IT is good to be with you and thank you for the warm welcome I have received this week. I look forward to my time here being fruitful and beneficial to us all.
I am slowly learning about the place and finding my way around. Many years ago I was assistant priest to Fr Bill Pietzsch in Cheltenham. As the founding priest of Greythorn parish, he would often speak favourably of his time and work here.
He was a shy man with many great insights and he understood the mind of children especially. I was privileged to give the homily at his funeral.
As a child, I remember coming to North Balwyn to a wildlife park where we had rides on elephants and camels. There also had an aviary with many kinds of beautiful birds. I grew up on the other side of the Yarra River at Ivanhoe, and spent a lot of time along its banks and in it too.
This is the first time I have been in this area as a priest, so I am looking forward to my stay here. I have spent many years in the large multicultural parishes on the outskirts of Melbourne. I have been in Sunshine, Hampton Park and Mill Park.
To come to a small parish is a new experience for me. For the last over 7 years I have been involved in the training of priests at Corpus Christi College Carlton. Here I was able to witness the growth of numbers that has taken place.
In my time there we had 45 ordained priests for Victoria and Tasmania and South Australia. There are now over 50 seminarians and I am impressed with the calibre of them. This growth has happened when we least expected it.
The problem for the Church will not be a shortage of priests, but a shortage of people. Our prayers for vocations have are being answered.
In the early 1980s I spent some years in Zambia in East Africa as a chaplain and teacher in a large boarding school. It was a great time in my life and Zambia is now like a second home to me. In fact I am just back from spending five weeks there.
The Church is vibrant and strong in faith. I have been in both the rural and city areas, and people are natural believers. There are challenges but there is great progress. I come back with great hope. In some parts of the world, the Church is dying, but in others, it is rising.
Both go on together. This year too, the crops are excellent as there has been good rainfall. There will be plenty of food for the drought stricken parts of Africa. It will be a matter of getting food to where it is needed.
One consequence of my years in Zambia is partial deafness caused by taking tablets to avoid malaria. Sometimes you may think that I am ignoring you, when in fact I have not heard you. So please be patient with me.
My appointment here is temporary, but I am not sure for how long that is. So we get on with life as normal. We do not put things on hold. The parish goes on with what it does best, praying and worshipping and caring for each other and those in need.
Jesus was temporary wherever he went. We do not know the future, but we do know the present and we live in the present moment.