Newsletter October 22nd, 2019

Lord God almighty,

bless our grandparents with long life, happiness, and health.

May they remain constant in your love

and be living signs of your presence

to their children and grandchildren.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

Dear Parents and students,

Hopefully everyone received the letter with the sad but also exciting news that Miss Shannon Macklin will be leaving St. Brigid’s at the end of this school year.  Shannon has been successful in gaining a classroom position at St. Francis Xavier School in Ballarat. Shannon has always planned to move her career back to Ballarat and so she is to be congratulated on achieving her goal.

As we said in last week’s newsletter we are now coming to the pointy end of our school year. This also means that by now all families should be coming to the end of their payment of schools fees.  However in examining our outstanding list there are still a significant number of families who have a substantial amount to pay. Please give this your attention as soon as possible.

We realise that fee payment can be both a burden and a challenge, so we implore any family who is having difficulty to please make a time to come and discuss this with us.  We cannot begin to provide assistance if we do not understand your predicament. Naturally all conversations remain confidential.

As we have been informing everyone through recent newsletters and communication, we have adopted the PAM module for ease of communication across a range of administration areas, including permission forms and student details such as medical needs.  If you have not yet activated your account, you soon may miss important school information.

How to go about getting yourself connected?

You will need to click on the 'Forgot Password?' link and follow the prompts in the original email sent last term. Once you have activated your account, you can download the SIMON Everywhere app to access PAM on your preferred device/s.

If you are having difficulty with this process, please contact the office.

This Thursday October 25th we will celebrate Grandparents Day, commencing with a liturgy at 10.00am in the church.

Also take the time to read Pope Francis’ thoughts on grandparents and a special prayer for these significant people in our lives.

Pope Francis has frequently said that, “Grandparents are a treasure in the family. Please, take care of your grandparents: love them and let them talk to your children!” He sees grandparents as a vital part of the family, from whom we can all learn valuable lessons.

One way to honor your grandparents, as Jesus likely did during his life with Sts. Joachim and Anne, is to pray a prayer of blessing over them. It is important to show your grandparents love and affection and to invoke God’s blessing upon their remaining years on this earth.

Here is a prayer that is part of a larger “Blessing of Grandparents” that can be performed at any time. It is a beautiful prayer, one that honors the many gifts grandparents bring to the family.

Grandparents are cherished members of our family. They bring gifts of wisdom, experience, and love and share with us their life of faith. We thank God for their example and ask that he bless them with happiness and good health.

We are moving even closer to starting work on our outdoor area. Over the last few weeks we have been working with David Hays our landscape architect, and we are now in a position where we are preparing tender documents for the project and these will be sent to interested companies.  As this project is a self funded one (this means we have not been availed any grants to assist with costs), and our budget will be tight, we have been applying for relevant sponsorship. I am delighted to announce that our local Bendigo Bank has been most generous in providing $5000 towards the project.  We are truly grateful for this support from our local community bank.

Given the somewhat warmer weather, grass and weeds really begin to come into bloom so to speak. So, last Monday all of the classes, along with their teachers spent some of their afternoon out in the sunshine weeding some our garden beds. We also organised a skip to dispose of the rubbish. If there is anyone who would like to give an hour in assisting with tidying up our garden beds - we would absolutely love you help.  Feel free to get your hands dirty.

Our Year 3 and 4 students arrived home last Thursday very weary but very excited about all of the experiences they participated in while on camp at Sovereign Hill.  The weather was not particularly kind to them, however they did not let this to hinder them in anyway. Our sincere thanks must go to the staff who attended the camp - Chelsea Brennan, Leela House, Caine Stabek and Lucinda Kennedy, because without their willingness to participate in such activities camps would be but a pipe dream.  Thank you also to you as parents who place their trust in our staff to care for your children overnight.

Our Year 3 and 4 students have been busy honing their cricket skills in readiness for their competition yesterday. It is great to see the children devoting all of their lunch time playing together as a team and providing plenty of support and encouragement to each.  We wish the congratulate the following children for doing their best: Clover, Neve, Sophie, Ruby, Bryson, Kyriae, Angus, Eamon, Ava, Madison, Chelsea and Dee.

Joel Porter and our school captains will again be organising the selling of Zooper Doopers every Wednesday and Friday at Lunch time.  The cost will again be 50 cents. Our sincere thanks once again to Cooleen Porter for her donation of the the first round of Zooper Doopers.

Well done to the small band of willing helpers who assisted Laura Sims with the catering job our P&F undertook for the Ballan Jockey club last week - your support and involvement is truly appreciated.  Funds raised through such fundraising activities will go directly to our outdoor area - namely our adventure playground area. Our present playground will need to be removed and re-installed as part of the works and so any funds raised over the next while will go directly to this project.

Of course don’t forget that this month is Walk to School Month and now that the weather is improving it is a great opportunity to get and be more active by walking to school each day.

October is Nude Food Month so this provides great incentive for all of us to really work hard at changing our ‘ways’ a little. We have all heard much about the devastating and major problems we have with recycling both here in Australia and globally. We all have to begin to take responsibility for this issue - we can lay blame with our government and councils - but ultimately waste and recyling is each person’s individual responsibility - we have to begin one person at a time!

Hi all After School Care folk... as you know its heading into warmer weather and hats are important. We are thinking it would be easier for after school time if the children could bring a non-school hat and leave it in our Hub room. That way their school hats can stay in the classrooms. Can you please label the hats and have your children bring them as soon as possible... maybe this will encourage more sunny days!

Thanks, Trish & Andreana

Planned Giving Program

Good Morning Fellow Parishioners

It has been some years since there has been a drive by the parish to ask parishioners to contribute to the planned giving program and those who already contribute to review their contribution.

The planned giving pledge form will be sent home with children and will also be distributed to the school parents at our two schools.

The pledge form shows two graphs one showing our annual expenditure and planned giving received since 2012 and the other showing the number of active planned givers for that period. As you can see from the graphs there is a widening gap between expenditure and amount of planned giving received and a significant drop off of in the number of active planned givers. If this trend continues the financial viability of the parish will be challenged.

Your financial support is needed to pay for the operating costs of the parish which include the usual that we get at home, electricity, gas, rates and insurance. Then we have staff wages, visiting clergy wages, contracted services for church cleaning and grounds maintenance. And there is the cost of maintaining our buildings at Gordon, Springbank and Ballan.  Support for faith education, pastoral care, retreats, parish ministries and diocesan levies also require funding.

We are indeed fortunate and truly blessed to have inherited these magnificent churches through the foresight, sacrifice and hard work of our founding parishioners, to continue on as a viable parish your financial support is required. Please give generously and what you can afford so that we may be able to meet our pastoral and spiritual needs.

Thank You

St Patrick’s Parish

A copy of the planned giving pledge form is also available to view here

Families rostered on for the current periods are: