Sydney Ministries - Macquarie Fields

 

 

As Divine Word Missionaries, one of our priorities is that of living and ministering within cross-cultural and multi-cultural settings. This led our religious missionary order, in 2001, to make a commitment to staff Mary, Mother of the Church Parish, at Macquarie Fields.

At present the parish staff comprises Fr Mike Knight and Fr Viet Nguyen. We have both, taken up residence, in the parish, at the beginning of 2007. One of our most important goals this year is the setting up of a Parish Pastoral Council. Within the parish there are many deeply committed parishioners, who are very generous in terms of their time and personal giftedness. They regard the setting up of the Parish Pastoral Council as an essential means of deepening the commitment of the laity to parish life.

Active groups within the parish include a Liturgy Committee, a Finance Committee, a Youth Group, four Choirs, a Bible Study Group that meets on a weekly basis, a St. Vincent de Paul group, a Eucharistic Ministers group, as well a large group of Lectors.

There are 45 young people involved in the Youth Group, and as the youth are the future of the Church, this is an encouraging aspect of parish life. These different groups and committees provide the means whereby parishioners can place their own personal and professional gifts at the service of the kingdom.

On February 11 th of this year, Bishop Peter Ingham, came to our parish to both install the new parish staff and to officially open and bless the recently constructed Parish Pastoral Centre. The Parish Pastoral Centre has already been in use for the many different activity groups within the parish.

Mary, Mother of the Church parish is a microcosm of the universal church and reflects the diversity of gifts that are found within the Body of Christ.