| SACRED
SITE
by Maureen
Flood |
In the middle
of the 1970's Mark Raper S.J., then Director of the Jesuit
“Asian Bureau”, asked me to write an article on the links
between contemplation and social awareness/action. Mark
could have supposed that I might know something about
contempla ... ... [more]
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| untitled
by May (Wong)
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I have been
coming to mass at St Vincent’s, Redfern for over twenty
years because I have chosen to do so. The community that
Father Ted has fostered over the years is an unusual community
in that many of us who attend come from far and near.
I come f ... ... [more]
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| untitled
by Michael
Gravener |
I was just
a mere lad when I came across an article in a Melbourne
Newspaper. You know the one where Ted is holding the small
child in front of the Church door. That door is miraculously
still standing. I was transformed by the words of the
journalis ... ... [more]
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by Pat Kennedy
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When I moved
out of living in a religious community in 1992 to live
alone, I chose to adopt Redfern as my parish community.
I had experienced the challenge of Ted at Masses in Redfern
when I lived in the area ten years before. I chose to
come to Redf ... ... [more]
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| REDFERN
PARISH COMMUNITY
by Pat Ormesher
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The thing
about St Vincent's Parish is that it is not a “parish”
which can be understood as an area within which Catholics
living there are served. Perhaps Redfern is more adequately
described as “community', for a community is a group of
people bond ... ... [more]
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| Dear
Ted,
by Paul O'Callaghan
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How to begin
a letter to a person who has supported, cajoled, nurtured,
questioned, taught, wined, dined and broadened our intellectual
horizons and shown compassion for others as a cornerstone
of your religious belief. Ted has always lived his beli
... ... [more]
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| REDFERN
by Paul O'Keefe
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I attended
one of the sessions held earlier in the year after Mass
to discuss the future of Redfern post Ted Kennedy. I didn't
feel that I had anything of use to contribute because
I believed that I would have no part in this future Redfern.
This con ... ... [more]
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| Dear
Ted
by Peter
Dorf |
Thanks for
the many years of friendship, encouragement and challenge!
Your intuitive resonance with those spun to the margins,
your insightful critique of society with the church in
special focus, your insistent listening to those robbed
of an effec ... ... [more]
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| ST
VINCENT'S REDFERN - A PERSONAL REFLECTION
by Peter
Griffin |
My earliest
memories of St Vincent’s concern the church itself. By
late ‘71 I was back in Sydney after having done the rounds
of “training” by the then policy of Conscription which
took some of my peers off to their deaths or reduced them
to a traum ... ... [more]
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| Dear
Ted,
by Peter
Kearney |
You have
been like a second father to me since the far off days
of Sydney University 1966. I hitchhiked to Araluen after
Tim Higgins told me a few students were gathering there
with you. You had no idea I was coming and my first sight
of you there (y ... ... [more]
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| SNAPSHOTS
OF TED
by Peter
Manning |
My dad may
have been a truck driver and a laundryman but he ran his
service as a business and he kept his Bondi family in
creature comforts. Good sheets and pyjamas were de rigueur.
When I got to university, Ted as chaplain was a shock
not just intel ... ... [more]
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| A
JOURNEY OF REFLECTION
by Rhonda
Ansiewicz |
St Vincent’s
community, how does one encapsulate a lifetime of experiences
that captured my heart, my imagination my beliefs and
my commitment to justice, in a few words? When I came
to Redfern I was looking for a church where I could worship.
I foun ... ... [more]
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| untitled
by Rod Coady
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Some of
the parishioners of St Vincent's may not know very much
of Ted's background other than that which relates to his
championing of the aboriginal people and his time in Redfern
so I have chosen to write about an earlier time in his
life when I f ... ... [more]
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| untitled
by Sarah
Gilbert |
The first
Aboriginal people I ever encountered I met at St Vincent's.
People like Mum Shirl, Vernon Chillie and his sisters,
Laurence Lucas, Gladdie Haines and Sam Hookey have enriched
my life in many unexpected ways, and I'm very grateful
to Ted Ken ... ... [more]
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| untitled
by Helen
Regan |
Years ago,
I thought if I went to a poor church I might find more
truth based on the Gospels. Being the procrastinator that
I am, it wasn't until I actually went to live in Redfern
and went along to the Catholic Church that I found in
many ways more ... ... [more]
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| untitled
by Sr Esmey
Herscovitch RSCJ |
I am a newcomer
to the parish as from January 2002 (though in the past
I had visited the parish on a number of occasions). I
have experienced the following as Father Ted Kennedy's
legacy to the parish of Redfern and beyond: A community
of people who ... ... [more]
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| untitled
by Sr John
(Pat) Durnan |
My experience
of being at St Vincent's, Redfern, my friendship with
Fr Ted Kennedy, Shirley Perry Smith, and so many wonderful
aboriginal people and others who formed a caring, prayerful
community, have been the happiest time of my life. I feel
privi ... ... [more]
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| MEMORIES
OF TED KENNEDY
by Sr Margaret
Mazzer |
I was in
Redfern from about late eighties until 1993. People from
about 167 Parishes in Sydney were attracted to the Redfern
church Community headed by Father Ted Kennedy. His preaching
of the Gospel, reading and sharing theology was refreshing.
It c ... ... [more]
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