Last week was a very special time for our parish when we celebrated our 40the anniversary since Bishop Lindsay officially opened our newly built church in 1976.

It was a special time for parishioners past and present to recall our journey over the last 40 years. It was a great team effort with input from numerous parish groups who all worked tirelessly to make the church beautiful for the celebrations.

The celebrations started with a mass celebrated by Father Kelly on Sunday morning. We were blessed with a full church of parishioners and friends old and new which created a lovely atmosphere of prayer and thanksgiving for all the parish has achieved and received over the years. The mass began with a procession to the altar of representatives from all the parish groups, who brought candles to symbolise the work of the parish over the years. A picture of Our Lady and St Anne kindly donated by a parishioner was also brought to the altar to mark the occasion.

The choir were in wonderful voice as usual with the psalm being sung by the youngest choir member. Bidding prayers were specially composed for the occasion and called for our thoughts and prayers all who had worked practically and spiritually to build our parish community.

The children of St Anne’s and Cardinal Hume schools made a beautiful patchwork banner depicting the thoughts and prayers of the children who attended our schools.

The mass was followed by a buffet lunch in the church hall where everyone gathered to catch up with friends and look at old photographs and memorabilia of our parish journey. A celebration cake was made for the occasion with figures depicting Fr. Brendan and our first parish priest Fr. Philip O’Brien. Speeches were given by two parish members with their memories of  early days of the parish and of past parishioners who are no longer with us. The choir entertained everyone with some music chosen for the occasion.

It was a wonderful day of thanksgiving, celebration and prayer. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the occasion in any way and to Fr. Kelly for his continued hard work in leading our parish.