{"id":2789,"date":"2017-04-08T18:22:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T07:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/?p=2789"},"modified":"2017-04-08T18:22:54","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T07:22:54","slug":"farewell-and-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/farewell-and-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"Farewell And Goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"

THIS will be my last From The Desk<\/em> for Greythorn. And I doubt that I will ever serve in another parish. I leave next Monday April \"dennis<\/a>17. My heart is tinged with gratitude, sadness and a sigh of relief as I prepare to drive north.<\/p>\n

This weekend I am grateful to Bishop Terry Curtin<\/strong> for his presence. He was a longer serving PP at Greythorn before I arrived and left a large footprint. My shorter time here has barely given me a chance to initiate what he did and the last year has had its difficulties, with health being my main concern. I thank the Bishop for his presence and his friendship over many years, since the time I was first appointed to Australian Catholic University (ACU).<\/p>\n

Ric Carnale has been a gentle and wise guide to our Parish Pastoral Council and has helped to steer the parish during most of the time since Georgina Biondi relinquished the position soon after I settled into the parish.<\/p>\n

There were others of the ‘old guard’ who, at the time, I had expected to farewell. Like Sister Kathleen MSC, from the choir, they have all out lasted me and well and truly exceeded my contribution. But I conclude my specific thanks to Mario Landini, without whose help I would not have survived as long as I have.<\/p>\n

At Greythorn I became aware of my shortcomings as a Pastor, having spent most of my life in teaching and educational administration. I did and still do miss the challenges of education in a fast changing global world. I can comfortably leave that to others.<\/p>\n

At the parish I was first confronted with the ‘renovation’ of the worship space, the Church, for which excellent plans were already in place. We had a good builder and you, the generous parishioners, provided the finance necessary to see that the parish emerged debt free from this major change to the building. Thank-you for that.<\/p>\n

I tried to visit as many of the sick and homes as I could but it took time to find the skills for that ministry too. But I did enjoy meeting many of you at home and enjoying your company.<\/p>\n

There were no marriages during my time at Greythorn. That is partly the time in which we live and the relative isolation of the Church.<\/p>\n

But we had a share of Baptisms and, of course, Funerals. These, more than anything, gave me the opportunity to meet with parishioners.<\/p>\n

As I write these few words I realize that I could have done so much more. But it is not the time for personal criticism. Shall we say I did my best. I will miss you and I love you. As a priest I can only offer spiritual guidance and words of encouragement from the Gospel and from my personal relationship with Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I hope that, in years to come, these small seeds will bear fruit.<\/p>\n

We welcome as the new temporary resident priest at Greythorn and I wish him well. Also to you, my dear friends in Christ, may we celebrate a wonderful Easter together and I promise to keep you in my thoughts and prayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THIS will be my last From The Desk for Greythorn. And I doubt that I will ever serve in another parish. I leave next Monday April 17. My heart is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-notices"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2789"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2796,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2789\/revisions\/2796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}