Lumen Christi | Annual General Report 2020

5 A Lumen Christi Catholic parishes Wollongong A Message from the Administrator, Very Rev Bernard Gordon Dear Parishioners, Co-responsibility is one of the fundamental principles of The Pastoral Conversion of the Parish Community , published last year by the Congregation for the Clergy. By co- responsibility we all share in the mission in our parish to bring God’s love and truth to the world. To facilitate a spirit of reflection that will inform our co-responsibility in this mission given to us by Christ, the following Annual General Report has been prepared to help all parishioners have a better grasp of what has been done in our parish as a necessary step in creatively considering what more can be done. There are three sections to the report: a detailed account of the parish finances, a brief description of the constituency of our parish schools, and the basic statistics of our sacramental life. By way of introduction, I will now highlight some outstanding points of the financial report. An integral part of caring for our parish communities is to properly administer parish finances and property in a competent, transparent, and productive way. Accordingly, I recommend to you this Financial Report for the Lumen Christi parishes of the Cathedral, Fairy Meadow and Gwynneville for 2020, prepared by our Business and Operations Manager, Kevin Galea, after the annual audit of the parish accounts. Even though the Covid-19 public health concerns severely restricted our parish life and hence our ability to raise parish collections, we have weathered the storm well. Major work was completed on the Cathedral and, especially noteworthy is the generosity of parishioners who donated for various parish works. $68,001 was donated for the Cathedral parish, $10,177 for St John Vianney, Fairy Meadow and $3,110 for St Brigid’s Gwynneville. The generosity of parishioners was also apparent in the donations to the annual appeals for Catholic Mission: Propagation of the Faith ($2,045), Bishop’s Annual Appeal ($3,760.00), St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal ($19,178.20), and Caritas: Project Compassion ($4,959). A very big thank you to all for their generosity. Another major help in coping with the Year of Covid-19 was the Federal Government’s Job Keeper scheme which enabled us to keep a full parish staff to continue the service of parish communities. Our thanks to the Federal Government for helping us to keep our heads above water and my personal thanks to everyone on the staff for their great work during a difficult year. As we emerge from Covid-19 restrictions the emphasis will be on consolidating our finances and carefully budgeting our expenses. This will ensure that any effects of the withdrawal of Job Keeper will be minimised. I encourage you to read the financial report and reflect on how we can develop