By Anthony Barich
Girrawheen parish paid tribute to the essential local work of the Sisters of Mercy and Christian Brothers in the area as it celebrated Our Lady of Mercy Church’s 25th anniversary on 19 September.
When the gathered afterwards under a marquee on the parish grounds for a sizable feast put on by the parish community, the packed congregation also paid tribute to long-term parishioner Marie Pearce, who turns 100 in four weeks.
Parish priest Fr Anthony Vallis said after Mass that Marie only stopped attending Mass 18 months ago, commending her for her monumental effort.
She was given a special seat of honour at the marquee after the Mass.
Archbishop Barry Hickey concelebrated the special Mass with former assistant priest Fr Gavin Gomez, now Port Kennedy parish priest, and Fr Vallis, who will leave the parish in April next year pending another assignment from the Archbishop.
The Christian Brothers were recognised as Br Geoff Seaman read the First Reading, while Fr Vallis gave special mention to the Sisters of Mercy, whose convent was next to Our Lady of Mercy Primary School, which was established prior to the church.
The Sisters served both the primary school and Mercy College.
The parish is particularly active, with four choirs that are rostered over the Saturday night and three Sunday Masses. The Kevin and Barbara Russell Choir – which alternates between the Saturday night and 9.30am Sunday morning Mass with the David Lyn Oliver choir – performed at the 17 September 25th anniversary Mass.
This Mass was the culmination of much hard work and reflects the changing dynamics of the Archdiocese of the past 25 years.
The Catholic community in the area had been growing steadily through the 50s, 60s and 70s, with an increasing number of migrants from all parts of Asia and Europe settling here and setting up home.
In these early years, the suburbs of Girrawheen, Koondoola, Marangaroo, Allinjarra fell under the Balga Parish and a priest from Balga would come up to say one Mass on a Sunday morning in the Assembly Hall of the Catholic Primary School in Girrawheen.
This hall was usually over-crowded and tended to get quite stuffy in the summer months.
The chairs had to be put in place each weekend and stacked away after the service.
All major events like Confirmations, Christmas and Holy Week services were celebrated outdoors, for want of adequate space in the hall.
In 1979, a decision was taken to split the parish of Balga, as the Catholic community had grown to a size that was becoming difficult for one priest to care for.
The new parish of Girrawheen was created – comprising the suburbs of Girrawheen, Koondoola, Marangaroo, Allinjarra.
Shortly after, Fr Tom Gaine was appointed as the first parish priest of the Girrawheen Parish, and began his pastoral work from a rented house in Girrawheen.
He celebrated his first Mass in the parish in August 1979.
The need for a church for the new parish was quite evident from the very beginning.
In 1984, Fr Gaine came across a two-acre plot of land in the middle of the parish that had initially been earmarked for a tavern.
There were no takers for the tavern and this helped him successfully negotiate the purchase of the land from the State Government.
He then engaged the services of an architect to design a church, a presbytery and a church hall.
Our Lady of Mercy Church opened and was blessed on 22 September 1985. On Palm Sunday, 1989, the suburb of Ballajura was added to the parish.
Since then, newer suburbs like Darch, Landsdale and Alexander Heights have also been added to the parish, while Ballajura now has its own parish, named after Australia’s first saint, Mary MacKillop.
Fr Vallis has developed a reputation as an extremely hard worker, while Girrawheen is the centre for numerous volunteer groups who do invaluable service among the community in general, and the youth, the intellectually handicapped, the under-privileged, the elderly, the sick and the dying.
Meanwhile, Fr Vallis told the 17 September Mass that the daily Mass numbers have grown significantly, sometimes drawing up to 150 people, which he said reflects the strong faith of the parish community. The church’s 25th anniversary was completed with Rosary in the church in the evening of 17 September.
– additional reporting by Greg D’Souza