2022

Today was probably the nicest day of walking so far. I descended from the mountain town of O Cebreiro down to Triacastela at 700m which doesn't have the three castles I was expecting. I started in the dark (sunrise is 8.20am) and in cloud but along an easy sand & gravel surface. A couple of hours in I met up with Ophelie, Raf and Chelsea at a cafe for breakfast, and then half an hour later met caught up with Josh who had found a prime position to just sit and absorb the landscape as the clouds burned off the mountain and revealed the valley floor. Josh and I then walked the rest of the steep but lovely descent into town, having another great faith conversation along the way. 

 Am I really disappointed that there is not a castle in town, let alone three? No, not really. We've been walking past so many cathedrals and churches, castles, monuments and museums yet hardly going into any of them. Tim was saying at lunch that he's surprised at the lack of FOMO about all the things to see and do, and I found myself agreeing. I am setting out to have a pilgrim experience, not a Spanish cultural experience. I'm going into some smaller churches to pray, but for the most part we're happy to just enjoy the experience of walking, talking and eating together. And this afternoon we found a river so a few of us took a dip. As I write this most of our group is having a siesta, which is one feature of Spanish life which us pilgrims are happy to adopt. 

The picture at the top which I can't seem to move down is of me, assistant priest Fr Vincent and St Gerard's pillars Gordon and Margaret Floyd in  The Floyds typify my experience of St Gerard's. 

In 2022 we gave vacant possession of the OLHC site (bar the church) to our developers Stockland (now Levende) which meant moving over to Carlingford presbytery where I was soon joined by Fr Vincent, with Fr Bogdan having just moved to Kincumber 

It seemed that when I met people at St Gerard's and asked how long they had been in the parish the answer was always in decades, not years. So many of the original builders of St Gerard's Church in 1972 (making it the same age as me) were still the parish, including the Floyds at whose home the first meeting about building the church had been held.  These families had moved to Carlingford when it was a new suburb, built their homes, built the school and then built the church, a story now repeated in thriving suburbs around Kellyville to the northwest. 

But the tide is turning as many of these founding parishioners move away into aged care or retirement living and so it seems like a precious moment in the history of the parish while they are still here. 

Much of the energy of the parish moved to Carlingford in 2022 as we moved the parish office there and almost all groups and ministries had to be focussed there during Epping's redevelopment. 

A big event of 2022 was The Wild Goose program, a 7 or 14 week video series using the Alpha model of dinner, video and conversation. Unlike Alpha which is an introduction to Christianity (which has been much embraced by Catholic parishes of late), The Wild Goose aimed to take people of faith deeper into a relationship with the Holy Spirit from a Catholic perspective. 

Why The Wild Goose? We usually depict the Holy Spirit as a dove, but the Jesus tells us that Spirit blows where it will, is unpredictable and powerful, like a wild goose!!!!

And a significant strategy in 2022 was the launch of a new Sunday night youth Mass at St Gerard's. We already had a Sunday night Mass at OLHC and part of the parish's pastoral plan was to reinvigorate this as a youth Mass, but with the lack of facilities meaning that the Antioch youth group was now at Carlingford, we took the decision at Pastoral Council to launch a new Mass where ministries would be led by young people. We didn't need another Mass in terms of capacity, but we did want this youth focus. 

And it worked. We started small, but the numbers gradually increased, drawing in people from around the area who were looking for this type of Mass. Our dedicated youth minister Joanna took the lead on recruiting teenagers and young adults to ministries, and three years later it is the fastest growing Mass of the parish. We've invested in that Mass, having a BBQ every Sunday night which has become a great source of fellowship. And who knows, its probably the Mass I'll turn up to the day before my leave finishes.