From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 28th January, 2024

Hi everyone!
Annual SPARC Youth Camp at Toukley
The Youth Camp has been a wonderful experience for all 75 of those who participated in it. You can see for yourselves from the photos on the third last page of the Bulletin, that they had a lot of fun and engaging outdoor activities, as well as sharing a lot of faith with peers at their level. I was very impressed to see how our Youth Team Leaders took the lead over the three day camp, giving excellent talks, looking after the music, supervising camp activities and carrying the group dynamics. Fr. Steve did us all proud with his overall leadership of the camp, and I am very grateful as well to the accompanying Parents (Cathy Drumore, John Cincotta and Stephen Cooper), for driving the buses, giving invaluable support, along with their positive presence to help with the running of the whole thing. Well done one and all!!

100th Anniversary Year of Foundation of OLQP Church
As mentioned last year, next year (March 1, 2025) will be the 100th Anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church, Gladesville.

This is going to be a big celebration, and we are kicking off the year leading up to it with a special 'Opening Mass' on Sunday March 3, 2024 which will be presided by none other than Bishop Danny Meagher, DD, Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney and former Pastor of OLQP in the latter years of Fr. Byron.

We have formed a committee to help with the preparations, with Maria Fisher, Vaughan Kelly, Fil Agostino, Maree Simpson, Judy Raumer and myself to start the ball rolling, but we would be very interested in any ideas you might have to mark this occasion and celebrate it appropriately.

We have likewise requested his Grace Archbishop Anthony Fisher to celebrate the 100th year Mass on Sunday March 2, 2025. In between we will be planning other occasions, including perhaps a Dinner Dance, to bring us all together and celebrate this marvellous event. If you have any suggestions about the upcoming year of celebrations, please let us know. Stay tuned for more info about this in future weeks.

OLQP Historical Items Sought
We have begun to compile historical records and photos which we hope to slot into each decade of OLQP Gladesville’s existence, but there are a lot of gaps in what we have available to us.

Do you have any 'clippings', bulletins, photos or memoirs that we could use to put together a more complete picture of the last 100 years at OLQP? From maybe First Holy Communions, Baptisms, Weddings and Confirmations? Perhaps even photos of the construction phases? We would like to scan these and add them to the historical records and then make a kind of booklet out of it.

Our own Maria Fisher will be coordinating the research and planning for the event. Contact the Parish Office if you can help with any of these items.

OLQP Church Repainting Plan
Last year I invited parishioners to put forward some ideas as to the colours with which we might repaint our OLQP Church for this 100th Anniversary. Water filtration over the years has led to a need to repair and repaint walls and ceilings, and we now have a unique opportunity to choose a fitting colour scheme.

The most common suggestion - which has been embraced enthusiastically by the Planning Team - is for a more ‘Marian’ set of colours (blues and whites) to emphasize the particularly Marian nature of OLQP Church. Painting work, however, can only begin once the roof has been repaired which should happen in the near future.

Garden Grotto Outside SCB Church
One of the ideas being floated around is to establish a little grotto to our Lady in the garden surrounding the African Olive tree on the front City side of SCB Church.

I am thinking of sourcing a nice outdoor statue of our Lady of Lourdes, and I invite interested persons who might sponsor the purchase and construction of the grotto in coming months.

The tree itself is showing some marvellous signs of revival – even in apparently dead branches and the surrounding flowers have taken off nicely as well (thanks Ann!).

You will also notice the paving stones being laid around the wooden fence/seat, which have given the garden a nice touch. Keith Stanshall, our Maintenance and Property man, is doing a commendable job of putting this all together, and we thank him for that.

I am trying to source the same benches already in the SCB gardens to be placed where the old ‘yellow seats’ were (adjacent to the Church near where Morning tea is served on Sundays) and hope to acquire them in the coming weeks.

A ‘memorial plaque’ can be purchased for these seats - and any others still without one – to cover costs of purchase and installation.

For more information about these initiatives, please contact Judy Raumer at the Parish Office on 9807 2966 or email her at ea@rgcp.org.au.

RGCP ‘Green Fingers Collective’ in need of assistance
So there is a lot happening around our grounds. We still continually need help to maintain the lawns and gardens at SCB in top condition, so if you could lend us a hand, call or text Joram on 0409 644 103, who coordinates our ‘Green Fingers’ collective, to offer your availability and talent. We usually meet once a month on Saturday mornings for a few hours of work, but you can also help out on other days according to your availability.

And that’s about all for now.

God bless, and a big "welcome back!" to our schools and college staff and students. There is certainly a big year ahead for all of us in 2024..

Fr. Greg