Dear Lord,

May we stand in solidarity today with all my brothers and sisters around Australia and the world who are suffering. May we be united in your love, and may we work to build your kingdom here on earth.

Holy Trinity, Hear our Prayer. 

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Sabbath Week, where we try to take some time out to reflect and enjoy moments with our loved ones. We have also begun this week, NAPLAN testing in Year 3 and 5, and I thank Mrs Sheargold and all those involved in ensuring this National assessment runs smoothly.  We also look forward to ending our week tomorrow with our Water fun day at school for Kinder and Year 1, and our annual swimming carnival at CISAC for Years 2-6.  

Congratulations to our Awards winners for the first half of this term, who were presented to our community last Friday afternoon. 

Awards Assembly Week 6

Below is a statement from Fr John, shared at Parish Masses last weekend, in relation to a development proposal around our current presbytery area, welcoming any questions or comments to contacts below:

PRESBYTERY REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL

Over the past five years the Parish Finance Council, with the knowledge of the Parish Pastoral Council, has informed our Parish community of the possible redevelopment of the presbytery site adjacent to Holy Trinity Church, Parish Centre and bell tower.  Consideration of the matter began after a presbytery maintenance audit in 2018 came in at over $80,000.  Today the figure would be considerably higher.  Further, the footprint of the presbytery is large, but much of it is not and will not be used.  In consideration of the Church’s mission, the original community lease of the land, present and projected needs and making best use of our parish assets, discussions began with Marymead-Catholic Care Canberra and Goulburn about them overseeing construction and then managing fifty plus ‘affordable housing’ units on the site, with the presbytery and parish office being re-located.  The proposal is that Marymead-CatholicCare would borrow the money needed from the Catholic Development Fund, and pay it off with rental income from the units plus a subsidy to be provided by the ACT Government. The parish would receive an annual return for the land which would remain in parish ownership under the Trustees of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.  ‘Affordable housing’ is available to those earning less than $100,000 per annum, with rents at less than market rate.  We did not consider ‘social housing’ – for those without personal income - as we could not afford to do so. We did consider ‘independent living units’ but the lease purpose, the mission of the Church and the needs of the community saw priority given to ‘affordable housing’. Marymead-CatholicCare has experience in other Canberra parishes to make best use of church land to the good of both the parish and wider community.  After a number of meetings,Marymead-CatholicCare is confident that the ACT Government will support our proposal.  In other words, we are at the pointy end of the matter.  If the ACT Government supports the proposal and the Archdiocesan Trustees sign off on it, there would be a period of one to two years for the approval of the Development Application etcwhen alternate arrangements for the presbytery and parish office would be addressed, again with Archdiocesan Trustees approval.  If you would like more information about the proposal or would like to comment on it, please do so in the coming days. You could speak with or contact Parish Finance Council members Brendan Ryan (brendanryan65gmaillcomm), John Eyers (jeyersweboneecomm.au), Catherine, our Parish Secretary (wodennorth@cgorgg.au) or me (john.woods@cgorgg.au).  I commend this matter to your prayerful consideration mindful of the mission of the Church and provision for the present and future needs of the parish.                                                                                                                                                                                   Fr John

We are very excited this week to welcome our new ELC Director, Damien Montesin to our Holy Trinity Community.  Damien comes with a wealth of experience at PYP ELCs and other Catholic schools, and is passionate about early learning.  

We also welcome our new Youth Minister, Claire Mass, who will be working with our students every Thursday.  Claire will also be sharing the Reconciliation Retreat day next Friday 22nd of March,  with all our Year 3 School and Parish students. 

Cath Day,  in our Week 6 newsletter, shared with our community the upcoming transition from a School Board and P and F to our new Community council beginning next Term.  Thus, next Tuesday night will be our last official meetings of the  School Board and P and F, in its current format. A reminder these meetings are at 6pm at 7 for 7:15pm respectively at school, or MS Teams (if needed).

Please continue to keep Emily Capper in your prayers as she recovers from surgery and Zac M (Year 5) who will be having some surgery next week.  Please also continue to pray for our Year 3 Reconciliation candidates as they prepare for this important Parish Sacrament.  We also wish the best for our Year 6 students who will be attending camp at Jindabyne next Monday- Wednesday.  I will also be attending for part of this camp, and I thank Maddy Winter, Jaimi Hudson, Ethan Hart and Liam Cashion who will be the staff accompanying our Year 6's for this great experience.

Wishing you all another wonderful week  and I look forward to seeing our fabulous volunteers and families at our Swimming Carnival tomorrow.

Have a wonderful weekend and a peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families.

Philippa