The celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the opening of our ‘new church’ commenced on Friday 20th July with a Race Night which was the brainchild of Annelise Bachik, whose ambition is to raise enough money to refurbish the kitchen of our parish hall.
The event was a huge success, well organised and attracted a good number of eager people including young families and friends from other parishes, and we all learnt the rudiments of placing a ‘bet’. We also raised around £1,000 a good start toward achieving our aims!
The Sunday Mass was a real celebration of our multi-cultural community; Fr John O’Gara, parish priest, and five Marist priests concelebrated. The choir, well rehearsed, sang a special ‘Gloria’ composed by our organist John Muscat for the occasion. The Congolese parishioners sang beautifully during the distribution of Holy Communion. Thirteen Altar Servers were enrolled in the St Stephen’s Guild and received their medals. Nick Cox also received a special award after 42 years as an Altar Server.
Mass was followed by a celebration lunch and a sung tribute from the choir to all the Marist priests past and present; the projection of memorabilia brought back many happy stories and great hopes for the next 50 years!
Noreen Malone