From Fr Greg's Desk: Sunday 16 February, 2025

Hi everyone!

Our Lady Queen of Peace Church is 'Open for Business' Once Again
For those of you who attend Church services at OLQP Gladesville, you will be glad to know that, after a few weeks of minor disruptions, the Church is finally 'back inline'. With new carpet, paint work, and 'reworked' wooden steps, and the repainting of Our Lady of Terzito, Our Lady's Church is truly looking 'immaculate'. We've also now completed the sundry works associated with the repositioning of the A/V, Organ, keyboard and choir to the back of the Church. Outside, the garden near St. Teresa is undergoing a transformation, with roses and other flowers being put in even as I write this column. I believe our friends at Our Lady of Terzito will also be financing the repainting the Statue of the Sacred Heart on the opposite side to Our Lady (thank you!) over the next few weeks. The last 'piece of the puzzle' will be the renewal of the line marking in the two car parks, and the repainting of the low wooden barrier between the garden and the pavement. You will also notice that a large section of the cemented area in front of OLQP Hall has been repainted. All this has been done to get our beautiful OLQP Church in the best of conditions in time for the Centenary Mass on the 9th of March. (see photo below)

Option Available for Choirs and Musicians to Use Choir Loft at OLQP
We have now also made it possible for choirs and keyboard players to use the choir loft, should that be preferred to the area designated at ground level. I know that the youth choir and the primary school appreciate the option of using the choir loft at OLQP, as the acoustics in the Church are extraordinarily good, and the projection of voices from the choir loft is said to be stunningly uplifting. Naturally, I understand that not everyone will be able to navigate the stairs, so for this reason the Organ and a second keyboard have been placed near the back of the Church on ground level.

Improvements have been made to the quality of the sound system in OLQP Church, and though albeit not without a few 'teething problems', there seems to have been a reasonably smooth transition to date. I thank all our musicians, singers and A/V operators for their understanding, cooperation and helpful suggestions and look forward to participating in uplifting liturgies at OLQP Church through their combined and individual music ministries.

Catechist Sunday Musings
After our Catechist appeal two weeks ago, we are pleased to announce that two more people have put themselves forward as new catechists, and the 'regulars' are delighted about it. (Meryl Foster will be especially happy that I've made mention of it in my column this week!) We now have 37 confirmed catechists for the four state primary schools that we are blessed to attend and we are currently serving a total of 488 children each week across all seven grades. I think that is a marvellous effort from our Catechists and one we should all be very proud of. We are still in need of more catechists to join our cohort as every year some retire due to age or ill health. Please keep them all in your prayers: both the Catechists, and the children.

Snack Packs Urgently Needed for Vinnies Vans Runs
Calling all would-be 'snack packers': we received an urgent call from Vini of Vinnies (you couldn't make that up!) asking if we could make an appeal for 'snack packs' from our Parishioners as Vinnies is very low on supplies. There is an info box on page 4 explaining what is needed to make the snack packs, being five items in a sealable plastic bag. As they require about 500 'snack packs' per night, seven days a week, everything you can get together into snack packs for them is most welcome. You can leave them either at the Parish Office during the week, or place them into the stackable plastic containers at both SCB and OLQP Churches.

Addendum to the Steering Committee of the Upcoming Parish Forums.
Last week I wrote of our upcoming Parish Forums to continue the work of a shared Pastoral Plan for our Parish into the next five years of Parish life together. I do apologise, however, for a couple of typographical errors in names and the omission of one of the 'Steering Committee' members' names altogether ... oh dear! One of our famous cricketers used the phrase 'brain freeze' in the past ... perhaps your Parish Priest also suffered something similar last week!

These are the names of the eight current members of the Steering Committee for the upcoming Parish Forums (apart from myself ex officio as Parish Priest) which are slated to take place in the latter half of this year (in alphabetical order, hopefully with the right spellings!): April Cooper, Br. Aengus Kavanagh, fsp, Philippa Manley, Caroline Maric (nee Tuyau), Bruno Maurel, Andrew McLachlan, Frank Monagle and Judy Raumer. Please feel free to engage with any of them to put forward your own ideas, initiatives, and suggestions for our focus areas and outreach into the coming years at RGCP. (More will be said about the Parish Forums, and the National Church Life Survey which we are planning to utilise as an 'opening salvo' to them, in later bulletins).

And that's about it for now. God bless you all,

Fr. Greg

The inside of the newly renovated OLQP Church