AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD -March 2003

Bear One Another's Burdens

The responsibility of love is that we bear one another's burdens. But this responsibility, which is not an eternal one, leads doubtless to an eternal blessedness in which there will be no burdens for us that we will be required to bear for one another. Now, however, while we are in this life, that is, on this journey, let us bear one another's burdens so that we can achieve that life which is free of every burden. Eighty-three Diverse Questions, 71 Congratulations to Fr Robert Greenup osa, Pastor of Mareeba who celebrates his 10th anniversary of ordination and to Fr Michael Endicott osa and Fr Brian Fitzpatrick who celebrate their 40th anniversary of religious profession.

Welcome to Fr Andrew Batayola osa from the Cebu Province who has arrived to undertake a two year Masters of Spirituality degree at the Catholic Institute of Sydney. Andrew will belong to the St Clair Augustinian Community and assist in the parish

• AUGUSTINIAN FEASTS Link Augustinians - Saints and Blessed www.geocities.com/Athens/1534/saints.html
  
  
• INTERNATIONAL YOUTH GATHERING - GUADARRAMA, SPAIN (near Madrid) 30TH JULY - 5 AUGUST 2003
  
  Augustinian youth gatherings are for people aged 18-28 who have a connection with the Order of St Augustine and who wish to explore their spiritualty in an encounter with people from across the world. They continue a tradition of encounter and prayer.
  
  In light of September 11 and the present troubles in our world the accent in 2003 is on justice in our time and the hope that common purposes, hearts set together on God, and the ministry of the members of our Church across the world might set a better hope for the future. These are themes dear to the hearts of all Augustinians. For further information please contact Fr Tony Banks osa. Email: skabanks@ozemail.com.au

AUGUSTINIAN COMMUNITY, MAREEBA

The Augustinians have a long and rich association with the Diocese of Cairns. It began with the arrival of Fr John Hutchinson O.S.A. and his two companions at Cooktown in 1884. Subsequently, the Augustinian presence extended to all the existing mainland parishes of the Diocese.

Today, however, the Parishes of Mareeba and Dimbulah are the only parishes in the Diocese, which are still served by the Augustinians. With this background, St Thomas's Priory, Mareeba is now offering an opportunity for single men to experience a period of simple community life in the Augustinian tradition with time for prayer, parish work, recreation and personal pursuits.

For further information contact:
Robert Greenup
O.S.A. PO Box 308,
Mareeba, Queensland 4880
Phone: 07 4092 1077
Fax: 07 4092 3170
Email: stthomas@ledanet.com.au

Mareeba News St Thomas's Church, Mareeba, is holding a series of Lenten Talks. One talk will be given on each of the first four Tuesdays in Lent in the St Thomas's School staff room. Topics and presenters are: Tuesday 11 March How does Jesus save us? Fr John Butcher. Tuesday 18 March The Liturgy of the Eucharist Fr John Newman Tuesday 25 March The Church in the U.S.A. Fr Tyrone Deere Tuesday 1 April Formation of Conscience Fr John McGrath

These talks provide a great opportunity to hear the priests from neighbouring parishes speak about important aspects of our faith.

St Thomas's Parish have five adults who have been journeying together in the Adult Catechumenate since September, along with one adult from St Anthony's Parish in Dimbulah.

This year's Rite of Election is being held at St Monica's Cathedral, Cairns, on Sunday 9 March at the 10.00am Mass, with Bishop James Foley as presider.
This is the liturgical Rite by which the Church formally confirms the catechumens/candidates readiness for the sacraments of initiation and they express the will to receive these sacraments. All family, friends and parishioners are invited to attend this Mass in Cairns.

The Social Justice Group at St Thomas's Parish is holding its annual "Rice Meal" on Saturday 22 March, immediately following the Vigil Mass. It will be held in the Priory and a donation of $5 is asked for your bowl of rice. Money raised will assist in the sponsorship of a child through World Vision. During the evening a short video entitled "The Garden Planet - The Call to Ecological Conversion" will be shown. For further information phone Kay Morrow on 07 4092 3690.

News from St Augustine's College Brookvale

Sister Gavina at St Augustine's College, February 2003

In one of the biggest projects it has ever undertaken, St Augustine's College in Brookvale (Sydney), Australia is presently building a new multi-purpose hall on the northern boundary of the college property.

To be known as the Brimson Centre in honour of the founding Rector (Headmaster) of the College Fr Dave Brimson OSA, the new hall is a Aus$4 million (US$2.2 million) project that will provide students with a much-needed hall for assemblies and Masses.

It will also house a new library to be known as the Augustinian Resource Centre, which will have the latest multimedia hardware and software.

