As New Parishioners

It was work that led us to New Plymouth in late 2004.

Being Catholics from birth, we have been to many parishes, there is nothing like St Philomena’s Family Parish. There are no words that could best describe the Parish. We will try our best to do so without detriment.

The first time we attended Mass in the Parish was during the baptism of Catherine Butler. We were touched by the smiles and friendliness of the parishioners who warmly welcomed us. We were introduced to Sister Mary and Clare Whaley.

During our conversation, they mentioned that if we plan to enrol our son at St Pius X School, we could talk to Lorraine Gordon who is the principal. They gave us the contact number of the school. Our son attended his Years 5 and 6 at St Pius School.

The welcome message before Mass means so much to first timers in the Parish, like us:
“Welcome to St Philomena’s Parish… a special welcome to all visitors and new parishioners…”

The chats among parishioners, particulalry the “Cup of Tea” is unprecedented.

First Holy Communion

Our son, was not able to attend the first reconciliation which was held before we arrived in the Parish. Clare did special first reconciliation sessions for him until he was able to have his first reconciliation with Father Fergus. He was able to have his first communion with the 2005 batch.

Parish Leadership

Parish leadership is outstanding. They almost do every task to keep the Parish moving. This made us offer to help the Parish in our own little way. We were offered tasks that could easily be done by us and were very grateful to the Parish leadership for giving us the opportunity to serve the Parish that touched our lives.

Leaving is not Goodbye

Again work overseas made us leave the Parish. Trevor’s farewell speech mad us sorry that we are leaving such a wonderful parish. We know that we will not be able to find another place like St Philomena’s Family Parish. The parishioners made this Parish unprecedented.

We are leaving for overseas but we are not saying goodbye to St Philomena’s Family Parish, our hearts and minds shall remain. God willing, we shall be coming back… New Plymouth is our home, St Philomena’s is our Parish.