Chrism Mass at Broken Bay

During Holy Week every year each local church (diocese) gathers to celebrate the blessing of the Holy Oils which are used throughout the Diocese during the next year. Tonight we went to Corpus Christi Cathedral in St. Ives, NSW for the “Chrism Mass” as it is called. St Ives is one of the over 500 suburbs in the Sydney area and the seat (cathedra) of the Diocese of Broken Bay. Bishop David Walker, founder of The Centre for Christian Spirituality where I live, is the Chief Shepherd of this Diocese. It consists of all the territory north of Sydney Harbour to the border of the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese and now has 25 parishes. I say "now" because, like so many dioceses in our country, it has entered a process of Pastoral Planning for the future that has seen the reduction of its 40 communities into 25. Representatives of every parish were gathered at the Cathedral for tonight’s liturgy. During the celebration the Bishop led the local church in invoking God’s blessing upon the oils that will be used for healing the sick, anointing the Catechumens and in all Baptisms, Confirmations and Ordinations during the next year. At the end of a stirring liturgy, these folks and their Pastors were given the Sacred Oils to take back to their parishes. It was all very nice and reminded me that the people of our diocese would be doing the same ritual gathering and blessing in just a few hours at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester.

We are all one church with many different faces!