First Reconciliation will be celebrated in four sessions on the evenings of this Wednesday and Thursday. Please continue to pray for our children as they begin to celebrate the Sacrament of God’s merciful love.
YEAR 12 VCE EXAMS
Please remember in your prayers the students and their families, who are preparing for their Year 12 VCE exams. We pray that their hard work throughout the year will bring them the results they require.
PARENTING IN FAITH
Parenting in Faith for parents of children in Years 1 & 2 will be held on Tuesday 28 October at 2pm or 7pm in the Parish Centre by the popular Fr Andrew Hayes.
CHRISTMAS ON THE GREEN 13th DECEMBER 2014
The message of Christ to the community of Sunbury. Organised by the Inter Church council, this year’s event will be on Saturday 13 December. The free children’s activities will start at 5pmm with the Nativity Stable, a puppet show, clowns, face painting and Christmas crafts. The Christmas Carols will start at 7pm. Food and drinks will be for sale. Volunteers from the various churches are needed to make this event a success. Please think about where you may be able to help. Please contact our Parish Office.
ONE
Sunday 26 October at Melbourne High School, South Yarra, will be the inspirational celebration titled “One– Awake my Soul” to remember the first anniversary of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival. For further info contact onespiritaustralia@gmail.com. The celebration is a fresh and dynamic Catholic youth event gathering students from all over Melbourne for an unforgettable night of live music, drama, inspiring talks and time to just hang out!
“I WAS HUNGRY AND YOU FED ME”
At the Parish Assembly in September the Social Justice Group put a proposal that we ask our Parish to assist Asylum Seekers. The proposal was approved by the assembly and the PCT gave us permission to proceed. The Sisters of St Joseph in Footscray are working with refugees and have advised us that support can be given to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Footscray. The website provides excellent information. www.asrc.org.au
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre was started in June 2001 and has delivered assistance to Asylum Seekers with the help of over 800 committed volunteers and 35 staff members. Over half their clients have no income at all and over 90% live below the poverty line. The centre is in Nicholson St Footscray and through its programs provides free health, medical, legal, employment, casework, material aid and a Foodbank. It also provides a hot meal for 150 people each weekday at the Centre. Asylum seekers can visit the Foodbank once a week, where their dignity is preserved by allowing them to make their own selections within set limits, rather than be allocated a food parcel. The food provided has been donated or purchased with donated funds from people like us from all over Victoria. Donations of basic non perishable items such as canned tomatoes, lentils or beans (without sauce), pasta ,rice, cereals, long life milk, dishwashing detergent, soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and shaving gear are always needed. Over the next two weeks there will be a container placed in both Churches for donations of these items. Members of the Social Justice Group are happy to deliver these items to Footscray. This appears to be a very practical way we could assist. Thank You. For further information please contact the parish office….0397441060
CELEBRATE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECREE ON ECUMENISM
The Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, in conjunction with the Australian Catholic University and the Victorian Council of churches, invites you to a Reception, Liturgy and Public Lecture to celebrate 50 years since the Second Vatican Council promulgated the Decree Unitatis Redintegratio.
Wednesday 22 October from 6pm at Catholic Leadership Centre, Cnr Hoddle and Victoria St, East Melbourne.
RSVP David Schutz Ph 0400 978 938.
“WELCOME TO THE INN”
At our recent Liturgy Planning Team, we endorsed the parish initiative called “Welcome to the Inn”. It was also briefly spoken of at the recent Annual Parish Assembly. The initiative calls for all of us to be the Church Jesus wanted us to be– that is to Welcome everyone! Strangers no longer are strangers when they come home to church. With Christmas approaching quickly, “Welcome to the Inn” reminds us that for the birth of baby Jesus, there was no room at the Inn. Mary and Joseph would have been quite worried with the birth of their child imminent. Those who come to our church should never feel worried about coming. Acting on behalf of Jesus, we have a job to do! Let us be welcoming to all.
OUR PRAYERFUL SYMPATHY
We offer our prayers and sympathy to the brothers, sisters and friends of Fr Barry Robinson who entered eternal life on Friday morning after a long illness. He is one of eight children. In 1970, he was one of sixteen of us ordained for the Melbourne Church. After serving at Airport West, he volunteered to be a missionary for six years in Chile working with the Columbans.
ARTES CHRISTI PRESENTS THE JEWLER’S SHOP
The first feast day of St John Paul II is 22 October and to celebrate don’t miss The Jewelers Shop, a profoundly beautiful play on human love and marriage written by St John Paul before he was elected pope (even before he became a priest!). As specifically indicated by St John Paul II, the play will be staged in a unique style of the Polish underground theatre with no sets or props and performed in a recitative style (reading only).
Melbourne has one show only:
Friday 24 October, 7.30pm Kaleide Theatre, 360 Swanston St, RMIT University.
Tickets from $20 bookings essential.
