Farewell from the Parish House

Welcome to Our Lady of Pentecost Parish!  This weekend marks the official inauguration of our new parish.  I would like to thank and congratulate all parishioners who have so willingly, thoughtfully and constructively contributed to the establishment of Our Lady of Pentecost.  Now, the task ahead is to further build up our community of faith with a welcome embrace for all who wish to join us and an outward looking face that characterises a gospel centred community.  Over the coming weeks and months you will see our new logo, you will see our new parish name being used across our community, alongside the names of our churches and schools.  You will also be presented with the strategy plan that the Parish Pastoral Council has been working on and will launch in early 2025. So, there is much to look forward to as Our Lady of Pentecost Parish launches into the future.

For me there is both joy and sadness as this day arrives.  I am delighted to see the culmination of years of work that has resulted in our new parish.  At the same time, it will be hard for me to say good-bye and to leave these wonderful communities where I have spent over half of my life as a priest.  I have enjoyed every day of my priestly life among you.  I have loved the engagement with our schools.  It is always good for the soul to see and hear the innocent faces of our primary school children as they discover the joys of learning as well as making what often will become life-long friendships.  I would like to thank the dedicated principals and teachers with whom I have worked over the last eighteen years.

I have enjoyed the rich encounters across our parish communities.  I have been welcomed into your homes, into your families and friendship groups.  I have celebrated with hundreds of you as you have brought your children to the local church for baptism.  I have stood beside dozens and dozens of couples at the altar as they have exchanged their life long, love and commitment.  I have broken bread on the altars of our churches thousands of times as we have shared in the eucharist and been nourished by word and sacrament.  I have had the privilege of accompanying hundreds of families as they have farewelled loved ones, sometimes with rituals of anointing and commendation of the dying and sometimes with the grief of sudden or unexpected death.  Together we have prepared funerals.  We have laughed and cried together.  We have remembered and given thanks.

I have also had the joy of working with the most talented and generous parishioners who have given their gifts, their charism, to the parish community by serving on parish pastoral councils, finance and investment committees, future directions committees, liturgy groups, learning groups, youth ministry, catechists teams, organists and cantors, readers, leaders, eucharistic ministers, school boards, outreach groups, and many more.  It has been an enriching and humbling experience to be part of such and outstanding Catholic community.

We have also built up a great parish team here at Our Lady of Pentecost.  I have been fortunate to work with colleagues and friends, Kate Baines, Tricia Norman, Sally McIntosh and Nanette Giovannini over many years.  A leader, a parish priest, cannot lead and support a parish community alone.  Our team is exceptionally talented, highly qualified and experienced and totally dedicated to the service of our community.  It has always been a joy ‘coming to work’ in the parish office.  And I have also had the great fortune of working with a number of assistant priests who have been with us over the years, Fr Andrew Fennessy, Fr Matthew Baldwin, Fr Jose Joseph, Fr Sang Ho, Fr Trac Nguyen, Fr Jude Johnson, Fr Tien Tran and Fr Hoang Dinh.  Over the last four to six years we have also enjoyed having as part of our team, Archbishop Denis Hart, Fr Frank O’Loughlin and Fr Steve Tynan MGL.  I also express my gratitude to each one of these priests for their friendship, support and sharing our life and ministry together.

I am so very happy that Fr Sang Ho will be the inaugural Parish Priest of Our Lady of Pentecost Parish.  I wish him and Fr Hoang every blessing and I know that they will be embraced and supported by the parishioners of our wonderful communities.

And so, it is farewell from the parish house. Thank you everyone for an incredible eighteen years in your parishes.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you, may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. 

 

By Fr Brendan Reed
Parish Priest

 

Published: 25 October 2024

Parish Priest

Comments

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Mike Lescai

Dear Father Brendan
Inspiring, thoughtful, caring, personable, inclusive and much more.
Thank you and God Bless

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Catherine and Dan Place

Vaya con Dios dear Brendan! We will miss having you close by and your contributions to the weekly newsletter but know that that your new people in Brunswick /Moreland are in for a delightful surprise. Blessings on you and your work there. We hope your last Mass in the Parish of Our Lady of Pentecost tomorrow helps ease the pain of saying Goodbye. We will be watching in on-line. Affectionately Catherine and Dan

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Mary Kotefski

Thank you Father Brendan for your massive contribution to our parish, it has been an amazing journey.
Best wishes.

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Betty Rudin

Heartfelt thanks Brendan and all the very best on the other side of town

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Aloysius Gomez

Dear Father Brendan,
Thank you very much for that inspiring farewell note. I am sure that many parishioners will join me in thanking you for what you have done for the parish - you are an extraordinary priest and we were privileged to have had you as our parish priest for that long a time. Speaking for myself I renewed my faith after meeting you one afternoon soon after I moved here, sometime later you baptised my wife and after that you were the celebrant priest at our daughter’s wedding. Like me, I am sure that many parishioners would have had similar events that became all that more special because you were involved - you see, it is not just what you do but it is the way you do it - you have this amazing gift of bringing Our Lord, Jesus to us. Now your leadership is required elsewhere - we wish you all the best. I have no doubt that the people of Brunswick will benefit from your move.

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