The Diocese of Parramatta is responding to exponential growth in the Marsden Park area with the establishment of St Luke’s Catholic Faith Community, a new parochial district in Sydney’s North West. Deacon Tony Hoban, Pastoral Director for the new Catholic community said it was decided to use the term “faith community” over the more traditional “parochial district” as “a lot of people don’t know what a parochial district is, so we’re called St Luke’s Catholic Faith community.
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“‘Catholic’, because of who we are, and ‘faith community’ because that distinguishes us from the learning community (St Luke’s Catholic College).
“When we have stability of numbers and finances then we would become a parish. Essentially people will still come along, Mass will be a normal Mass”.
Deacon Tony and his wife Annette, have moved into the area to lead the community and are grateful for the support and quickly adapting to life in Marsden Park. In 2015, Marsden Park had a population 615 residents but expects 30,000 residents by 2030. St Luke’s Catholic college expects to grow from 300 to 2000.
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Annette has enjoyed the move to the burgeoning area. “It’s a wonderful place, it’s community-based and everyone is friendly. There’s amazing growth here at Marsden Park, houses are going up everywhere. We’re constantly living amongst the dust, the car is brown every day even though we wash it, dust on the clothes. Yet we feel we’ve settled in already as we’ve been welcomed by the community” she said.
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VIEW: Bishop Vincent’s welcome to St Luke’s Marsden Park
Regular sacramental life begins for St Luke’s Catholic Faith Community Sunday 8thApril at 10am , when Most Rev Vincent Long Van Nguyen OFM CONV, Bishop of Parramatta celebrates Mass at St Luke’s College. Weekly Mass will be then offered by visiting priests, with Deacon Tony assisting.
To find out more and connect with St Luke’s Marsden Park Catholic Faith Community:
Website: https://stlukesmarsdenpark.org.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stlukesmarsdenpark/
