About Us
Our Parish Communities
The Parishes of Camberwell, Balwyn Deepdene and Surrey Hills Wattle Park are three Catholic Parishes within the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The Catholic Church has organised itself into communities called parishes for hundreds of years. Church law describes a parish in the following way:
A parish is a certain community of Christ’s faithful stably established within a particular Church, whose pastoral care, under the authority of the diocesan Bishop, is entrusted to a parish priest as its proper pastor. (Canon Law 515.1)
Our diocesan Bishop since 2018 is Archbishop Peter A Comensoli. Our Parish Priest is Father Brendan Reed and Father Trac Nguyen is our Assistant Priest. View Parish Profile: Snapshot
Parish Logo
The front page logo is rich with symbolism. At first glance it looks like an arch made up of a criss-cross of lines. Of course there is more than meets the eye ….
There are three lines that cross each other, one is vertical and the others bend left and right respectively. These represent the communities of Camberwell, Balwyn Deepdene and Surrey Hills Wattle Park.
The top of the logo represents our people and their outreach to each other and to the wider community.
What do you see?
The very top of the logo has three upward and outward facing lines of joyous arms reaching out in praise and thanksgiving, reminding us that we are a Eucharistic community.
For some the logo will bring to mind images of the screen at the rear of the altar at Deepdene, for others the lines are like the pipe organ at Camberwell. For all the logo represents the coming together of three communities of faith and working in harmony together in an open and transparent way.
The logo is about faith, communities, outreach, harmony and transparency.
Governance
The three parishes of Camberwell, Balwyn Deepdene and Surrey Hills Wattle Park have similar but distinct models of governance. In each model, the Parish Priest holds ultimate responsibility for the good governance and effective operations of the parish. He is supported and guided in this responsibility through a parish leadership team in each parish. These teams are advisory and consultative bodies and facilitate the achievement of the mission of the parish community. Their governance structure reflects a synodal church which respects the co-responsibility of priest and faithful for the full life of the Church.