Wishing all parishioners and visitors a Happy and Holy Christmas

The Year at All Hallows’

The end of this year marks four years since I took up my appointment as the Parish Priest of All Hallows, Five Dock. It seems this time has gone so quickly as the routine of parish life rolls along. Mostly I continue to be inspired by all the wonderful things which happen in the Parish and the people who make it happen. It has been a great privilege to work in this Parish and to once again celebrate the Christmas season with you all as we prayerfully give thanks for the year that has past and look forward with hope to the year ahead. Above all we give thanks for the Christ Child that Christmas represents and which daily reminds of God’s great love for us and for the world.

We also acknowledge that this year has bought sadness to many families, particularly those who have lost loved ones throughout the year. Sadly, it seems that many long term and inspiring parishioners have passed away this year who have contributed so much to this Parish over the years. We trust in God’s love and mercy that they are now enjoying their eternal reward. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, particularly over this Christmas period.

ALL HALLOWS’ PARISH CHURCH

2 Halley Street FIVE DOCK 2046

Parish Priest: Fr Greg McGregor

Assistant Priest: Fr Chaminda Wanigasena

Secretaries: Elena Di Perna & Elsa Waldie

Presbytery: Monday: Closed Tues - Fri: 8.30am - 3.30pm Closed for lunch 12.30-1.30 pm

Phone: 9713 7960 Fax: 9713 5172

Email: parishallhallows@gmail.com

Web: www.allhallows.org.au All Hallows’ Parish School

Principal: Mrs Helen Elliott Phone: 9713 4469 Fax: 9712 5184

Email: info@ahpsfivedock.catholic.edu.au

Web: www.ahpsfivedock.catholic.edu.au

Sacramental Life Eucharist: Saturday - 9.00am & 5.30pm Vigil Sunday - 8.30am Sunday - 10am Children’s Liturgy Sunday - 6.00pm Youth Mass Monday - 9.00am Tues - Wed - 8.00am Thurs - Fri - 9.00am Lauds (morning prayer) is prayed 20 minutes before morning mass daily. All Welcome. Reconciliation: Saturday

9.30 - 10am & 4.45 - 5.15pm Anointing: First Friday of the month at 9am mass. (except January) Sick Calls: Any time - day/night. Funeral Masses: In co-operation with Funeral Directors. Exposition: Third Thursday of every month after Mass.

25th December 2017 - Year B

THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD

Celebrating FAITH, LIFE and LOVE in COMMUNITY.

Our Archdiocese has been under the leadership of Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP for over three years now. Of course as you are no doubt aware our Archbishop had suffered a fairly debilitating illness which he contracted around Christmas two years ago. Thankfully he continually improves and has been returning to his duties with greater confidence over the last year. I know he is extremely grateful for all the prayers and support which he has received over this time.

One of the Archbishop’s ongoing priorities this year has been the Parish 2020 initiative. This is trying to look at how the church and its members can best be served in the years ahead while acknowledging some of the challenges which face us. For this to be successful, it will take input from all the members of the Archdiocese to make it happen. Again, as always I’m very grateful for your support. This year the Archdiocese has been supported with the ministry of three auxiliary Bishops. Namely Bishop Tony Randazzio, Bishop Richard Umbers and Bishop Terry Brady who is well known to many of us here.

Pope Francis of course continues to engage the world at large with his wonderful style. He continually shows his conviction that we need to be compassionate with each other. It doesn’t need to be stated how much trouble we see around the world, mostly caused by our unwillingness to forgive. We are reminded that if we want peace in our world, it begins in our own hearts, which moves to our families, our community, our nation and eventually to the world. Let’s all pray for peace this Christmas!

This year has also seen a significant change in the clergy who work in the Parish. Up until recently we have enjoyed the ministry and support of Fr Richard Waddell. On December the 7th this year, Fr Richard took up a position as the Pastor of St Joseph’s Parish, Newtown. We have been very blessed with Fr Richard’s ministry here as he has shared his own unique gifts and talents with us. Fr Richard had a great impact at All Hallows’ and we know he leaves behind many close friends that he has made. He is a very generous, kind and giving priest who works very hard for people. I would like to personally thank him for all his work and support of me over this time. Please keep Fr Richard in your prayers as he moves on to his new position in which I’m sure he will be very successful. Just last week I was informed that Fr Chaminda Wanigasena will be appointed as the new assistant priest at All Hallows. Fr Chaminda joins us the Friday before Christmas so will be joining us with his feet running on the ground. Please make him welcome and we look forward to him sharing his ministry with us over the time ahead.

The Parish has also been supported very well by our Parish Staff. Mrs Elena Di Perna, our Parish secretary has been a tremendous asset to our Parish. She is many peoples first contact with the Parish and her friendliness, patience and genuine care of people are noticed by many. Elena regularly goes beyond the call of duty and I sincerely thank her for her efforts. Mrs Elsa Waldie joined our Parish team as a part time Parish secretary at the beginning of this year. Elsa has been a great asset to us and her friendliness and professionalism have been a great boon. Like Elena, she is often the first person people encounter when they approach the parish and she has made a very good impression to the people who have approached us. I thank Elsa for her hard work and dedication.

This year saw many of our young people receiving the sacraments of the Church. The sacramental team along with the parents and school staff did a tremendous job in preparing them. 100 children made their First Communion. 87 received the sacrament of Confirmation celebrated by Bishop Terry Brady DD.

What was very pleasing to see was many Parish children from state schools received their sacraments this year. Again many thanks for the hard work of the sacramental team. In particular, the catechists have done a tremendous job this year keeping our catholic children in state schools connected with the Parish and enabling them to receive the sacraments. The increase in Children receiving the sacraments is also a reflection on the changing demographics of our area as more young families move in.

