Eastern Link
April 2019
Contents:
Volunteers needed for the One Heart Many Voices conference 13 - 15 May Provincial Council has again agreed to support a request from Catholic Mission seeking assistance with the staging of the Mission: one heart, many voices 2019 conference to be held at the SMC Conference and Function Centre 66 Goulburn Street Sydney between Monday 13 May and Wednesday 15 May 2019. Read more >> |
Catena subscriptions begin from the April hard copy edition The printed copy of the magazine to £2.00 per issue from the April edition (with effect from 1st April 2019), while the on-line edition will be £1.00 per issue from the June edition. Read more >> |
Western Link is now available on-line Western Link, Province 20's quarterly newsletter is now available in the Province 20 section of the website or go directly to Western Link to see what's happenning in the west |
| Opportunties to comment on Strategy Work Group position papers end on April 26th Have your say on the future of Catenians. What would you like the Catenian Association to look like moving forward? |
A Tie at the top of the 2019 Province 21 Golf Day Another successful Provincial Golf Day was held at Muirfield Golf Club on the 15th of March with 35 champion golfers joining the competition. Read more >> |
Catenians celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Parish of Holy Name Provincial President Graham Short and President elect Chris Vale were among Catenians from three circles who celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Parish of Holy Name at Wahroonga |
Celtic football star Paul McStay visits City of Sydney As a youth, McStay first came to prominence in June 1980 in a Schoolboy International match where Scotland played England at Wembley. Then 15, he was the captain. He scored two goals in the match and was awarded the Man of the Match award after Scotland ran out 5–4 winners. Read more >> |
Cairns welcomes Provincial President Graham Short and Ron Iddles, "Australia's greatest detective" Our Circle welcome Province 21 President Brother Graham Short to our meeting, Brother Graham spoke about the Remote Regional Circles initiative. We also welcomed as our guest speaker at dinner Ron Iddles, who is a retired very senior detective of the Victoria Police service. Read more >> |
Ku-Ring-Gai wins the KuPitt Shield President elect Paul happily displays The Maid Marion Trophy which he won at the same Palm Beach KuPitt match day. The Trophy was originally presented to the Circle by Brother Reg Joyce at our inauguration in November 1978. Read more >> |
The Future of Manly Circle Manly Circle initiated a discussion among members on the future of the Circle at it's February meeting. The chat bought forward lots of positive views and ideas, a very invigorating positive night for all members. Read more >> |
Travellers Tales – The Pelorus Mail Boat On a recent trip to New Zealand's South Island, my wife and I spent a day on the Pelorus Mail Boat, a vital service, funded by tourists, to help the isolated inhabitants of the Pelorus Sound. Read more >> |
| Pray for our brothers and their families who are not well or in difficulty or need Please add these names to your prayer list. Read more >> |
| Province 21 Events for 2019 |
| Letters |
Edited by: Paul Pearson p21.newsletter@thecatenians.org.au
Volunteers needed for the One Heart Many Voices conference 13 - 15 May
Provincial Council has again agreed to support a request from Catholic Mission seeking assistance with the staging of the Mission: one heart, many voices 2019 conference to be held at the SMC Conference and Function Centre 66 Goulburn Street Sydney between Monday 13 May and Wednesday 15 May 2019.
Catenian Volunteers assisted at the 2013, 2015 and 2017 Conferences and their participation was well received by the organisers.
In addition, our Catenian Volunteers really enjoyed the experience of working with one another and supporting the work of the Catholic Church in this way.
In addition, volunteers can usually attend some of the sessions for free.Council has decided to again support to this conference by asking if Catenian brothers are willing to offer themselves as volunteers to assist Catholic Mission with the smooth running of the conference on some or all days of the Conference.
For more information about the Conference https://mohmv.com.au/2019conference/.
The timing for volunteers would be from approx. 8am till 4.30pm on Monday May 13th , 9am to 4.30pm on Tuesday May 14th and 9am to 2.30pm on Wednesday May 15th.
