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Our Sacrament Program is up and running for 2021 This will be a busy year across our parishes and schools as we will be completing preparation that was begun in 2020 and we will have many celebrations of Reconciliation, Eucharist and Confirmation to make up for those who could not celebrate them in 2020 and for those who will enrol in 2021.

Welcome to our first edition of the Camberwell, Balwyn Deepdene and Surrey Hills Wattle Park Parishes newsletter. The reach of our newsletter has been a by-product of the 2020 Victorian lockdown, and a response to the feedback of our online news and blogs Your ongoing support is appreciated and of course your feedback is always welcome...

This week we celebrate the end of much of parish life, and as the final newsletter for 2020 is dispatched, we look to Christmas as the mark of a new beginning for us.

There are four figures who are particularly significant during Advent and Christmas - Isaiah the prophet, John the Baptist, Joseph of Nazareth and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Fr Frank looks at how and when they appear in the Advent and Christmas liturgies.

At our Christmas Masses a collection will be taken up for the support of our parish priests.  For those parishioners who have enquired as to how to make their Christmas Offering this year, there are a number of ways to make a contribution.....

As we begin to anticipate the Birth of Jesus, the parish staff are also looking at parish life between Boxing Day and the end of January. The Parish Team has put together all the information you will need about Sunday and Weekday Mass times, New Year's Day Mass, the Parish Office, Mass bookings and much more... including Save the Date for the Opening of Parish and School Year.

Margaret Cousins Entered eternal life 6 December 2020

The St. Vincent de Paul Society’s annual Christmas Appeal, provides financial and material support for the needy and the disadvantaged in Melbourne and throughout the State. Surrey Hills Wattle Park Conference President Brian Moore highlights some of the work of our local conference during 2020...

As a farewell gesture, the Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish School Community put together a letter of reference for any future employer for their leaving Principal, Mrs Jennifer Gray.  We share this letter with our parish community. 

The year started with big plans, but quickly changed like everything else in 2020.  One of the team members from YEP reflects on a great start to 2020, a quiet middle and the joy at coming together to celebrate Youth Mass at the end of the year.

You are invited to join us and celebrate the great feast of God-among-us.  This year will be a little different due to the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings.  We are asking all parishioners to get involved in helping us to make this Christmas a joyful celebration, while also ensuring that we are COVID-19 safe...

After spending 12 years of priestly formation in four different seminaries in two different countries, I was ordained to the priesthood at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5 December 2020.  I am still processing that grace-filled weekend for which words fail to express His goodness towards me...

Despite the fact that we were unable to celebrate the sacraments of initiation this year the children’s faith journey continues with family as their domestic church. The proposed dates for our Parish Sacramental Program for 2021 are now available..

Parishioner Ann Rennie reflects on the timeless Christmas story and the celebration of families in all the joys and jousting of that shared life.  In a world that can sometimes seem uncertain and chaotic, when we are not sure of what will happen next, the birth of a child is a source of hope...

As we celebrate Advent it is noticeable that the Coming of Jesus takes three forms.  The most obvious is that coming in the past which is the basis of the feast of Christmas.  Then there is mention of that mysterious Coming at the end of time or as it is sometimes called the Second Coming.  And then there is the Coming of Jesus to us in the present.

Surrey Hills Wattle Park Parish (SHWP) have been supporting the SVDP Collingwood Soup Van since 2004. An enthusiastic group of parishioners prepare and distribute sandwiches, cakes, buns and savouries to those in need living in public housing flats.  Christmas is only two weeks away.  Your gift could help a family have a Christmas of hope and joy.

Do you use words and phrases that you think are quite clear but are met with a blank look or a ‘what do you mean?’ question.  Phrases such as ‘that cost an arm and a leg’ or ‘more farewells than Nellie Melba’ are not readily understood.  Some turns of phrase or colloquialisms require more work and more knowledge than others...

Many families have traditions handed down through the generations, whilst others have developed recently.  Members from the Children’s Liturgy Group at Surrey Hills Wattle Park Parish share some of their family traditions and preparations during the Advent Season…

The word Advent means coming; therefore, its orientation is towards the feast of Christmas.  Historically Christmas preceded Advent and we have hints of the beginnings of Advent in the 300’s and 400’s mainly in the northern parts of Europe where the liturgy was celebrated not in the Roman way, but in ways more similar to the Eastern Churches.

Christmas is only three weeks away and this should be a time of sharing and celebration, but for many it is a time of hunger, stress, and hardship. Although there are no Giving Trees in our parish churches, the 2020 St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal has not been forgotten in the lead up to Christmas.