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PARISH INSTALLATION |
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INSTALLATION OF THE PARISH OF ST.
BENEDICT AND FR. STEVEN TYNAN, MGL
August 27, 2006 |
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On the 27th of August 2006, Fr Steve Tynan was installed as the first Parish
Priest of the new Parish of St. Benedict in a concelebrated Mass presided by
the Most Reverend Antonio Tobias D.D., Bishop of Novaliches. This event was
the culmination of about four months’ preparation following the request of
Bishop Tobias that the Missionaries of God’s Love (MGL) form a new Parish
from four sub-chapels belonging to Holy Spirit Parish. The MGL is very
grateful to Bishop Tobias for the trust he had shown in inviting them to
serve the Diocese in St. Benedict’s. This is now the third Parish that the
MGL administers, all falling under the patronage of St Benedict of Nursia.
In the installation homily, Bishop Tobias preached strongly on the need for
the new Parish to take up the call to be the Church of the Poor, to stand in
solidarity, rich and poor alike, working together to develop a lively faith
community that reaches out to the marginalized and unchurched of the area
and beyond. It is a vision such as this that was affirmed by the Parish
Priest, Fr. Steve, in his address at the lunch afterwards as the direction
that St. Benedict’s would be taking – seeking first to evangelize its
parishioners, then disciple them, and finally send them out to evangelize
and disciple others. He said that he wants St. Benedict’s to become a centre
of lay formation, with active youth ministries and outreaches to the poor.
Thus, he will seek to make the proclamation and ministry of the Gospel
message of God’s love the centre of all the activities in St. Benedict’s.
St. Benedict’s has four Mass centres with eight Sunday Masses and two
weekday Masses. We are presently conducting a Parish survey and expect to
find that there are approximately 3,000 families in the Parish. Following
the survey, we hope to be able to organize mass celebrations of the
Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Marriage for those, who for one
reason or another, have not been able to receive these Sacraments. This will
probably take at least a year to complete as it can be a time-consuming
process to get all the necessary requirements together, especially for the
Sacrament of Marriage.
We intend also to develop regular times of extended adoration in the Parish
Church in order to soak the ministry of St. Benedict’s in prayer and to thus
place God’s loving presence at the heart of all we do in the Parish. There
are plans also to make St. Benedict’s a base for APSE (Asia Pacific School
of Evangelization) in the Philippines and to develop this ministry from
here. We are also planning to draw together a youth pilgrimage in the Parish
focusing towards bringing a group of young people to the World Youth Day in
Sydney in 2008.
Please pray for us as we establish this new Parish and the various works
involved with it, that all will go smoothly and successfully in the years to
come. We are all aware, certainly, of how important foundations are to any
building or structure built upon them! We entrust ourselves to your prayers,
the patronage of St Benedict and the grace of the Holy Spirit. With this
trinity of helpers, I am sure the work will continue apace.
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