Term 1 no 86 newsletter january 2013 by Catholic Diocese of Bathurst

No 86 Term 1 2013

Spreading the Good News

The Year of Faith We always thank God that you believed the message we preached. It came to him, and it isn’t something made up by humans. You accepted it as God’s message, and now he is working in you.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)

THE YEAR OF FAITH My Dear SRE Teachers, Welcome to 2013. We ended the year with such a rush. I hope you have been able to take some time for yourself and rest. The weather has been challenging with this heat, but it is summer time. I and probably you can remember days like this when growing up. Over at Canowindra we would have many continuous days of very high temperatures and dust storms.

The Year of Faith has been set in place by Pope Benedict XV1. It began on the 11th October 2012 on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the second Ecumenical Vatican Council & the 20th anniversary of the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We will be hearing a lot more about these two documents during this Year of Faith.

Prior to Christmas Vicki and I had the opportunity to share with you a meal and meetings. Thank you to the many communities/Coordinators who organised these. It’s a privilege for us to join with each of you and to share the joys of the Season.

“The logo is composed of a square bordered field on which a boat, symbolizing the Church, is represented as sailing on a graphically minimal representation of waves. The main mast of the boat is a cross from which sails are displayed in the form of dynamic signs which compose the trigram of Christ(HIS). The background to the sails is a sun which, associated with the trigram, refers to the Eucharist.” (www.bathurst.catholic.org.au)

Vicki and I have been working at the Chancery with the Ministries Coordinator Lorna Nicholson and Tony Eviston, Vice Chancellor on updating the Policy and Procedures document in relation to Child Protection. Once this is finished we will be visiting to share the Training with you.

REGISTRATION FOR VOLUNTEERS The ‘New Working with Children Check’ has stalled again. It will be implemented during 2013 but not on February 11th as stated last year. So please continue to use the Volunteer/ Student Declaration Form for any new people. LA SALLE ACADEMY LITHGOW WICC SRE TRAINING DAYS During the last part of 2012 Vicki and I have been working with the Catholic Education Office, Father Owen Gibbons and the Religious Education Coordinator to train two students to go with the Special Religious Education Teachers to Lithgow Primary school this year for Scripture lessons. They will be in the classrooms with the SRE Teachers and present part of the lesson.

The information is on a separate sheet.

CATECHIST SUNDAY A great day, 10th February 2013, to celebrate with your Parish. The Priests have been given a DVD, flyers to be displayed around the church, a small number of pamphlets to be shared at the Masses to promote the work you do in the Government schools. If you can, go to the Presbytery to check out the DVD, it takes about 4 minutes. The clever IT people at the Wollongong Diocese put this together under the direction of the NCCD & CCRESS and I thank them very much for their generosity and time to do this. Please note that this DVD promotes Scripture in the Government Schools, specifically where Catholic Scripture is taught. Unfortunately, in our Dioceses, in NSW, there are many schools where Catholic Scripture is not taught as we don’t have enough Catholic volunteers to focus on Catholic Scripture, but we do have many wonderful, generous Catholic Volunteers who go into the schools each week to teach the students about God’s love for them, with Volunteers from the other Faith Traditions. So Catechist Sunday is about asking for more volunteers to share their faith becoming a volunteer and working in both the Catholic program and the Joint Denominational program.

CODE OF CONDUCT

DIOCESAN WEBSITE

Check out the Diocesan website. For the CCD information go to Mission & Ministries then click on Catechists www.bathurst.catholic.org.au

TERM ONE OVERVIEW OF PROGRAMS CHRIST OUR LIGHT AND LIFE Archdiocese of Sydney 2010

The year begins with the Creation story, I’m created by God, I have special gifts and talents, Lent a time for Choices, I learn what Jesus did and said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” The Easter story.

SUNDAY SCRIPTURES ALIVE CEO ChristChurch NZ

This program is specifically related to the Sunday Mass readings from Luke’s Gospel as are the readings for Lent. The Easter story is from John’s Gospel.

At this time the Diocesan web site is being renewed and when completed there may be a few changes to the Code of Conduct document, but until then we will continue to use the current document.

SAFE CHURCHES AWARENESS WORKSHOPS At this time the calendar has not been displayed.

CONNECT CEP Connect Program Youthworks Cycle C1 2011

This Unit looks at God’s great kingdom plan. The stories are derived from the books of Samuel – relating to Samuel, Saul and David. The term will finish with the Easter story.

GODSPACE Burst Christian Resources 2011

The first Unit will build upon the foundations of the Christian Faith and provide the children with the guidance of exploring the existence of God through the creation story, that Jesus is God here on earth and that each person is very precious to God. It will be a time for the children to build a personal relationship with God. The Easter Story

FEBRUARY 2nd 10th 11th 13th

Presentation of the Lord CATECHIST SUNDAY Our Lady of Lourdes ASH WEDNESDAY

MARCH 18th 19th 24th 28th 29th 31st

St Patrick St Joseph Palm Sunday Holy Thursday Good Friday Easter Sunday

APRIL 8th Annunciation of the Lord th 11 St Stanislaus th 16 St Bernadette Soubirous th 25 ANZAC DAY th 26 St Mark, Evangelist CENSUS FOR 2013 Thank you to each of you who sent in your numbers last term on the return forms. This will be a great help when I collate them for the Diocesan report.

CATHOLIC RESOURCE CENTRE See attached sheet