Thursday, February 13, 2025
25 C
Sydney

Ups and downs the key to 130 years strong

George Al-Akiki
George Al-Akiki
George Al-Akiki is a junior multimedia journalist at The Catholic Weekly.
St Vincent’s Catholic Church Parish, Ashfield. Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2024.

Over the years, people told Michael Clay he should move out of Ashfield and experience the world.

The parishioner at Ashfield’s St Vincent’s Catholic Church, who has been around since he became a young altar boy in the mid-1950s, never desired a change of scenery.

St Vincent’s 130th parish anniversary celebrations last Sunday was the only place Michael wanted to be.

“What kept me here? St Vincent’s. I went to school here, my family was here and the church I loved,” he told The Catholic Weekly.

Together with Michael and a thousand other parishioners, the Inner West parish celebrated their grand milestone along with 400 years of the Vincentian charism, on 22 September.

Festivities kicked off a week earlier with the opening of the heritage exhibition centre in the parish house, showcasing how St Vincent has inspired Catholics in Ashfield from 1894 to now.

A series of talks carried through the week while St Vincent’s school students also participated with Masses and Eucharistic adoration.

Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2024

Celebrations culminated last Sunday at 10am in the college hall with Mass celebrated by Fr Joti Bilowalu and a student re-enactment of the life of St Vincent de Paul, bringing the legacy of the saint to the next generation of St Vincent’s students.

Guests included NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley, St Vincent’s College Principal Ray Martin, and Vincentian Provincial Fr Alan Gibson.

Parishioners from the multicultural parish community—encompassing Indigenous Australian, Anglo-Celtic, Zimbabwean, Filipino, Fijian and Polish cultures—enjoyed a multicultural fete filled with food, activities and live entertainment.

With seven decades of the parish’s 13, Michael has seen St Vincent’s navigate the ups and the downs, which he says are a testament to how the parish is a beacon of stability among Sydney’s changing demographics.

“I’ll never forget that Saturday night many years ago after such torrential rain to check in on the church,” he said.

“I could hear as I put the key in the door this funny noise. And I walked in, there was this waterfall coming down the front of the church into the sanctuary.

Images by Giovanni Portelli Photography © 2024.

“There’s been good times and bad times around here. In 130 years, you’re going to experience a bit of both.”

Now in his 70s, Michael’s thankful more than anything for the call to community service the parish has instilled in him.

He joins night patrols with St Vincent de Paul and operates food trucks for housing estates alongside his fellow parishioners.

Fr Joti, who arrived from Fiji to serve as parish priest in Ashfield in 2018, said parishioners like Michael are the beating heart of St Vincent in the now transitional suburb of Sydney.

“Young couples with one or two kids might be around for six or 12 months in one of the flats now surrounding the area, then they’re gone. But for that short while, our regulars make sure this is their home,” he said.

“Many of those faces I thought I wouldn’t see again, I saw yesterday. It seems St Vincent’s has a special place with them.

“Just as I’m sure the Vincentian fathers hoped 130 years ago, this place is not only a place of worship, but it’s also a place where people come to connect with each other, to belong.”

- Advertisement -