St Patrick’s Cathedral to light up winter holidays

By Mary Brazell, 9 July 2019
A light projection during the 2019 Light Up St Pat's at St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta. Image: Diocese of Parramatta.

 

As temperatures drop through the winter holidays, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta is hoping to warm the hearts of the local community.

From July 6 to 21, St Patrick’s Cathedral will bring back its themed light show Light Up St Pat’s.

The event is held in conjunction with the City of Parramatta Council’s Winterlight Festival, which runs throughout the July school holidays at Prince Alfred Park, Parramatta.

VIEW: Images from Light Up St Pat’s here or below.

Light Up St Pat’s will be launched on July 6 with various community leaders and local politicians.

Mili Lee, Financial Administrator, St Patrick’s Cathedral Parish, said that Light Up St Pat’s is a way that the parish opens itself up to the community.

“This [Light Up St Pat’s] was an idea that was brought up by our young people.

“The whole idea of [Light Up St Pat’s] is to connect with the outside community.

“We had to sit as a parish and discern how best to connect with the city community that’s growing around us.

“While we cannot be out there all the time preaching the Good News, this is a very subtle way of opening our doors and showing people what we are all about.”

This year, the religious images and animations projected onto the façade of the Cathedral are based around the theme of Hope.

As well as having the light show, St Patrick’s Cathedral Parish is organising small events and themed nights as an accompaniment.

“Within the church community, there will be family nights on both Thursday nights of the event and there is a youth night on Friday nights,” Mili said.

“Saturday and Sunday nights are community connect nights, where our [parish] community will be putting on a BBQ and welcoming people across to the Cathedral. There will be displays of artwork from the schools around Parramatta, there will be displays on our history as a church, and the relic of the Cathedral will be available for veneration.

“During the connect night, we just want to be a place of welcome, a place of hospitality, so that people come in, walk around, ask questions about what the Catholic Church is all about and make friends,” she explained.

During the event, St Patrick’s Cathedral have organised for a live recording session of their ‘Cathology’ community podcast with guest speaker Dr Robert Tilley.

Diocese of Wollongong musical duo Gus and Iggy will perform on the closing night of the event.

Mili hopes that Light Up St Pat’s speaks to different members of the local community, whether they be Catholics, Christians or non-Christians.

“I hope that for Catholics, they will be more proud of their faith and what they believe in.

“For those who are not Catholic, but are Christian, I hope there will be a lot more understanding of our commonality as Christians.

“For those who are non-Christian, I hope it opens up that sense of hope within their communities, that despite the differences we have, we have a common core value of love and respect for one another.”

Light Up St Pat’s runs from 6 to 21 July at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Parramatta from 6pm on weeknights and 7pm on weekends.

For more information, visit the Light Up St Pat’s Facebook page.

VIEW: Images from Light Up St Pat’s here or below.

Light Up St Pat's 2019

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