By Emilie Ng
BURANDA’S Catholic community is gearing up for a new mission providing aged care services, parish administrator vicar general Monsignor Peter Meneely has confirmed.
St Luke’s Buranda, one of two Spanish mission-style churches in Brisbane, is to be surrounded by a new retirement village, St Luke’s Green, confirmed for completion by 2016.
Msgr Meneely said a new retirement village built around the iconic church was an obvious mission field for the present community.
“We discerned that it’s a valuable asset to the Church, and obvious that aged care would be valuable in the future,” he said.
“For those living in the general area, it’s an opportunity to retire in the local community, rather than somewhere far away.”
St Luke’s Green would provide both independent living and high-care facilities.
“These will provide a new opportunity for the Church to respond to the needs of people, especially those at the later stages of life,” Msgr Meneeley said.
Development will begin early next year with an anticipated “few hundred” residents to move in by 2016.
Msgr Meneely said St Luke’s Green residents would add to the “daily life” of the parish, which has not existed since the connecting school’s closure in 1974.
During the construction period, the parish’s usual 8am Sunday Mass will relocate to the Little King Movement centre on O’Keefe St, Buranda.
“The community will need to shift short term and will be reopened when construction is complete,” Msgr Meneeley said.
The church will officially close the week after the Feast of the Holy Family on December 28 and Mass will relocate to the Little King’s Movement centre from January 4.
Alongside developments for the new retirement and aged care centre, St Luke’s church will also undergo major renovations and restorations.
Msgr Meneely said Brisbane’s destructive hail storm on November 27 left St Luke’s church “seriously damaged” and the proposed restorations were timely.
