Parish community is heavily grounded on personal interaction and building the relationships between each other in the parish. Before the pandemic, hospitality was a key activity that brought everyone in our parishes together after celebrating Eucharist on the weekend.
Also, hospitality allows each one of us to share our lives and to listen and learn from one another. It helps us understand, nurture and support our faith journey as a parish community.
Since the pandemic our physical connections between parishioners and communities has been limited. In particular, physical hospitality has become impossible for us around our parishes.
Therefore, over the last few weekends we have created an online hospitality forum where many parishioners have participated via Zoom. This is an opportunity where we can come, listen and share with everyone about our lives and the various activities we have been undertaking during lockdown.
Many people have interesting ideas and stories to tell about how lockdown has actually become a valuable time for new things. Some have shared with us how their knitting skills have improved as knitting time has increased! Some have mentioned their cooking skills and how they have challenged themselves by cooking different foods and cuisines.
As some of you know I have used the lock down period to research and work on a courtyard deck at Our Lady of Victories Presbytery. Having had no experience in building before this was a big challenge. However, it has been an experience where I have had to learn new skills and test my problem solving abilities. Together with Fr Brendan and Deacon Jude we got the job done. Here are a couple of photos along the way.
What are your stories? What have you been doing? Would you like to share with us?
You are warmly invited to join our Zoom hospitality over the coming weekends. The details will be provided in the Parish e-Newsletter.
The next Virtual Hospitality will take place this Saturday from 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm. To join hospitality via Zoom click on the link or use the following codes: Meeting ID – 854 4053 1510, Password 276645.
Virtual Hospitality – 6.30 pm on Saturday, 26 September
19 Brenbeal Street, Balwyn VIC 3103
Telephone: 03 9816 9291
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours:
Tue - Fri 9:00am – 5:00pm
David Rush says:
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