Dear sisters and brothers,

Following our parish meeting two Sundays ago, various proposals have been discussed. One proposal is in regard to Mass times. Our Saturday night Mass usually has our lowest number of attendees, with the Sunday night Mass gathering a few more. An option I proposed during last Saturday night’s Mass was to consider moving that particular Mass to an earlier time of 5pm to cater to our elderly parishioners and our younger families. A number of parishes in the Archdiocese have moved to an earlier Saturday evening Mass which is usually well attended.

I propose to hold an indicative vote during next Saturday night’s Mass (30 April) to determine whether a majority would support a trial of moving the 6pm Saturday night Mass to 5pm commencing the first Saturday in July until the end of the year. While some have suggested a “winter” time (5pm) and a “summer” time (6pm), Queenslanders are famous for rejecting “daylight saving”. My inclination is to select one time to minimise confusion and so be consistent throughout the whole year. Others have suggested 5:30pm, but Hendra parish has a Saturday night 5:30pm and it is better to provide an alternative time to our neighbouring parish.

So the proposal is this:
to hold an indicative vote next Saturday night during Mass to determine whether the people are in favour of a trial of a 5pm Mass; the trial would last from the first Saturday in July until the end of the year;
if there is not a regular attendance of around 100 people towards the end of the trial, another indicative vote would be held to determine whether we revert to 6pm or continue with 5pm; Saturday evening Reconciliation would be at 4:30pm.

As I have said, I have no strong opinion one way or another. Changing times is a risk for various reasons, but as I said last week, I don’t believe that we can continue to do the same old things in the same old way. I understand that there are implications for rosters and ministries, but I hope that these can be overcome. I am happy to accept whatever the indicative vote suggests, and so it is over to you to look for change or to support what is already in place. Only those at Saturday night Mass next week will vote. (Maybe this will ensure a big crowd!). Elections seem to be in the air.

Fr. Anthony