Posts Tagged ‘Parish’

Karori parish community garden a winner

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

St Teresa’s Parish in Karori, Wellington, started a community garden in 2010. This year has been its most productive year The garden works with the stages of the moon and they are currently readying the planter boxes for winter, says regular gardener Janet O’Reilly. The garden has brought many community members together as volunteers. “Symbolically Read more

West Auckland Catholic Church dubbed neighbour from hell

Friday, February 24th, 2012

A West Auckland Catholic Church has been dubbed the neighbour from hell after a stoush with a  medical centre escalated.

The church has employed a security guard to stop the medical centre’s patients and staff using a right of way at the centre of the scrap.

The access connects the Westview Medical Centre in Glen Eden and Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes with Glendale Rd.

The church says it owns the land where the right of way is built and wants a payment of $3000 a year from the medical centre for staff and patients to use it.

GP Eric Horn says the right of way was used for years before the medical centre opened in 2004 and should remain as that.

Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes chairman John Whitcombe wants an official agreement with the medical centre, like it has with the Glen Eden RSA, over use of the right of way.

”All we’ve asked for from them is for them to negotiate to pay an amount of money.”

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Redevelopment of a Dunedin church may provide a public park

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

A public park may be created as part of a $2.6 million redevelopment of a Dunedin church. “The idea of creating a space for our parishioners and the community is very appealing … We envisage it would be somewhere for our congregation to gather, and also a place where a worker from [nearby businesses] could eat Read more

How parish life has changed

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

While the following article concerns the US, much of what is reported here is reflected in Catholic parish life in Aotearoa New Zealand: A lot has changed in parish life in a quarter-century, yet American Catholics are still predominantly attached to territorial parishes headed by a priest pastor. The model is being stretched and transformed, Read more

Faith influx pressures parish structures

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

Gavin Abraham writes of the ordination of a Vietnamese priest as an auxiliary bishop in Melbourne, Australia: “It was an historic occasion because it marked the first episcopal ordination of an Asian-born priest in Australia in the Latin rite. I asked the question then, “When will it happen here?”, pointing to the growing influence of Read more

Parishes that work: Business practices for the church

Friday, June 24th, 2011

Synergy, efficiency, and compliance aren’t just for business. They’re also important for a stronger church. Imagine the moment (with a choir in the background for good measure): under a banner proclaiming “Welcome Home!” a lapsed Catholic opens the beautifully crafted doors to the parish where she hopes by God’s grace to renew her faith life Read more

Parish closures or amalgamations may be inevitable

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

Archbishop John Dew has announced a review into parishes in the Archdiocese of Wellington. A  group has been set up to conduct the review, and will report back after August 28. He has told parishioners that parish closures or amalgamations  “may well be inevitable”. “The viability of our fledgling pastoral areas, as well as our funding options, Read more

St Luke’s Catholic Community Flat Bush is thriving

Friday, May 13th, 2011

The St Luke’s Catholic Community Flat Bush is thriving. It has grown by more than 350 members in five years from 220 in 2006 to more than 600 members today. With the establishment of Flat Bush as a new town, the Catholic Church saw the need to establish the St Luke’s Catholic community, which has grown from Read more

It’s a new cultural epoch

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

A new cultural epoch means new ways of doing things. “We’re living in the fourth cultural epoch, or cultural period, the first having been the Agrarian Age and then the Industrial Age followed by the Information Age and now what I refer to as the Inventive Age,” says Doug Pagitt.  “My suggestion is that in each of Read more