Our Parish school also continues to grow and over the next few years we will see much development on the school site as we prepare for the growing number of children and families who are applying to join our school community. Over the Christmas Holidays we will see the construction of the refurbished school

Marco James Abbate Ava Rosalie Aiello

Florence Anh Akouri Lewis Peter Allsopp

Cristian Giuseppe Arduca Lucy Louise Baker

Sienna Danielle Benes Maximillian George Lee Bentley

Quinn Genevieve Beres Arielle Cristina Blancato

Angel Buonavoglia Marx Michael Camarda

Willow Teresa Cantali-West Lucas Anthony Caristo

Ava Mary Carrieri Xavier Jack Cutri

Mila Denise Connie D'Apuzzo Alezander Marc D'Aversa

Gabriella Di Giacomo Fiadh Mary Downey

Paddy Aaron John Duckworth Jose Luis Euden

Rosita Euden Sienna Zlata Fallone Nika Nicola Farinola

Maeve Catherine Farrell Jack Francis Field

Tobias Filipek Alexander Gebran

Hayley Gilliver Julian Giovenale

Julian Roberto Grieco Gunnar Jude Helson

Sebastian Gabriel Ianniello Olivia Lily Ko

Salvatore John La Cava Stella Lucia La Cava

Hugo Alec Francis Lunn George Andrew Macmillan

Alessio John Marsi Isabella Janet McCreery

Max Francis McGill Chloe Piedade Messia

Leo Aston Mitchell Charlie Murray

Emmie-Rose Musumeci Reginald Escanilla Nelson

Mason Taylor Nguyen Romeo Lorenzo Riitano Madeleine Rose Saija

Thomas Peter Salvatore Giovanni Salvatore Sannio Marco Massimo Scorzelli Rocky Hugh Wolf Smith

Loki Stewart Oskar Kally Stewart

Ottavia Maria Stillisano Madeleine Kate Stinson

Isabella Eve Totaro Rocco John Macaluso Tremain

Sienna Tronolone Flynn Bunge Westerdale

Conor Witting Hunter Heath Wrice

Sonny Finn Wright

BAPTISM This year we welcomed to God’s family the Church through the sacrament

of Baptism the following:

begin. This programme is expected to take around two years. While initially disrupting, this project will set us up for the future to provide the very best of Catholic education for the years ahead. This is an exciting time for our school as Sydney Catholic Schools will be placing a considerable amount of resources into the development of our school site, buildings and staff. I thank our Principal Mrs Helen Eliot and her staff for the hard work they have shown during the many challenges they have faced this year. Helen is always striving to connect the activities of the school with the Parish and I think we are starting to see some of the benefits of this. Again we will see a changeover of staff at the school next year and we thank all those staff who are moving on for their contribution to School and Parish life.

As I’m always fond of saying a parish is never about the priests but the people who make up its members. So many good things happen here, much of it unsung. Musicians, readers, servers, St. Vincent de Paul members, catechists, people who visit the sick and elderly, the Catholic Woman’s League, our young people in our Generation Awakenings group and many others continually help us to worship God and bring peace and compassion to our community. In particular I’d like to thank the parishioners who have served this parish for many years in different ways but for various reasons have had to step down due to age or moving out of the area in particular. On behalf of myself, Fr Chaminda and Fr Richard, thank you for the inspiration you give to us and for your wonderful support.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS YOU

Fr Greg McGregor PP Christmas 2017.

Marianna Abarno Antonia Angileri

Giuseppe Antidormi Antonino Arena

Giuseppe Battiato Giovannina Biasotto Vincenzo Bonaddio

Rosaria Sarina Borsone Anna Brunelli

Carmela Calleja Agostino Calvi

Pasquale Capria Lionella Catalinich

Ersilia Cavallo Antonino Costanzo

Janice Marie Daisley Danilla Dal Cin Caterina D'Arro

Rosa Fabbro Onofrio Farinola Augusto Ferretti Lorenzo Fontana

Frederick Arthur Franklin Rosaria Furnari Angela Galofaro

Loretta Gioia Enrica Inglese

Judith Kennedy Pasquale Ladu Mario Lipari

Basilio Lo Presti Rosa Lo Presti Elvia Magnone

Dorothy MacGuire Maurizio Malfitana Nicolina Mancuso Una Alice Martin

Mavis Ellen Mattson Giuseppe Monteleone

Carmela Musso Antonio Mustica

Idan Natoli Anna Paino

Eugenio Parolaro Rosa Pascale

Sonia Peronace Alma Jean Pessotto

Illuminata Pito Giuseppe Portelli

Antonio Remollino Darrel Francis Rowe Giovanni Ruggiero

Donato Russo Leonarda Santa Santisi

Giovanni Sgroi Alfredo Sorrenti

Anna Mariana Spinnato Assunta Stranieri Barbara Talarico Dominic Triulcio Lawrence Ullio

WEDDINGS

This year we celebrated the weddings of the following couples. We wish them a happy and long life together.

Peter Lawrence McPherson & Ingrid Haralovic

Phillip Anthony Di Cristo & Rochelle Penny Smith Richard Cruz & Mary-Anne Jennifer Granil

Anthony Cipollone & Marcella Franco Beau Kenneth Pugliano & Sarah Therese Elliott

Michael Caserta & Amanda Caminiti

FAITHFUL DEPARTED

In the year 2017 we pray for the souls of the faithful departed who were buried from All Hallows’ Church this year