Family of Parishes
Projects
St Joseph’s Church
The combined communities of our family of parishes need a church in which we can gather in large numbers for our big feast days, especially the Easter Triduum. St Joseph’s has the potential to be our biggest church, but currently does not have the capacity. We wish to gradually increase the capacity, as well as improve the facilities for parishioners.
New Left Transept Entry, New Toilets & Upgraded Meeting Room
Parishioners will be aware of the flooding issue we had last Christmas with the toilet that is inside the church in the left transept. We wish to rebuild the area to avoid such a problem in future, while also using the space more efficiently and providing two toilets. In the process we will re-open an external door to the car park on the left-hand side of the church and remove the current extra wall inside the church transept. This will slightly increase the capacity inside the church and make it easier for people to enter and find free seats when the nave of the church is full. We also wish to install a kitchenette in the adjoining meeting room, and refresh the room, so that it can be easily used for a cuppa after Sunday Mass and is more versatile for group meetings during the week.
If you would like to donate to the restoration of the church, please follow the link below and choose ‘Church Building Fund’ from the pop-down menu.
St Joseph’s Presbytery Restoration
A generous parishioner has already started our restoration with gifts in kind, allowing us to develop a masterplan and begin works on the bedrooms for the clergy and seminarians of the Oratory community. As those works are undertaken, we wish to work on other rooms of the house, one at a time.
Oratory Chapel
Within the St Joseph’s presbytery the internal chapel will be restored for the community prayers of the Melbourne Oratory Project. This project includes the restoration of an historic wooden altar, removal of carpets and polishing of the floorboards, painting of the walls, re-plastering of the ceiling new lighting, installation of chairs and prie-dieus.