Please email John Tweedie at province21catenians@yahoo.com.au for particulars of the day(s) and times on which you would be available or give me call on 0407 288 957 for more information.
Catena subscriptions begin from the April edition
The cover price for the printed Catena magazine has been held for the last 3 years, despite facing significant rising costs, and falling subscription revenue due to reducing membership numbers.
It is now necessary to raise the cover price for the printed copy of the magazine to £2.00 per issue from the April edition (with effect from 1st April 2019). This price includes delivery to a subscriber's designated address.
The on-line digital edition is about to be given a major technology upgrade, and subscribers will be able to evaluate this free of charge for 3 editions in March, April and May 2019. Following that it will be necessary to introduce a charge of £1.00 per issue for those members taking out the on-line only subscription.
This will be effective from the June edition (with effect from 1st June 2019). The on-line digital edition will continue to be available to subscribers of the printed magazine at no additional charge. It is hoped that many more members will now take subscriptions for the on-line digital edition.
Prices for non-UK territories will be at the £stg exchange rate agreed by the Association Treasurer.
Regards,
Peter Woodford
Managing Director
Catenian Publications Limited
Western Link is now available on-line
Western Link, Province 20's quarterly newsletter is now available in the Province 20 section of the website or go directly to Western Link to see what's happenning in the west.
The latest edition is the landmark Edition #50 and as usual is packed full of informative stories about Catenians in Western Australia.
Opportunties to comment on Strategy Work Group position papers end on April 26th
Have your say on the future of Catenians.
What would you like the Catenian Association to look like moving forward?
Fewer meetings, less formality, more inclusiveness, women members, not as expensive, more parish involvement, keep it as it is, it's not broken why fix it, email your ideas to Strategy@thecatenians.com
We're all invited to read and comment on the Strategy Position papers which are available at https://www.thecatenians.org.au/strategic-review email any comments to Strategy@thecatenians.com.
A Tie at the top of the 2019 Province 21 Golf Day
Another successful Provincial Golf Day was held at Muirfield Golf Club on the 15th of March with 35 champion golfers joining the competition.
As usual with Golf Days, there were some interesting coincidences:
- We had a brother from Canberra signed in plus his visitor but had to withdraw as his visitor had surgery re-scheduled from earlier. Long way to come for a golf game but really great prepared to do that.
- Player from Manly had to withdraw also due to surgery but he was able to provide substitute visitor.
- Another Hills brother able to play as his surgery was rescheduled so he could play
Highlights of the results were Ken Morton from Carlingford Circle and Paul Rubenach from Kur-Ring-Gai Circle tied with equally high scores and the award for best individual player was given to Ken on a count back.
The Directors Cup (for the best combined scores of two members of the same Circle) went to Paul Rubenach and Charlie Murton of KRG Circle. Paul also won nearest the pin on one hole and longest drive on another.
Paul Marsden of The Shire Group won the "Bradman" (or the wooden spoon) for 2nd year in a row - so Provincial Membership Officer Graham Short has promised to play next year to give him some competition.
We were very lucky to have fair weather on the day as on the Thursday night we had a serious downpour and lightning storm around Sydney.
Organiser Stim Robinson is investigating a possible new course for next year. This was canvassed with several regular players and all were amenable to try something new.
Provincial President Graham Short was on hand to present the trophies, after a highly competitive day of golf, where he shared a golf story -
A man is stranded on a desert island when a beautiful blonde woman in a wetsuit emerges from the sea.
He thinks she must be a mirage but she approaches him and asks
"You look thirsty would you like something to drink?"
"Yes" he replies, and she unzips her wetsuit and produces a bottle of scotch whisky which they both have a swill of.
Then she asks him " Are you hungry?"
"Yes" he replies and she produces a rock lobster from her wetsuit, which they devour.
Then she asks "Would you like to have a smoke?
"Yes" he says and she produces a Cuban cigar from her wetsuit which she lights for him and he smokes.
Then she snuggles up to him and asks" Would you like to play around?"
"Why yes" he says " don't tell me you have a set of golf sticks in your wetsuit?
https://thecatenians.org.au/province-21/eastern-link/eastern-link-april-2019#sigProId5ce9d7fbf3
Official Results -
| Director's Trophy – Best aggregate score of any two Catenians from the same circle |
Charlie Murton & Paul Rubenach | Ku Ring Gai |
| The Ray Weekes Memorial Trophy – Circle Runners-Up Trophy |
Malcolm Clow & Victor Gauci | The Hills |
| Vice-President's Trophy – Best individual Catenian score |
Ken Morton | The Hills |
| Individual Catenian Runner Up | Paul Rubenach | Ku Ring Gai |
| Best individual visitor | Rob Miller | Ku Ring Gai |
| Individual visitor Runner-Up | Bernard Bouchard | Ku Ring Gai |
| Best Lady score | Gai Wales | City of Sydney |
| Best individual Catenian - front nine | Paul Rubenach | Ku Ring Gai |
| Best individual Catenian - back nine | Victor Gauci | The Hills |
| Best individual visitor - front nine | Rob Miller | Ku Ring Gai |
| Best individual visitor - back nine | Murray Bezzant | Harbourside |
| Longest drive - on the 12th | Malcolm Clow | The Hills |
| Nearest the Pin - 2nd | Paul Rubenach | Ku Ring Gai |
| Nearest the Pin - 6th | Martin Bloom | Ku Ring Gai Visitor |
| Nearest the Pin - 9th | Gai Wales | City of Sydney Visitor |
| Nearest the Pin - 11th | Bernard Bouchard | Ku Ring Gai Visitor |
| Nearest the Pin - 15th | John Giorgiutti | The Hills Visitor |
| Nearest the pin for two - 18th. | Malcolm Clow | The Hills |
| Wooden Spoon (NAGA) | Paul Marsden | The Shire |
Catenians celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Parish of Holy Name
Provincial President Graham Short and President elect Chris Vale were among Catenians from three circles who celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Parish of Holy Name at Wahroonga recently.
Parish Priest and Broken Bay Diocese Administrator Fr David Ransom celebrated the Mass which was followed by the unveiling of a plaque on the construct of the Parish Bell.
The Bell is rung before each mass by the Bell ringer, usually the priest saying mass.
The construct which houses the bell was designed by parishioner and architect from Equilibria, Peter Georgiades.
https://thecatenians.org.au/province-21/eastern-link/eastern-link-april-2019#sigProId3cbec4b981
Celtic football star Paul McStay visits City of Sydney
Bro. Bob O'Mara introduced our speaker for March who is a parishioner at Gymea Parish in the Sutherland Shire. Bob met Paul through his wife and son who was helping in packing the containers for Mons, Brian Rayner's Fiji appeal.
We welcomed Mr Paul McStay to our meeting and dinner when he joined us to tell his fascinating story. He enthralled our dinner with a very Scottish voice telling us about his journey from the city of Glasgow to the top fields of football (soccer) in the United Kingdom and to the halls of Buckingham Palace to awarded the MBE from the Queen for his service to football.
As a youth, McStay first came to prominence in June 1980 in a Schoolboy International match where Scotland played England at Wembley. Then 15, he was the captain. He scored two goals in the match and was awarded the Man of the Match award after Scotland ran out 5–4 winners.
Season 1982-83 saw the young midfielder establish himself as a first team regular, and he picked up his first winners medal on 4 November 1982 in Celtic's 2–1 win over Rangers in the League Cup Final. His performances resulted in media speculation that Inter Milan were considering making a £2 million bid to take him to Italy, a rumour that was emphatically dismissed by the Celtic Chairman, Desmond White.
McStay continued to progress at Celtic, and he scored Celtic's equaliser in the 1984 Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen to take the match into extra time. However, Celtic played most of the match with 10 men after Roy Aitken had been sent off in the first half, and Aberdeen scored in extra time to win 2–1.
