By Amanda Murthy
The Kalamunda Parish Holy Family Catholic Church community gathered on Sunday 29 September to pray and witness a blessing for the new extensions to the parish centre which include new offices for the Parish Priest, Secretary, as well as some meeting rooms for the parish community.
Perth Auxiliary Bishop Don Sproxton celebrated the Mass which was attended by more than 150 parishioners. During his homily, Bishop Sproxton reflected on the Gospel reading for the day, taken from Luke.
“In the Gospel reading we see the reversal occur in relation to the rich man and Lazarus the poor man (not the same Lazarus who was the friend of Christ).
“Lazarus is the one who experiences salvation but the rich man only enjoys wealth here on earth.
“The new facilities your parish now has, will allow the parish to be more effective in its mission to bring the community together and develop a stronger sense of Church – which in light of this Gospel should encourage us to welcome the poor and all those who needs the love of God.
“Therefore the message of the Gospel is that we are each called to bring hope to people in our society,” Bishop Sproxton added.
Kalamunda Parish Priest Father Antony Suresh said he is happy that the offices are finally up and running, adding that the hall will be able to host parish activities, events, meetings and wakes accordingly.
“Just to have the proper space to congregate comfortably, the parishioners appreciate that,” Father Suresh cited.
“We will host our first community event at the hall on 26 October – our annual fundraising activity where parishioners donate second hand goods, we sell them and the money goes to funding our parish activities and maintenance,” he added.
Parish Council President Harry Muller, who recently offered his time and musical talents to raise funds for the project said that the new office area, which includes a common meeting area and a storage area will be beneficial for the parish community in a long run.
“The parish first cordoned off virtually one quarter of the parish hall a number of years ago and that space was used as an office area – as a temporary measure,” he stated.
“But now we have finally raised enough funds for the extensions, the hall is now restored to its original size and can be used to host parish community events or relevant church group meetings, which is ideal.
“Father Suresh has his own office behind doors and the parish secretary has her own area as well.
“A great feature is the smaller room can be easily heated and cooled when there are meetings at the table in the main area, which we didn’t have before. We also have a dedicated space for storage of Parish documents and also a store room for extra tables and chairs,” he added.
Parishioner Anna Van Eck expressed her joy in seeing the completion of the extensions, adding that the parish can now use this extra space to reach out to more people in the community.
“Our parish office extension has been beautifully completed and the hall is large and welcoming,” she explained.
“The only challenge we have is to fill it with younger families and more parishioners, which in some way reflects the challenge of the larger Church.
“With faith, we can see this as a call to pray for an increase in the recognition of the importance of faith in God, family and community in our lives,” she added.
The hall space will be available for parish use, starting from 24 October.