From the Parish House

On Friday, 20 September, I received from Archbishop Comensoli, the Decree Amalgamating the Parishes of Camberwell, Balwyn Deepdene and Surrey Hills Wattle Park into Our Lady of Pentecost Parish, Balwyn, Camberwell, Deepdene, Surrey Hills and Wattle Park.  Prior to sending the Decree, the Archbishop met with his Council of Priests and his College of Consultors.  He reported back to me that all his advisors were supportive of the request for our parishes to form the new parish of Our Lady of Pentecost.  This means that we can now start to plan for a new beginning.  On the 26 October our new parish will be the very first Our Lady of Pentecost Parish in Australia!

The Decree of Amalgamation will be posted on the notice boards inside each of our Churches for the next four weeks.  At the end of that time, we will officially become Our Lady of Pentecost Parish, Balwyn, Camberwell, Deepdene, Surrey Hills and Wattle Park.  Our parish staff have been working with Heartburst, a local digital agency, to develop a new logo for our parish.  I hope that I will be able to share this with you in the coming weeks.

Creating a new parish has been an incredible exercise.  Many people have been involved along the way.  From the Parish Pastoral Council who first dreamed of the vision for a single Parish across our communities; to those who planned the consultation process; to those who prepared frequently asked questions and online and hard copy information materials; to the collation of data from the consultations and then those who prepared the application for amalgamation that went to Archbishop Comensoli.

Along the way I have felt that parishioners from across our parishes have been interested and supportive of the process of amalgamation.  I believe that this process has been a concrete example of what Pope Francis meant when he said: “The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community.” (Evangelii Gaudium 28).

I think that our parishes have shown a great deal of flexibility in restructuring and amalgamating our parish communities.  Now the challenge of missionary creativity lies ahead.  Our Parish Pastoral Council will meet on Thursday, 26 September to complete work on our 2025-2029 five-year Strategic Plan.  You can be sure that this will involve a missionary focus and have an outward facing orientation.  This plan will be shared with all parishioners in early 2025 as the first year’s action plan unfolds.

In the meantime, I think we should all take a moment to celebrate the achievements of amalgamation and the newly formed Our Lady of Pentecost Parish.

There is also a wealth of spirituality to draw from our new patroness, Our Lady of Pentecost.  Here is one prayer I found which is part of a litany to Our Lady of Pentecost.

Our Lady of Pentecost, ever since God had chosen you to be the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, you have been intimately united with the Holy Spirit.  It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that you conceived God’s only begotten Son.  It is the same Spirit that you openly received, together with the disciples, when the Church was born at Pentecost.

From the womb to the cross, you were a Mother to your Son.  From the cross to the coming of the Holy Spirit, you were a Mother to your Son’s disciples.  When your Son ascended into heaven, you did not go away to be alone all by yourself.  You stayed with the Church, stayed with His followers, praying with them, consoling them, being their Mother, just as you were commanded to be.

Be with us now, as a mother would help her children, as we now call on the Holy Spirit to kindle into a flame our new parish and our renewed sense of mission. 

May the Lord answer our prayer and send among us the Holy Spirit first sent to the apostles at Pentecost.

Amen 

Read the full Decree of Amalgamation.

By Fr Brendan Reed

Published: 20 September 2024