IRAQI-born Saad Abdulahad Bashir, who worked as a statistician for many years, and Kemsley Kelly, a sugar-cane farmer from Childers who moved south to take care of grandchildren, share something in common. Both are two of the newest members of the St Stephen’s Cathedral guides and welcomers, alongside Gerard Poynting, Michael McKillop, Margaret Hogan, Don Keyes, Helen McGinty and David ... Read More »
HISTORIC St Stephen’s Cathedral will come alive again this Advent season, as the Lights of Christmas returns to Brisbane for its second year. Tens of thousands gathered around the cathedral in 2018 to celebrate the joy of Christmas with the extraordinary sound and light show designed by AGB Events, the creators of The Lights of Christmas at St Mary’s Cathedral, ... Read More »
AREND de Weger had just returned home from the Vietnam War when his brother invited him to a Young Christian Workers youth meeting, and Arend told him he had just been to war and was not a youth anymore. Fatefully, Arend showed up anyway. He was not even in the hall at St John Vianney’s, Manly parish, when he looked ... Read More »
POLISHING chalices, lighting candles, organising vestments for priests are all part of a regular day for Hayden Kennedy but that’s not all he does. Hayden is a full-time sacristan at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane. At 24, he’s young for the role although he’s not the youngest on the cathedral’s team of sacristans. Another three young men on the team ... Read More »
THERE is a season for all things under heaven, and for Ray and Glenda Pradella there’s a colour pattern and floral arrangement to match. The couple has been arranging flowers at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane for 52 weeks of the year for the past 22 years, quietly slipping in and out every Friday morning with fresh bouquets to match ... Read More »
FR Josh Whitehead has a surfboard lined up and he’s ready for his three-year placement in Caloundra parish. So far his ministry and the surf have had an inexplicable link. He learned to surf on his pastoral year in Maroochydore in 2017 before his Advent placement in Burleigh Heads. “I’m looking forward to getting back into surfing,” Fr Whitehead said. ... Read More »
THE ancient sounds of didgeridoo and clap sticks – not a church organ – broke the silence in Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral for the start of midday Mass last Sunday. And a group of young male Aboriginal dancers and Torres Strait Islander drummer accompanied the entrance procession. They, along with Indigenous people from around Brisbane, were there for the annual ... Read More »
THE small Micronesian nation of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean is home to 110,000 people. Of that number, 96 per cent are Christian and 56 per cent are Catholic. Azure blue waters and white sand encircles the islands of Kiribati; however, the tropical paradise is juxtaposed against thatched huts, unsophisticated sewerage and extreme privation. The nation is among the ... Read More »
A very popular series of articles in the Reader’s Digest was entitled “The Most Unforgettable Character I Ever Met”. It focused on men and women who had captured the attention and enriched the lives of the contributing authors. My own short list of unforgettable characters would include Bill Watson – a man whom I met only rarely but whose memory ... Read More »
The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You