Ph, 1300 790 250 or www.theword.org.au
Brochures are available on the Welcome Desk in St Anne’s Church.
MASS FOR EXPECTANT MOTHERS
The Life, Marriage & Family Office warmly invite all expectant mothers and their families to the Mass for Expectant Mothers. The Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Denis Hart at St Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday 7th December at 11.00am. Registrations can be made online at: http://www.cam.org.au/ lifemarriagefamily or alternatively by contacting: 9287 5579 or Lmf@cam.org.au. Please note that registration closes on Friday 28th November. Expectant mothers who register will receive a small token of recognition.
SALESIAN COLLEGE FARMERS MARKET
The VCAL students at Salesian College are running a farmers market on Friday 17 October from 4.30pm til 6.30pm at the Patch (situated at the rear of the school). All welcome.
TOUR OF MACKILLOP SERVICES HERITAGE MUSEUM
237 Cecil St, South Melbourne on Wednesday 15 October 2014. Meet at Sunbury Station 9.20am for 9.40am Met Train to Flinders St, No. 1 tram from Swanston St to South Melbourne.
Morning tea supplied. BYO lunch.
For those driving, please meet at 11am at Museum.
All welcome to come.
Any enquiries call Jenny on 0427 588 683.
BLUE KNOT DAY
Blue Knot Day is ASCA’s (Adults Surviving Child Abuse) national awareness day. It will be celebrated on Monday 27th October, 2014 and activities will be held in the week from October 27 to November 2. On Blue Knot Day Australians are asked to unite in support of the 5 million Australian adult survivors of childhood trauma. Following the release of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse’s interim report in June, ASCA President, Dr Cathy Kezelman, said the significance of this year’s Blue Knot Day is growing as the issue of child sexual abuse has never been more prominent. This year Blue Knot Day will focus its attention on the education and training urgently needed for health professionals and organisations working with survivors.
WEDNESDAY MORNING TEAS
Over the past weeks the Grade 6 Children from St Anne’s Primary School have supplied and hosted morning tea after Wednesday morning Mass. They have been very gracious and hospitable. They will resume the morning teas this Wednesday morning. Everyone is welcome.
REMEMBERING LOVED ONES IN NOVEMBER
The month of November is dedicated to the prayerful memory of the Faithful departed. Our parish will celebrate the memory of loved ones. At each of our churches there will be blank leaflets to write the names of those who have died, to be placed in a Memorial Book of the Dead. This book will be for display and presented at each Mass during the Procession of the Gifts. The leaflets may be taken home and returned completed during October.
FAITH GROUPS MARCH TOGETHER IN JORDAN
On 23 August, Jordanian Muslims and Christians walked hand in hand to denounce violence in the Middle East. Starting from a mosque next to the Coptic Orthodox Church, they carried banners “Muslims and Christians are together” as the Muslim call for prayer and church bells were heard at the same time to show the unity of Jordanians. (Report in “Jordan Times”)
Along the same vein, on September 26, Archbishop Denis Hart wrote an article for “The Australian” newspaper. The full article is posted on the Noticeboard in St Anne’s Foyer. The article encompasses the need to embrace the Muslim community at this time of proactive raids on terror extremists all around Australia. Archbishop Hart explains that the majority of Muslims lead simple good lives, as we do, and want a peaceful life. It is the small group of extremists who are causing the problems for the entire community. He asks us all to show kindness and compassion to the Muslim community so they know that we are understanding of their plight. For there to be peace in our world we must try to accept each other– including all the differences we have– so the terrorists will not succeed in division and war in our desire for a peaceful world. For those who wish to read the entire letter, please follow the hyperlink http://www.cam.org.au/ Portals/1/Reach%20out%20to%20the%20Muslim%20community.pdf
PARISH MEETING NIGHT
Next gathering of parish groups is on Wednesday 8 October at 7.30pm in St Anne’s School.
OLMC CHURCH
Further research is needed following reports from the engineer and a stonemason. The problem is bigger than first thought.
Also, termites have caused further damage.
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER AND FASTING FOR THE SYNOD 0N THE FAMILY
There will be a National Day of prayer and fasting on Friday 10 October for the Synod on the Family. The Bishops of Australia invite us all to pray earnestly for the Synod on the Family taking place in Rome 5-19 October and especially to join in a National Day of Prayer and fasting on Friday 10 October. Also, please take the prayer cards that are on the Welcome Desk in St Anne’s foyer, for you to pray at home with your families.
A resource called “Sanctuary and Servant of Life” is also available at the Welcome Desk. It is embracing family values– even the
many different shapes families come in!
The Synod on Marriage and Family has been called by Pope Francis and opens today. There are four participants from Melbourne, a married couple, a woman and our archbishop. The sessions are from 9am to 1pm and 4pm to 7pm from Monday to Saturday for two weeks.
The second part of the synod will be held next October. Let us keep the synod in our prayers.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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