Community Meeting Point for Sandy Bay

On Tuesday night, I addressed the “Bishop’s dinner” at Mt Isa. If you think the mining settlements on our west coast are remote, try Mt Isa! From Brisbane to “the Isa” took over two and a half hours by jet. I arrived to 36 degrees heat, having left with a dusting of snow on the mountain. Australia is a vast country.
The catholic parish is one of the great focal points in the city (of about 20,000) people. Centacare is housed on the presbytery-church block. The parish priest, Fr Mick Lowcock, is a dynamo of energy, holding an Order of Australia award for his vigorous involvement in all aspects of community life.
It is a well balanced parish, with various meditation groups, and “spiritual companioning” similar to that offered down at Maryknoll.
It was very heartening for me to see how a catholic parish can make a significant difference to its community. It is not quite the model which could be adopted in a suburban parish such as our own. But, I think we do need to focus our energies, set one or two benchmarks, discern some distinctive aspect of Catholicism we could emphasise. Let’s commit ourselves to doing some things very well.
What would you consider as a priority ... something that would make a person say: “yes, I’ve heard about them - that’s what they do in that parish”? Outreach to seekers after spiritual truth? Social justice? Celebration of the liturgy? The list could go on and on. Mull over the possibilities and let me know what you come up with.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

26 October 2007

Wed 19 Mar 2008 01:39:40 AM

comments: 0

show comments