Welcome to the Parish Community Group- watch our video here!

My name is Marie Sheargold and I am a member of the Parish Community Group at St Mary’s Parish, Ascot Vale.

I am an original member of the group which started early in 2003, under the name of the Pastoral Care Group. We provided occasional morning teas after Sunday Masses; tried to encourage people who had elderly family members or neighbours to contact us if they needed Communion taken to them, or just somebody to visit them sometimes to have a chat. Only the morning teas were a success!!

We also placed a “New Parishioners’ Book” in the foyer at St Margaret’s church and near the back door of St Mary’s church, to enable new parishioners to put their names and phone numbers down. One of the group would then contact them, introduce themselves and give them any information about the parish that they wanted. For privacy reasons we had to abandon this.

In 2006, we started sending welcome cards to every person baptised in the parish. To the families of those people buried from the parish, we sent a sympathy card.

We started using the Godstart Program from the Archdiocese about 2011. This entails sending children baptised in our parish Birthday cards for their 1^st and 2^nd birthdays; a set of activity cards to do with their parents for their 3^rd birthday and a prayer book for their 4^th birthday.

The numbers in the group have always fluctuated. About 2015, we decided to change the name of the group to the Parish Community Group to both better reflect the nature of the group and to make it sound more appealing!!

We only have 3 or 4 meetings a year, where we plan what events we will hold and when, plus who will co-ordinate each one. We hold a small variety of events which include the occasional morning tea after Sunday Masses; 1 or 2 wine and cheese or soup evenings after the Saturday Vigil Mass. Suppers have also been held after the Easter Vigil Mass, when there have been people receiving the Sacraments of Initiation; or after the Memorial Mass in November for the families of those buried from our parish in the last year. 

Our main objective in holding social events, is to promote friendship and social interaction among parishioners. These help people to stay in touch with each other, even if only spending a short time talking to fellow parishioners. This all helps to foster a better sense of community. We are always happy to welcome new members into our group.

For more information, or to join, please feel free to call me on 9372 0307. or email marie.sheargold@gmail.com