By Bridget Spinks
Eighteen couples in the parish of Sts John and Paul in Willetton will renew their vows in a Special Wedding Anniversary Mass to be held on 21 August this year.
Every year since 2007, couples celebrating their Silver (25th), Pearl (30th), Coral (35th), Ruby (40th), Sapphire (45th) or Golden (50th) Wedding anniversary during the year are invited to be part of the parish’s special ‘Wedding Anniversary Mass’.
But any couple celebrating a wedding anniversary of more than 50 years is also invited, as each year after 50 is considered ‘significant’, one of the organisers, Su Goh, said.
Since 2008, at least one couple celebrating their first wedding anniversary has participated in the occasion. Two newly married couples will join in this year.
Su said she places great value on the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage. “It’s very much a part of being Catholic or Christian because marriage is a sacrament in our faith; it is sanctified by God,” she said.
Plus it was what God intended; that man should have a companion and that would be his wife, she said
Su said she was inspired to organise the event at Sts John and Paul Parish in Willetton when she attended a special Wedding Anniversary Mass at St Thomas More parish in Bateman with her husband in 2004.
Su and David Goh, who were married in 1974 in Singapore and emigrated to Perth in 1991, now have two grown up sons, celebrated their Pearl Anniversary that year. This experience inspired her to approach her parish priest in 2007 and ask if he would be prepared to celebrate a special Mass at Willetton too.
Su, who also works as a project officer at the Committee for Family and for Life, is organising the event with fellow parishioners Christine Fernandez and Bowani Anne Lee.
Su, Christine and Anne have all been part of a parish-run marriage preparation ministry for the last eight years which Willetton parish has been offering for the last 20 years. Willetton offers its own marriage preparation programme using a resource from the United States called “Today and all the days of your life”.
Married couples, called “sponsor couples,” take engaged couples one-on-one through the programme’s eight sessions which cover a range of topics “essential to building a strong and harmonious Christian marriage,” Su said.
“So that’s how committed we are to the importance of marriage,” Su told The Record.
“This Wedding Anniversary celebration is an extension of that belief that marriage is important to our faith,” she said.
ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL MARRIAGE MASS
Archbishop Barry Hickey will celebrate Mass in honour of National Marriage Day at St Mary’s Cathedral on 9 August at 6.30pm with light supper to follow. Everyone welcome. To RSVP, contact wa@family.org.au or call 9277 1644. The Mass is supported by the Knights of the Southern Cross.