In December 1987, during Celtic's centenary season, McStay signed a five-year contract at Celtic. He went on to enjoy his finest season, winning both the SPFA and Scottish Football Writers player of the year awards as the club clinched an League and Cup double in 1988.
When Roy Aitken left Celtic Park in 1990, McStay was appointed club captain, a position he retained until his retirement following the 1996–97 season. In his time with the club, Celtic won the League title three times, the Scottish Cup 4 times and the League Cup once.
Although the second half of McStay's career coincided with a time when Celtic were in turmoil and were overshadowed by rivals Rangers, in 2002 he was voted a member of Celtic's greatest ever team by the club's fans. He is also a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame, which honours the best players to play in Scotland and is located in the Scottish Football Museum.
McStay's great-uncles, Jimmy and Willie McStay, were former Celtic captains, and his brothers Willie and Raymond also played for Celtic. His nephew, John, played with Celtic Boys Club before moving onto Motherwell under 19s and later played for Ayr United as a defender.
McStay made his full national team debut in 1983 and represented Scotland 76 times, including appearances at two World Cups in 1986 and 1990, during a 14-year international career.
In mid-1982 he captained Scotland to victory in the UEFA European Under-18 Championship. This is the only major trophy to date, won by any Scottish national football team. He captained each of the Scotland teams from under-16 level through under-18, under-20, under-21 and at full National team level.
In 2010, he moved to live in Sydney, Australia with his wife Anne Marie and their six children. McStay now runs Maestro Sports, a start-up software company specialising in sport coaching and management.
One of his sons, Chris, has played football for Sutherland Sharks and is currently with Clyde.
The brothers were unanimous is their applause for Paul's fascinating story, the slide show and his journey to Australia where football is only a minor code at the moment.
Cairns welcomes Provincial President Graham Short and Ron Iddles, "Australia's greatest detective"
Our Circle welcomed Province 21 President Brother Graham Short to our meeting, Brother Graham spoke about the Remote Regional Circles initiative.
We also welcomed as our guest speaker at dinner Ron Iddles, who is a retired very senior detective of the Victoria Police service.
Ron Iddles did a marvellous presentation about this life in the police force and he talked about how his investigations went and how he was able to bring 250 charged men to face justice before the courts.
A very enjoyable evening.
The Remote Regional Circles Initiative…
From Provincial President Brother Graham Short.
With my term as President P21 coming to a close, last night I was nominated for, accepted and elected P21 Membership Officer for 2019-20.
The above initiative will this fall under my area of responsibility.
My view is that since we have an established City of Cairns Circle in far north R/R QLD with good relations with bishop and priests that there would be a good place to start.
The concept is that the groundwork would mainly be done digitally:
- Information on Catenians to and approval of bishops and priests
- Material suitable for publication of information on Catenians and opportunity to make application to form Circles/groups in parish bulletins.
- Referral to Australian Catenian Website for further information and forms.
- It would only be when an application to form a group/ circle is received that feet on the ground would be activated, subject to availability of Development Funding.
- In the case of R/R QLD most likely by Cairns Circle.
Such a strategy provides an economical way of arousing awareness of Catenians in R/R Parishes while also providing opportunity for like minded parishioners to petition to form a group/circle.
At the very least it will pave the way for a planned and more traditional Circle development drive planned for Townsville in 2021.
Our guest speaker at this month's meeting was Ron Iddles, a former Australian police detective.
His conviction rate was 99% and he was dubbed "Australia's greatest detective"
After a career spanning some 43 years investigating serious crime, he took up the role of Secretary of the Police Association of Victoria between 2014 and 2016.
He retired from the Police force in 2016, but was enticed to come out of retirement to take up the position as Victoria's inaugural Community Safety Trustee, a role that involves serving as an independent voice for the community and overseeing the state's community safety budget.
In 2015, Iddles was made a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the community.
He is widely known as "Australia's greatest detective. Ron Iddles is the subject of the book, The Good Cop, written by Justine Ford and published by Macmillan (2017).
