REFLECTIONS
Father Ted Kennedy
St Vincent's Redfern 1971 - 2002
 
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A compilation of reflections by Community members presented to Ted Kennedy on his retirement as parish priest of the St Vincent's Catholic Church in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern.
 
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Fr Ted Kennedy

Reflections 1
Reflections 2
Reflections 3
Reflections 4
Reflections 5
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Visitors since 12 April 2004
 
 
  Church Mouse
 
 
Dear Ted

If I hadn't met you I would never have seen, driving late at night in the Araluen Valley, the surprising sight of a man standing beside the road draped in a grey blanket with a gorilla mask on his head. Nor would whoever was in the other car, the one you had a short time before mistaken for ours, which had first slowed down and then passed you at speed.

Practical jokes are one of the many things you introduced me to. I had joined the Sydney University Newman Society to meet people (especially boys). At City Road, the meeting-place, I found an old, once-gracious house with bare floorboards, ramshackle furniture and big old kitchen table, which extended a rare welcome. In that house I found warmth, acceptance, fun and challenge. I learnt there not to expect simple answers and to stop thinking of religion as a set of rules. I learnt about social responsibility. I learnt about Irish music, red wine and Dixon Street restaurants.

I thought there was something special about that house, and there was, but it had nothing to do with the house. Over the years I have seen the spirit of that house recreated in many different places. I feel lucky to have been in that place at that time and to have become part of the wide community of people whom you have inspired, challenged, supported and loved.

Love


by Maria Manning
 

 

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