are a number of other projects in the pipeline for OLQP. One is to finally move the organ and AV disk from the altar area into the body of the Church (we have been talking about this for nearly a decade), and possibly even into the choir loft. The priests’ chairs would then be situated more appropriately to one side of the Church (rather than bang smack in front of the main altar). This was a recommendation recently received when an inspection was carried out by the Archdiocesan representatives of our buildings and installations, and one which I think will greatly enhance the beauty and utilisation of the lower altar space. More about that in coming weeks.
You will notice that we have installed a new ceiling light above the main altar at OLQP, which is aiding your priests substantially, as we can finally see the writing clearly in the Liturgical books as we celebrate Mass! Should we manage to track down a more similar light to the ones already in the body of the Church (something that is proving rather difficult at present), we will install that instead above the main altar and transfer the ‘O ring’ shaped light up into the choir loft ceiling, where it will also serve us well.
Other initiatives being considered at OLQP include building an awning extending out from the Church over the side steps down to the hall itself, to permit all weather access between hall and Church (particularly when we have the Children’s liturgy). This is neither difficult nor expensive, and will greatly serve parishioners needing to use bathrooms at Church services.
We are also contemplating raising the front wooden section of the extended altar area at OLQP Church up to the level of the section leading to the sacristy, likewise lifting the current ‘lectern’ some 20 cms, and make it easier for both readers and priests to be seen (as well as heard) from the back of the Church. The lower section of the altar could thus be shortened, eliminating the current ‘crescent shaped’ extension with the addition of two steps across the full width of the font section. This would effectively ‘add’ about 1.5 to 2 metres more room to the body of OLQP Church, which could be really handy, as it would facilitate distribution of Holy Communion at Masses (among other things).
Another project being considered at OLQP is to install large tempered glass doors between the side chapel at OLQP and the body of the Church and create a separate ‘Adoration Chapel’ which could be accessed during the day via a code entry lock on the side door and permit small groups of prayer at the same time as other activities are going on in the body of the Church.
The glass doors, being partially ‘sound proof’, could also serve to accommodate parents with small children more suitably at Mass, without distancing them far away from the ‘action’ at the Altar (as is currently the case at OLQP). Access would still be available for the priests and acolyte to enter the Church from the Priests’ ‘vesting room’, and to allow parishioners access to the side entrance and the hall and toilets from the main section.
Okay, I am very happy to receive feedback about these ideas. Perhaps you have some helpful ideas yourselves?
And that’s about it for now. God bless!!
Fr. Greg
These are in part funded by your ‘second collection’, ‘tap and go’ and direct debit donations, without which we could not continue to function well. I greatly appreciate your continued financial support of the Parish and welcome new comers to join our ‘Planned Giving’ scheme, as is expected of all regular parishioners.
Please help me by both ‘maintaining’ and ‘upgrading’ your financial support of the Parish, as costs have increased substantially over the last few years, while ‘Planned Giving’ donations have not. You can find more details about how you can contribute on the last page of the bulletin, on our Web pages, or by contacting the Parish Office.
Progress Report OLQP Choir Loft Renovations
.jpeg)
This will greatly help at large gatherings in OLQP Church, particularly at Easter and Christmas services, funerals, and the like. I am certain you will be pleased to know that several requests for weddings have recently been made for our OLQP Church (three for the last three months of this year!), principally because of the upgrades made in recent years (front facade to OLQP Church, new central doors, air conditioning, etc.) which is a wonderful thing indeed.
Other OLQP ‘Capital Works’ Projects
There are a number of other projects in the pipeline for OLQP. One is to finally move the organ and AV disk from the altar area into the body of the Church (we have been talking about this for nearly a decade), and possibly even into the choir loft. The priests’ chairs would then be situated more appropriately to one side of the Church (rather than bang smack in front of the main altar). This was a recommendation recently received when an inspection was carried out by the Archdiocesan representatives of our buildings and installations, and one which I think will greatly enhance the beauty and utilisation of the lower altar space. More about that in coming weeks.
You will notice that we have installed a new ceiling light above the main altar at OLQP, which is aiding your priests substantially, as we can finally see the writing clearly in the Liturgical books as we celebrate Mass! Should we manage to track down a more similar light to the ones already in the body of the Church (something that is proving rather difficult at present), we will install that instead above the main altar and transfer the ‘O ring’ shaped light up into the choir loft ceiling, where it will also serve us well.
Other initiatives being considered at OLQP include building an awning extending out from the Church over the side steps down to the hall itself, to permit all weather access between hall and Church (particularly when we have the Children’s liturgy). This is neither difficult nor expensive, and will greatly serve parishioners needing to use bathrooms at Church services.
We are also contemplating raising the front wooden section of the extended altar area at OLQP Church up to the level of the section leading to the sacristy, likewise lifting the current ‘lectern’ some 20 cms, and make it easier for both readers and priests to be seen (as well as heard) from the back of the Church. The lower section of the altar could thus be shortened, eliminating the current ‘crescent shaped’ extension with the addition of two steps across the full width of the font section. This would effectively ‘add’ about 1.5 to 2 metres more room to the body of OLQP Church, which could be really handy, as it would facilitate distribution of Holy Communion at Masses (among other things).
Another project being considered at OLQP is to install large tempered glass doors between the side chapel at OLQP and the body of the Church and create a separate ‘Adoration Chapel’ which could be accessed during the day via a code entry lock on the side door and permit small groups of prayer at the same time as other activities are going on in the body of the Church.
The glass doors, being partially ‘sound proof’, could also serve to accommodate parents with small children more suitably at Mass, without distancing them far away from the ‘action’ at the Altar (as is currently the case at OLQP). Access would still be available for the priests and acolyte to enter the Church from the Priests’ ‘vesting room’, and to allow parishioners access to the side entrance and the hall and toilets from the main section.
Okay, I am very happy to receive feedback about these ideas. Perhaps you have some helpful ideas yourselves?
And that’s about it for now. God bless!!
Fr. Greg
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