New Parish Initiatives announced including a Parish Youth Leader.

As a parish, we have continued to reflect on what we can do to help maintain and nurture the faith in our parish. There is no doubt that people’s expression of faith is changing. In-person attendance of Mass has lowered but webcam attendance has increased. Personal prayer as expressed through, for example, candle lighting at our shrines, has also increased.

We have to recognise that over the next few years there will be a change of focus in the faith formation happening in schools. Alongside this change within our schools, we will continue to see a decline in the number of priests.

As a parish community, we must continue to strive to find ways to provide support to parents as they raise their children in their families and our parish traditions. At the same time, we need to continue to make our two churches as welcoming as possible, as well as maximise the use of our Pastoral Centre.

So our key strategic aims over the next couple of years are as follows:
1. Employ a Parish Youth Leader.
2. Upgrade the Grounds of St Mary’s.
3. Maximise the use of the Pastoral Centre.

We want to share this journey with you. This is a journey of love, a journey of hope, a journey of faith, walking together arm in arm with God. We will be having a ‘town hall’ meeting to get the benefit of your ideas as well as give further information on the initiatives. The meeting date is January 12th @ 8 pm and the location is our Parish Pastoral centre beside St. Mary’s Church.

Let’s do this together as a parish family.
Fr Frank
December 2022