A COUPLE of the more familiar faces are starting to reappear around Brisbane’s St Stephen’s Cathedral. As health authorities begin to ease COVID-19 restrictions for public gatherings, long-time sacristans Lloyd Eikenloff and Bob Cracknell have started to return. Regular visitors to weekday Masses at the cathedral would be used to seeing the men serving at the altar. Each of them ... Read More »
PAY It Forward, a movie that made $9.6 million in the United States on its opening weekend in 2000, holds meaning for Fr Thomas Ismoyo that cannot be measured in dollars. It describes how he lives his life as a priest. Fr Thomas, an Indonesian priest living in Brisbane while he studies at the Queensland University of Technology, celebrates his ... Read More »
CHRISTOPHER Trikilis believes his role as the new director of music at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane can play a special part as the community begins to ease out of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. He believes it’s important not just for the cathedral community but for those who would not normally even go near St Stephen’s. It’s to do with ... Read More »
IT is the stones and clubs, the engines of martyrdom, that transform in the protomartyrs into the Living Bread, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge said on the feast of St Stephen and protomartyr of Oceania, St Peter Chanel. “Today we hear from Scripture of bread and stones,” Archbishop Coleridge said at the 8am Mass livestreamed from St Stephen’s Cathedral. “Jesus says, ... Read More »
BRISBANE families have swapped out church pews for living room couches as thousands tuned in to watch livestreamed Masses across Lent and Easter amid coronavirus lockdown. Most of the Brisbane parishes that had livestreaming capabilities had hundreds of households engaging with Easter Masses. Kedron parish priest Franciscan Father Mario Debattista said he had some trouble getting the livestreamed Masses up ... Read More »
THERE were few groups in Brisbane archdiocese that had an opportunity to reach out to the churched and un-churched like the St Stephen’s Cathedral guides and welcomers. Thousands of people from all walks of life from across Australia and the world find themselves walking – or shyly peeking – through the doors of St Stephen’s every year. Retired media consultant ... Read More »
A MONOLITHIC Roman-style basilica founded and abandoned at Cathedral Place in Fortitude Valley was one reason it took more than 100 years to dedicate St Stephen’s Cathedral in Brisbane’s CBD. St Stephen’s was a cathedral that confounded expectations. Every visionary saw it differently – bigger or smaller or forgotten entirely – the similarity was that it was never originally meant to ... Read More »
ST Stephen’s Cathedral parishioner Trish McMahon loved the serenity of the cathedral, particularly amidst the hustle and bustle of city life. She said there was a “real beautiful community spirit”. “As a parishioner, I just get that feel – the caring that’s there,” she said. “And that’s from everybody, that’s what I like.” She said the functions of a cathedral parish ... Read More »
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 »
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