Vicar's News- 01.11.26

5 minutes ago

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All Saints Day

Saturday night is All Hallow's Eve (commercially know as Halloween), the evening prior to

All Saints' Day. This festival traces back over 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which celebrated the Celtic new year and the end of summer when the boundary between the living and spirit worlds was believed to thin. The church later established All Saints' Day on November 1 and All Souls' Day (which we will celebrate on 7 November - see flyer below) - thus blending Christian observances with older folk traditions around remembering the dead. Irish and Scottish immigrants brought these customs to North America in the 19th century, where they evolved into the modern, largely secular holiday known today. This has been recently adopted commercially in Australia without Christian reference, which rather makes it a nonsense, but fun for kids.

As a consequence St Andrew's Close at the rear of the church, including the graveyard, will be locked over the weekend evenings due to vandalism and threatening behaviour which have been on the increase in recent weeks.

I will miss you this weekend as I have been assessed as having COVID and an sequestrating myself. A reminder to all to get your booster shots. I will be back for the All Soul's Service next Saturday. Angela Alomes returns from holiday this week.

There will be no Kids' Church this Sunday in my absence.

Parish Annual Meeting

Our Parish Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday 22 November 2026 at 11.30am.

Applications for enrolment on Parish Electoral Roll close at 5pm on 6 November.

Nominations for Officebearers positions close 3pm on Friday 13 November.

St Andrew's Choir at St Paul's Cathedral

Early bird discount tickets close on 8 November, so please book now.

Christmas Party

This is our first time organising a new outreach event for the Parish. We are inviting our neighbouring schools and everyone from the Bayside region to come to enjoy the mirth and joy of Christmas.

There will be finger food and a program of performances:

- BGS teachers and 8 students

-Firbank Chaplain and 8 students

-Calvin is the Organist

-Phoebe Daisy Paine as soprano

Please book in to welcome visitors to our Christmas celebration.