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31 / 8 / 2006
Liturgical New Year
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I would like to brief you on the ongoing projects at St
Joseph’s Melkite Catholic Church, Fairfield, covering
spiritual, social and building activities.
On the spiritual front, we are focusing our
attention on finding new ways to encourage our parishioners
to actively participate in Sunday Masses and other special
church services. Some of the ways we are considering or have
already implemented are:
1- Removal of 2nd collection during the mass
enabling parishioners to focus more on prayers.
2- Installation of overhead projector showing the mass in
English.
3- Group prayer (Para-liturgical)
4- Ongoing Choir training in Arabic and English
5- Paying more attention to all details during the mass
ensuring all parishioners are enjoying the prayers.
On the social issues, both families and youth are the
focus of our attentions. For Families, a new committee has
been organised to focus on expanding the family numbers and
their activities.
For youth, they keep gaining momentum and going from
strength to strength. In May 2005 our Youth group was non
existent. Now, and in just 15 months, there is about 50
youth members aged between 16-26. This number is expected to
grow more as our plans and visions are gaining lots of
support.
On the building activities front, our committee is
looking at a number of projects:
1- Hall Renovation/New offices/Priests’ house: Our
church’s hall is old and need immediate attention. A plan
has been submitted for council approval. It involves
renovating the hall, building new offices to cater for the
bishop, priest and council/sub-committee’s meetings as well
as other church activities. The plan will also involve
expanding the parish priest’s home above the hall alongside
the new offices. Expected cost is approx $400K.
2- Front yard landscaping: Currently, the front yard is
in desperate need for upgrading to beautify the Church’s
entrance. A number of options are currently being considered
such as, concreting, or brick tiling. Expected cost is
approx $25K
Funding for the above 2 projects have already been
considered and we will ensure our church’s budget at St
Joseph is not over-stretched.
Regards
Tony Saliba
St Joseph Church Council Coordinator
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