By Christine Sebire
On Friday evening, 26 August St Mary’s Echuca celebrated the many gifts and talents of their parishioners at their recent Parish Festival.
The Festival was the culmination of the Parish Stewardship Promotion and was aimed at bringing community together and exploring new possibilities, especially as we rebuild after recent years.
The parish centre was transformed to showcase the many ministry teams that operate already within the parish and introduced others that are emerging to meet the need of the community.
Ministry Team leaders were available to explain the service of the ministry and to encourage new participants.
Entertainment was provided by students from St Mary’s and St Joseph’s schools, which of course attracted quite a crowd!
With more than twenty-five different ministry teams there was much to celebrate and explore, but there is no doubt that the most positive outcome was the social connection and community spirit experienced by the many who attended.
“It was beautiful to see people connecting, between parishes and schools,” said Parish Secretary, Colette Porter. “To see the interactions between everyone again was very powerful.”
“There was not a sausage left on the BBQ! Every single parish team was out there to drive to get volunteers and to show what we do,” said Colette. “The Sacramental Team, the Liturgy Group, the Men’s Group, Gardening Group, Bereavement Team, for example, every group put their hand up for the day and St Mary’s school even held a St Mary’s Got Talent! event.”
