St Joseph’s Family Services: 50 years of early education worthy of celebration Current and past staff and students of St Joseph’s Family Services gathered at Joey’s House in Warlters Street Port Macquarie on Saturday morning (5 August) for an open day to celebrate 50 wonderful years of providing early education for children and families in the community.Established in 1973, [...]

Renewal Team recognised and Parish Pastoral Council commissioned at Mass Congratulations to the members of the new PPC who were blessed and commissioned at Mass last Sunday (6 August) by Fr Roland on behalf of Fr Paul – Daniel Barakat, Matthew Bushe, Therese Freeman, Shane Hyland, Elizabeth Johnson, Tess Koning, Tony McAlister, Zac Parnell, Debbie Rennes, and Brigitte Rieger [...]

Homelessness Week Event a Success Last Thursday, 10 August, the Port Macquarie Youth and Community Hub teamed up with other local organisations to bring extra awareness to Homelessness Week in our community by offering extra support opportunities to those who need it including: Free breakfast supplied by M.A.D @ 7am Emergency food, clothing and toiletries Delicious free lunch [...]

Too old to travel? Travel Ducks say Never! Emmaus has introduced ‘Travel Ducks’ that staff take with them when they are on leave. They take photos of the duck at key locations or during fun holiday activities and send them back to Emmaus. The photos/stories are printed and posted on world maps for residents to follow their journey. [...]

New Pastoral Council to form after successful discernment process After a successful discernment session held at St Peter’s Primary School on Saturday 22 July, ten people, along with ex-officio members (Fr Paul Gooley, Tony Worner, Fr Roland Agrisola and Fr Prodencio Bognay) will form the new Parish Pastoral Council. At the start of the discernment session, the Parish was [...]

An uplifting afternoon for all at Peter Kearney Concert The sound of Peter Kearney’s music filled the air at the Tenison Woods Centre in Lochinvar place last Saturday (29 July) and delighted the crowd of 50 who had gathered to hear it. Many in the audience came from the Parish’s Independent Living Villages and residential care homes, while one [...]

Vanuatu Women’s Centre delighted with St Agnes’ Foundation gift packs A small Parish team was in Vanuatu in mid-June training and recruiting Ni-Vanuatu workers as part of the PALMs (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) to take on roles as care support employees in our residential aged care services in Port Macquarie. They took in their travel bags eighteen (18) personal [...]

Parish sends out its World youth day Pilgrims with a blessing At the gathering of our parish family for Mass at 5pm Mass last Sunday (17 July), Fr Paul gave Sarah Jennings, Chloe Nash, Zackary Bennett, Thomas McGhee and Emily Burg a special blessing before they embark on their World Youth Day pilgrimage this Sunday 23 July. Along with [...]

Parish kicks off PALM program with JHI training in Vanuatu St Agnes’ Catholic Parish has become an approved employer for the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, which is a is a temporary migration initiative offered by the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) that allows eligible Australian businesses to hire workers from 9 Pacific islands and Timor-Leste [...]

Parish signs on new group of School-based trainees from Newman College A new group of School-based trainees from Newman Senior Technical College commenced work with St Agnes’ Catholic Parish recently. Amongst the group are seven students who will train in Human Services and one who will undertake an early childhood education traineeship with St Joseph’s Family Services. The group, [...]

Volunteers enjoy a morning of renewal In a departure from the Parish’s usual practice of celebrating National Volunteer Week with Mass at St Agnes’ Church, Parish Volunteers were invited to enjoy a morning of hospitality and renewal in the peaceful environs of The Francis Retreat where Mass was also celebrated on site in the delightful intimacy of the Romero [...]

The Spirit of Pentecost alive and well at Parish Visioning Day Over 70 people came together for St Agnes’ Catholic Parish Visioning Day on Pentecost Sunday 28 May with the diversity of the gathering truly reflecting its theme, “Living Hope - Many Parts, One Body”*.A spirit of optimism and enthusiasm was evident as those who gathered took time to [...]