As well, its first-class facilities will provide for indoor sports, drama productions and musicals.

Sister Gavina, an Augustinian sister of Our Lady of Consolation from the Philippines, has this year joined the staff of St Augustine's College in Brookvale (Sydney, Australia) as part of its chaplaincy services. Sister Gavina is visiting the various classes, helps religious education teachers, is a member of the student welfare committee and is involved in the preparation of school liturgies. A colleague on staff has remarked that Sister Gavina has the "best smile on staff". Sister's cheerfulness is a very positive contribution to the community.

At a school assembly on 14th February 2003, Josephine Crimmins presented gifts from St. Augustine's College, Brookvale (Sydney), Australia to the Augustinian school at Carlisle, England.

She recently completed a teaching contract at Brookvale, and visited Austin Friars School as a representative of Brookvale while visiting the United Kingdom.

Mr Nicholas O'Sullivan, Headmaster of Austin Friars School, presented her with a painting for St. Augustine's College from the staff and students of Austin Friars School.

The framed picture was by an Austin Friars student (1995-2002), Pippa Lowe. It is oil painting incorporating various images from the school chapel and Carlisle Cathedral.

Josephine spent the day at the school, getting to know staff and pupils. In the evening she attended the last night of the school play, A Midsummer's Night's Dream.

NEWS FROM HOLY SPIRIT PARISH - ST CLAIR / ERSKINE PARK

Half a Ton of Youth Have Fun.

Actually the fifty young adults and teenagers on the Youth Liturgy Workshop Weekend worked very hard with few breaks. They were all from Holy Spirit Parish, St Clair/Erskine Park and they all had the same goal: to return for the parish Sunday evening Mass and to take leadership.

Spending the last weekend in March at a conference centre, they concentrated on learning more about liturgy and on preparing to exercise their various ministries. There was a particular emphasise on hospitality and on leadership in song and music. Thirty of the group refined their music skills to a high degree and so lifted the Sunday Mass music to a new height.

Holy Spirit Parish now has a large number of youth committed to preparing and leading a Youth Mass every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month at 6.00. All ministries (except Presider) are taken by people under 25 years of age.

Holy Spirit Parish is about to undertake a refurbishment of its church and parish centre. Built twenty years ago the complex is in need of some major repair. While undertaking this project the parish community intends to meet some other needs:

1. Enhance the worship space

2. Improve ventilation

3. Improve acoustics

4. Enlarge the gathering space.

Cost of the project is $500,000 approx. During Lent the parish staff will be
displaced from their officers while a reconfiguration of the parish centre
takes place. From Easter to Pentecost the parish community will be displaced
from its church while the church building is refurbished. If all goes well,
the parish will gather in the completed church for its feast day, Pentecost
Sunday.

AUGNET

A web site of particular Augustinian interest was launched in Sydney on 6th August 2002. It is http://www.augnet.org

Augnet is intended to encourage greater links between Augustinian schools via the Internet and by other means, and to enable them to understand and share further their common Augustinian spirituality and heritage. St Augustine's College, Brookvale, N.S.W., Australia and Austin Friars School, Carlisle, England were the originating participants, and Villanova Preparatory School, Ojai, California, U.S.A. is presently in the process of joining Augnet.

The first co-operative initiative by Augnet was an international photographic and poster competition, which attracted entries from four Augustinian schools on three different continents. Site statistics indicate that Augnet has attracted most usage from Australia and the United Kingdom (where the Augustinian schools are making use of it in class). Other Augnet browsers are recorded as living in thirty-eight other nations, from Argentina to Austria, Brazil to Belize, Chile to China, Estonia to Egypt, Iceland to Ireland, etc.

The site was intentionally launched in an incomplete state, as it is intended that staff and student involvement will increasing come into play to expand and perfect it. Such an expectation was not in vain, as the first examples of staff and student contributions have already happened. For Augnet's initial phase, the webmaster is Fr Michael Endicott O.S.A. in Brisbane. He can be contacted at webmaster@augnet.org

The Hon. Tony Abbott MHR, Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations in the Australian Federal Parliament, is seen here launching Augnet on to the Internet.

COLLEGE IN BRISBANE AREA OPENS WITH AUGUSTINIAN LINKS

A Year 8 (secondary student) with a Preschool student. All 170 Foundation Day students received a commemorative certificate and badge.

A new Catholic systemic primary and secondary college of the Archdiocese of Brisbane opened its doors to 170 students for the first time on Wednesday, 29th January 2003.

The school is named St Augustine's College at the wish of the Archbishop of Brisbane, who also suggested that it adopt an Augustinian spirituality.