Ron now spends a lot of time in FNQ and is a great friend of Brother Mark Ellwood who suggested that we invite Ron to our meeting.
https://thecatenians.org.au/province-21/eastern-link/eastern-link-april-2019#sigProId72a0162fea
Ku-Ring-Gai wins the KuPitt Shield
President Martin congratulates Brother Stim on his success in steering the KuPitt Shield in Ku-Ring-Gai's direction in the recent match against Pittwater at Palm Beach.
The match had been rescheduled from October last year when it was too wet to play.
President elect Paul happily displays The Maid Marion Trophy which he won at the same Palm Beach KuPitt match day.
The Trophy was originally presented to the Circle by Brother Reg Joyce at our inauguration in November 1978.
The future of Manly Circle
Manly Circle initiated a discussion among members on the future of the Circle at it's February meeting.
The chat bought forward lots of positive views and ideas, a very invigorating positive night for all members
Points raised by members -
- While favouring more involvement for women, he did not favour admitting women as members. He thought the way things worked at the moment eg. with Ladies Nights and the ladies involvement with Friends was working really well. He applauded the invitation for women to attend our meetings.
- Ladies should be welcomed as members but queried whether it would need to be accepted nationally. Can we say that wives of members are automatically involved in the Circle? It was suggest however that wives may not be too keen to attend meetings (at least one wife had no interest in attending our meetings).
- Targets for new membership should be those heading towards retirement (younger people tend to be time poor with families, schooling, etc).
- Circles needed to guard against becoming cliques.
- Friends of Catenians concept as a way of getting women involved.
- It would be good to get Catenians to be part of everyday parish life.
- On the point of organising events eg through Friends or otherwise, it's important that such tasks didn't fall to one person, this task should be spread around and involve more Brothers.
- Provincial Council is talking about use of the Provincial website for example to look at what speakers different Circles have had/are having.
- We should work with the parishes more closely. We should word notices for parish bulletins carefully and extend open invitations as a way of meeting new people. Peter suggested a good source of speakers would be Caritas, St Vincent de Paul, Catholic Missions, etc.
- Getting the Catenian message out is extremely important.
- No issue with women joining, but suggested we need to start with men, we can be an outreach for lonely people, etc.
- Since joining Catenians it has become a major part of his life ever since, it's one of the big 3 things in his life – the parish, Catholic Walkers and the Catenians.
- To grow, we need to create interest in the Catenians, organise good guest speakers and then advertise that in parish bulletins. Suggestions for speakers should be well organised and planned months in advance.
Brendan O'Connell – said he was very encouraged to hear the discussion tonight. A way of seeking new members would be to invite people to a Catenian dinner as a first step. He encouraged the Circle to "keep the good work going" and said he was very optimistic that the Circle would be doing well in 10 years time.
Travellers Tales – The Pelorus Mail Boat
Contributed by Paul (writer) and Nuala (editor) Pearson, Manly Circle 322
On a recent trip to New Zealand's South Island, my wife and I spent a day on the Pelorus Mail Boat, a vital service, funded by tourists, to help the isolated inhabitants of the Pelorus Sound.
Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere is the largest of the sounds that make up the Marlborough Sounds, ahead of Queen Charlotte Sound and Kenepuru Sound.
During our 7 hours on the Pelorus Mail Boat, we not only enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Sound but also got to experience the mail delivery process, whereby groceries and any other required goods able fit on board, are dispatched to the grateful, isolated inhabitants of Pelorus Sound. (This service is an absolute lifeline to the inhabitants, as most properties have no road access or mains electricity).
The mail service began in 1869, with a monthly government steamer sailing from Wellington, to deliver to just the one location. However, as the population grew, the steamer put the mail ashore at several small Post Offices throughout the area.
Residents then had to row to these points to pick up their mail.
In 1918, the Government put the mail service out to private operators, and the mail run, as we know it today, was born.
Eric Johnson, a 17-year old local, was the first operator of the service, for the princely annual sum of 248 pounds.
