BISHOP’S MESSAGE
DIOCESE OF BROKEN BAY Diocesan Office: Tel (02) 8379 1600 Caroline Chisholm Centre Building 2, 423 Pennant Hills Rd Pennant Hills NSW 2120 (Access off City View Rd) PO Box 340 Pennant Hills NSW 1715 bishop@bbcatholic.org.au
BBN / JUNE 2020
We are a living Eucharistic community By Bishop Anthony Randazzo
CHANCERY OFFICES Bishop: Most Rev Anthony Randazzo Vicar General: Very Rev Dr David Ranson Chancellor: Jo Robertson Executive Officer: Kelly Paget Diocesan Financial Administrator, Director, Office for Stewardship: Emma McDonald Director, Diocesan Office for Safeguarding: Jodie Crisafulli Tel: (02) 8379 1605 Director, Marriage Tribunal: Adrienne Connaghan Tel: (02) 8379 1680 Director, Office for Communications: Selina Hasham Manager, Office for Evangelisation: Jenny Hildebrandt Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD): Alison Newell CATHOLIC SCHOOLS OFFICE Interm Director: Danny Casey Tel (02) 9847 0000 PO Box 967 Pennant Hills NSW 1715 CATHOLICCARE Executive Director: Lyn Ainsworth Tel: (02) 9481 2600 PO Box 966 Pennant Hills 1715 Children’s Services: Tel: (02) 9481 2660 Family Centres: Brookvale – Tel: (02) 8968 5100 Naremburn – Tel: (02) 8425 8700 Waitara – Tel: (02) 9488 2400 Warnervale – Tel: (02) 4356 2600 Foster and Residential Care: Tel: (02) 4320 7700 Mission, Hospital Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care: (02) 9481 2658 BROKEN BAY NEWS Editor: Melissa Loughlin Tel: (02) 8379 1618 news@bbcatholic.org.au Design: Edward Baricevic
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My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, welcome to another edition of Broken Bay News. Over these past few months as we have lived in a COVID environment, our community has been presented with challenges and opportunities. I suspect for most of us, neither was expected or even desired, and yet, here we are by the grace of God pushing forward through the greatest health crisis in 100 years. One of the great challenges has been trying to reach out so that people are not lost in the myriad of rules and regulations. Keeping families and loved ones together as well as staying connected with neighbours and friends has been a challenge. The work of our Parishes, Catholic Schools, and CatholicCare has been marvellous under extraordinary circumstances. The experience has also afforded us many opportunities. We have had to be quite deliberate in making occasions for gatherings to be non-exclusive and open, despite numerical restrictions. Many have taken responsibility for their own health and safety, not selfishly but with a much deeper and informed understanding of the common good. Surely, this is an opportunity to build stronger, more charitable communities of faith as well as a better society.
As the community of the Church of Broken Bay, we have also received the opportunity to reassess and evaluate what is truly of value and importance to us as the Body of Christ. At the top of the list is our Sunday Eucharistic gathering. I have been inundated with messages, emails, and letters from people of faith who are longing for the Eucharist. Many have expressed their desire to eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist; as well as meet and greet fellow members of the body of Christ in the community of the Church. What is clear is that we do not merely go to Mass; rather we are a living Eucharistic community with a life and mission in the world. The COVID environment challenges this life and mission, while at the same time offering us opportunities to be creative in living the faith and engaging in mission. I have been asked why Sunday Mass is so important to us as Catholic Christians? For all Christians, Sunday is the first of all days because it is the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Put simply, it is the day that Jesus rose from the dead. The very first Christians took Sunday, above all other days, to assemble, to pray, to read the Scriptures and to break bread. From that time until today, this celebration, that Catholics call the Eucharist, has continued. In our own time, we can find Catholic communities moved by the Holy Spirit, coming together on Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist. In the First Letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul used the image of the body of Christ when he spoke about the
