Wednesday 31 December 2014

Year End Review

As we close the doors on 2014 and welcome 2015, it would only be fair to countdown the most memorable moments our parish had this year.

#5 Patronal Feast Day
Each year, our feast day is celebrated on March 19th but in 2013, then parish priest, Fr. Karol reinstated the feast day celebrations by joining with St. Michael's Parish to celebrate the Patronal Feast at the First Capital Park and in 2014, the tradition continued. Archbishop Harris served as Chief Celebrant for the special mass with Frs. Karol Wielgosz (St. Joseph) and Gerard Tang Choon (St. Michael) concelebrating.


#4 The Season of Easter
For Catholics, the biggest liturgies center around the joyful season of Easter, a time of new life and rebirth but just before this time of joy, the church undergoes the solemn season of Lent. During this time, the parish continued its usual Stations of the Cross on Calvary Hill on Fridays in Lent. As the weeks progressed in Lent, another set of preparation was taking place in the parish, seven members of the parish were preparing to receive the Sacraments of Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation and it all culminated at the Easter Vigil on Gloria Saturday night and at the Suburban Vicariate Mass at St. Michael's parish.




#3 Celebrating a Great Man of Faith
On Sunday, May 18th, Bishop Emeritus Sydney Charles celebrated his 60th anniversary of religious life and St. Joseph parish hosted a special mass which featured Archbishop Harris, His Excellency Archbishop Nicola Girasoli among many other bishops and priests from both the neighboring islands and parishes. 

#2 Saying Goodbye to a Special Friend
Goodbye is never an easy thing to say and on June 29th, the parish had to do so. After serving as parish priest for 3 years, the time came where Fr. Karol had to leave the parish and return to his native homeland, Poland. So many memories were created during his time with us and it was only fitting that we gave him a farewell like no other so on Sunday June 29th, the parish added on one extra mass for that weekend alone at 5PM to say goodbye to a great friend. Patrice Mahabir from St. Joseph and Brent Durham from Mt. D'or represented the parish and recalled all of Fr. Karol's great moments. The celebration continued with a sharing on the parish greens with entertainment from Nuestra Cosa.


#1 Welcoming our new Leader.
With Fr. Karol's departure taking effect as of July 1st 2014, the parish learnt that Msgr. Allan Ventour would now take up the position of the parish as the new pastoral leader. However, due to his health condition, Msgr Ventour was unable to do so. As such, Fr. Michael Mackhan filled in as the temporary parish priest during the months of July to August. It was then announced by Archbishop Harris, in an official statement which he made while celebrating mass at St. Joseph in August, that because of Msgr. Ventour's health condition, the new parish priest would now be Msgr. Cuthbert Alexander (Vicar for Communications). This took effect as of September 1st and since then, Msgr. Alexander has been our new parish priest. 


2015 promises to be another spectacular year for our parish because we will be celebrating our 200th Anniversary of the Church, as such, all our existing events will now be tailored according the bi-centennial celebrations in addition to new events which will be taking place. There are more moments to be created and we hope that you all will be part of it. God be praised

--B. Durham, 2014


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