In the early years, to help cover costs, Eric also started carrying supplies and 'sightseers'; most of the goods carried were groceries and farming supplies, including sheep.
That same service continues today, with tourists funding the deliveries, at no charge to the locals.
As a part of the service, tourists are delivered to out of the way holiday accommodation, and inhabitants are returned to their homes after shopping trips.
At each stop, the mail boat is greeted by the locals and their dogs. incoming and outgoing mailbags are exchanged, and any accompanying dogs are treated to a dog biscuit!
Each drop-off and pick-up point has its own story; a sheep farm that has been down-sized to cater to the farmer who has grown a little too old to manage a full property; a family home-schooling their children, or someone who is just happy to live with only his dogs for company.
The day of our trip, a special drop off was arranged, for a packet of cigarettes that had been forgotten the day before!
Our deliveries stopped for a lunch break at The Lodge at Te Rawa. Here, we sampled the local produce: a lovely bowl of Seafood Chowder and a Smoked Fish Plate, along with a glass of wine.
As a tourist, it felt satisfying and somewhat empowering to know that we were contributing, in some small way, to this support system for people who choose to live outside of mainstream society; to see each person eagerly waiting on his or her wharf, for the boat to tie up, knowing that this could be the only social contact they have from one week to another!
All of these photos were taken on my iPhone, click on a thumbnail and scroll the larger images.
https://thecatenians.org.au/province-21/eastern-link/eastern-link-april-2019#sigProId735332d249
Pray for our brothers who are not well
Please add our brothers who are not well to your prayer list.
Carlingford
Stan Burgin, Laurie Burns and Brian Delaney, together with Jan Burgin. Also, continue to pray for Timothy Carpenter, and Christopher Carter.
The Hills
Br Milan & Mary; Br Jim Quinn; Br Paul Roberts-parents and Br Peter Huby’s brother. Br Alph Bonnici, Br Jim Kelly(UK) , Stan & Jan Burgin (Carlingford), Br David Combes(Hornsby).
Manly
Michael Van Ommen (now living in Wollongong), and Warwick Jones.
Michael has been on a second course of chemo but is still very positive.
Brother Warwick is in the Estia Nursing Home, King St, Manly Vale.
Pittwater
Margaret and Barry McNamara; Jacqui and Russell Collins; Peter McDonald and Josephine Pezzano ; Chris Micallef ; Bob and Val Whittaker; Bob and Shirley Basham; Lionel and Maureen Stacey; Pat and Betty Quinn; Bob and Marita Dartnell and grandson Anthony; Garry Gleeson; Gordon Rorke; Merv and Margaret Schloeffel and Kevin Cullen and Keith Norris. All are in need of our prayers.
Province 21 Events for 2019
| 10 April 2019 | ANC Meeting | Sydney |
| 29 April 2019 | AGM and Council Meeting No 130 | Broken Bay Diocese office Pennant Hills |
| 22 July 2019 | Council Meeting No 131 | Broken Bay Diocese office Pennant Hills |
| 3 August 2019 | Province Mass | 5pm at Wahroonga hosted by Hornsby Circle - Catering Officer - Ray Attard 9945 0744 rayattard5@gmail.com |
| 21 August 2019 | O'Connell Cup | Manly Circle Meeting at Manly Golf Club, at 6:30 for 7:00pm. Catering Officer - Romano Di Donato romlaw1@tpg.com.au or 0407 153 626 |
| 2 October 2019 | Truthful Jones | City of Sydney |
| 28 October 2019 | Council Meeting No 132 | Broken Bay Diocese office Pennant Hills |
Letters
The Letters section gives an opportunity for any local issues to be raised, discussed and perhaps even resolved.
Have you tried something a little different and want to share it?
It would be great if we can develop this into a platform for an exchange of ideas and a discussion with different views on topics.
Even ideas for this website, we want to make this site work for everybody, what could we have on here?
Write to p21.newsletter@thecatenians.org.au