BRISBANE’S Lebanese and Syrian Catholics will celebrate the 90th anniversary of St Clement’s Melkite parish next weekend (November 28 and 29).
Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge will join Melkite Eparch of Australia and New Zealand Bishop Robert Rabbat and Bishop of the Chaldean Diocese of St Thomas the Apostle of Australia and New Zealand at the anniversary Mass in St Clement’s, South Brisbane, on Saturday.
Bishop Rabbat will be principal celebrant then and Archbishop Nona will be principal celebrant at a Sunday-morning Mass.
Parish priest Fr Elie Francis said it was an important weekend because, apart from being the feast of the church’s patron St Clement, the third successor of St Peter, it was the 90th anniversary of the Lebanese and Syrian Catholic communities in Brisbane.
“The bishops will talk about peace in the Middle East, especially in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon,” Fr Francis said.
He said Bishop Rabbat would also ordain a young parishioner Phillip Eid as a sub-deacon.
Mr Eid is studying for the priesthood.
St Clement’s was the first Lebanese church in Brisbane consecrated in 1936 for all Melkite, Maronite, Orthodox and Latin rite worshippers.
Bishop Clement Malouf of Lebanon consecrated the church after having laid the foundation stone on March 17, 1929.
By Peter Bugden
