THE Message Stick accompanying the World Youth Day Cross and Icon has achieved additional prominence on its tour through Townsville diocese during visits to Palm Island and other indigenous communities.
It became an essential component of the Journey of the Cross and Icon (JCI) at a series of ceremonies and events involving both indigenous youth and elders.
The Message Stick is an invitation from Sydney Aboriginal Catholic communities to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth of Australia to come to World Youth Day in July 2008.
WYD08 coordinator for Townsville diocese, Rachel Grahl, said among highlights of the JCI in Townsville diocese had been a boat journey on September 10 carrying the symbols from Bowen Harbour to Santa Barbara Parade – where the area’s first settlers had landed.
A major ecumenical community event was held on the rugby fields of the Whitsunday PCYC sports park on the Sunday afternoon.
Other JCI events in Townsville diocese included a youth rally at the Burdekin Theatre Plaza, Ayr on September 10 and a journey by sea to Palm Island on Wednesday, September 12.
The JCI travelled through Rockhampton diocese prior to its Townsville tour.
Rockhampton’s WYD08 coordinator, Stef Lloyd, said it had been a “momentous pilgrimage” for all involved.
“The symbols were present at Police Creek, the site of an aboriginal massacre in Gladstone; taken to Rockhampton’s Mt Archer for a prayer breakfast and blessing and venerated at Songs of Praise in the Mackay soundshell.”
The JCI tour also included visits to the Tree of Knowledge site in Barcaldine, and Longreach’s Stockman’s Hall of Fame and QANTAS Museum.
The WYD Cross and Icon will be handed over from Townsville diocese to Cairns diocese at Abergowrie College near Ingham today, Sunday September 16.
