Women connect to faith at beautiful retreat An enduring vision of our beloved friend, Jenni Searson came to fruition on Saturday 7 December when 60 ladies gathered at the beautiful Francis Retreat Centre in Bonny Hills to participate in the inaugural Parish Women’s Retreat. Timed to coincide with the season of Advent, the theme of Mary, Blessed [...]

Memoir Project brings reconnection to residents and students Year 10 students from St Joseph’s Regional College had the opportunity to work with the residents from St Agnes’ Hostel, Maryknoll and Mount Carmel which are all a part of our Catholic Care of the Aged (CCA) facilities. Some of the most socially isolated people in our society are [...]

Honouring Denise McLoughlin’s 30 years of teaching at St Agnes' Parish schools Denise McLoughlin’s 30 years of teaching service for St Agnes' Parish schools was recognised in a celebration held in her honour on Friday 13 December, at St Peter’s Primary School in Port Macquarie. Classes of children performed at the special assembly, followed by a function [...]

Nomination for Joshua Wright and his work in Indigenous Education Joshua Wright has been nominated by his TAFENSW Community Services teacher, Rebecca Miles, for a TAFENSW Excellence Award in the category of Health Wellbeing and Community Services Student of the Year, Trainee of the Year and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student of the Year Award. These [...]

St Peter's Primary School ends the year on a high Today (Tues 10 Dec) St Peter’s Primary School, Port Macquarie celebrated the end of the school year, with an end of year blessing, a choir performance and announcement of the new school leaders for 2020. Over 500 students, staff, parents, grandparents and family members came together in [...]

Dr Sam’s joey ‘Kevin’ is star of the show at Maryknoll Dr Sam Bouwer, who does rounds at Maryknoll, has been hand raising a wallaby joey abandoned by its mum. He is following advice of local wildlife rescue services so the 9 month-old joey can, eventually, be released back into the wild. He has been bringing the [...]

Emmaus Night Staff Christmas Party – generous hearts raise funds for Bushfire appeal The Night Staff at Emmaus held their Annual Christmas party recently but it was unlike other years in one, big and generous way. Instead of exchanging secret Santa gifts, this year they decided to donate the money to the bush fire appeal instead. According [...]

The Francis Retreat home for Fire & Rescue teams during crisis The current fire season, including October and November, has been very tense for many in our Parish communities. At The Francis Retreat, during what is traditionally one of their busiest times of year, six groups were unable to proceed with their planned retreats and activities. At [...]

Here's the story of a real modern day Prodigal Son A big thank you to Jim, one of our Pastoral Care Volunteers, for taking the time to write and send in this beautiful true story about how God’s grace worked in the life of one young man – a prodigal son, reunited with his father. A young [...]

Seven ideas for Advent to help you prepare joyfully for Christmas With the relentless commercialisaton of Christmas, it can sometimes feel like Christmas starts with the Big W toy catalogue in September and ends with a food coma after Christmas lunch on December 25. For Catholics, the season of Christmas begins with Advent (1 December – 24 [...]