Burdekin Catholic Parish Ritualised

Four Catholic parishes from the Burdekin region came together as one last Tuesday, October 31 to ritualise the formation of Burdekin Catholic Parish.

After many hours of consultation with parishes and their communities, recommendations were made by Catholic Bishop of Townsville Bishop Tim Harris to combine the parishes of Ayr, Giru, Home Hill and Burdekin Valley into one.

“We prepared each of these separate parishes and we said to them all, ‘There’s strength in numbers and coming together’,” Bishop Harris said.

“As we know, the church isn’t growing; there are challenges not only for the church, but for local communities.

“What we want to say in all of that is that the church is alive and we’re trying to reconfigure how we do things and try some new ways for new times.”

Although the four parishes have combined to pool resources and personnel, the former parishes will remain operational and masses will continue.

A new Mission Council has formed to lead parish operations, led by Father Manoj Mathew and Chairperson of the Parish Leadership Team Bev Lando.

“I truly believe that this is going to give a lot more hope to the people here, there’s going to be more life in the community, more vibrancy of people working together,” Father Mathew said.

“I’ve always been about the collective group of peoples in the Burdekin,” added Ms Lando.

“The church is a broad combination of people who are going to walk together.”

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Bishop Tim Harris and Father Manoj Mathew