Week Two: Archbishop’s Pastoral Visits

SOUTH BELCONNEN PARISH

Fr Thomas Jin (front right) and Fr Simon Falk (far right)along with parishioners from Page and Aranda welcom Archbishop Christopher

Representatives from the Korean community, Parish Pastoral Council, Parish Finance Committee and Parish Liturgy Committee gathered at Mass and morning tea for the visit of Archbishop Christopher.

Our two parish schools were present, St Matthew Page, and St Vincent Aranda, which celebrates 50 years this year. Other groups who attended included Centering prayer, Christian Meditation, library, Legion of Mary, Christian Life Community, Family Groups and youth ministry.

As we went into COVID-19 restrictions this year, one of the first concerns was how to maintain contact with parishioners. Parishioners asked if we could have our own online parish Mass which began on Palm Sunday, streaming from the parish office initially.

A second concern was for isolated elderly people and it continues to be so. We hope we are reaching most of them now. Some were concerned we would have difficulty financing our parish, but parishioners were proactive, ensuring that funds were kept available for parish works.

All this is reflective of the quality of our parish community and their faith as members of the body of Christ. This was shown early in our days of amalgamation by their great attendance at the Parish Assembly in 2018, in the Parish Expo of Groups in 2019 and in many small ways each week.