The new college is located in a ten-year-old housing development named Springfield. It lies within the Parish of Goodna, which the Augustinians are staffing for the Archdiocese for the ten-year period from 1995 to 2004 inclusive.

Three of the Augustinians living in the Priory at Camira (which is another suburb within the Goodna Parish) were associated with the Foundation Day ceremonies of the new college.

Fr Brian Fitzpatrick O.S.A., as Moderator of the Parish of Goodna, previously signed the pastoral agreement with Brisbane Catholic Education, which committed Brian and his successors at Goodna to provide priestly ministry to the college. At the Foundation Day ceremony, Fr Fitzpatrick led the Prayer of the Faithful.

Fr Michael Morahan O.S.A. is Rector (Principal) of the Order's Villanova College at Coorparoo, which is about 20 kilometres from Springfield. He and others at Villanova have assisted the new college in numerous ways, particularly with a variety of resources materials about St Augustine.

Thanks to Fr Morahan and Villanova, every classroom now in use at the new college contains a framed print of St Augustine that was taken from the 15th-century Gozzoli fresco series in the Augustinian church at San Gimignano, Italy.

Fr Michael Endicott O.S.A. is the priest within the Goodna Parish who is assigned to concentrate on the Springfield district. He was a foundation member of the college's local steering committee that in mid-1999 joined in planning the college. At the Foundation Day ceremony, Fr Endicott was called to bless the religious artefacts that adorn the classrooms, the staff, the students and the families involved with the college.

The wider Augustinian world was highlighted at the Foundation Day ceremony by written greetings and/or student-made posters from Augustinians and Augustinians schools elsewhere in the world. Villanova College in nearby Brisbane was represented by a teacher and four students, and St Augustine's College at Brookvale (Sydney), Australia sent a poster.

Austin Friars School at Carlisle in England sent a letter signed by all their staff, and a poster created by its junior school students.

A Year 8 student is surrounded by some of the balloons that were given to each student.

St Mary's School in the Augustinian Parish of Nagasaki, Japan has entered a Sister School relationship with the new college. This will benefit the Springfield middle school students who will all study Japanese as their second language. Secondly, both schools will share an Augustinian spirituality. In that Nagasaki is a city undertaking initiatives for world peace, St Mary's School will share this mission with Springfield students. A letter was received from the Japanese Augustinian ministries via their regional vicar, Fr Masaki Imada O.S.A., who until 2002 was Principal of St Mary's School.

A letter of congratulation came from the Augustinian Prior General, Fr Robert Prevost O.S.A., who lives in Rome but presently is in Bolivia, South America. The Prior General welcomed the new college to the world-wide family of Augustinian schools.

Greetings also arrived from Fr Jesus Guzman O.S.A., who is the Order's representative at the United Nations in New York, U.S.A. He also offered to provide materials to St Augustine's College on peace studies.

St Augustine's College is a co-educational Archdiocesan college within the Brisbane catholic Education system. Its 170 foundation students are enrolled in Preschool, Grades 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, and in Grade 8 (the first year of secondary education in Queensland). The school is master planned to reach a maximum of three primary streams per grade level, and five secondary streams per grade level, at which time its enrolment will be 1,400 pupils.

Stage one of its building projects (just completed) saw the completion in recent days of fourteen buildings. This expenditure for land and buildings cost five million (Australian) dollars. Stage Two is already being planned, and will be required to be ready for use in January 2005.

Holy Spirit Parish St Clair Site Gets Lots of Praise

www.holyspiritstclair.com.au

The parish website has been listed as a RECOMMENDED site on the Catholic Telecommunications network. This produced several emails being sent to the parish from people who consequently logged into our site. They were all very complimentary. The following were typical:

"Congratulations to you and the team. I have just been to your fabulous site. Apologies if I am one of thousands who are emailing you. However, it is just superb-and I am very judicious of my praise of websites...for quite a while I way writing reviews of sites for a magazine."

"....it's fantastic and a credit to you all. It's a great model of communication as well as a model of the various ministries that are undertaken by your community. I especially liked access to the parish Bulletin."

"...congratulations on your website-it's a terrific source of information on the parish and all your activities-a really good model for other parishes and groups."

A WAY TO KNOW JESUS BETTER - 'The Kyabram Stations'
By Fr Dave Austin OSA
www.augustinians.org.au/communities/kyabram.html

AUGUSTINIAN CENTRE FOR SPIRITUALITY PROGRAM 2003
2 Hewitt Avenue
Greystanes 2145
Enquiries 9896 6794
www.augustinians.org.au/communities/greystanes.html