Welcom Archive 2007-2026

WelCom is the monthly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Wellington. Print copies of the eight-page newsletter are free and available in parishes, and sent to parishes and schools in PDF form. The archive contains WelCom stories published from 2007 to 2026 (May).

Reflections on the Gospel – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm27 January 2012 Today’s gospel reading recounts the first episode in a section of Mark’s gospel that focuses on a typical day in the ministry of Jesus as authoritative teacher and prophetic healer (1:21-38). The setting is the Capernaum synagogue on the Sabbath, a thoroughly Jewish setting. The verbal forms in the […]

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Reflections on the Gospel – Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm27 January 2012 One of my regular global intelligence sources, STRATFOR (www.stratfor.com) featured in its January 11 edition an annual forecast for 2012. STRATFOR says 2012 is unique as a year in which the forecasts point to ‘a redefinition of the way the world works’. It seems to me that Mark evaluated […]

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A significant birthday

Palmerston North Anne Richards3 December 2011 On Saturday November 12 friends gathered from near and far at the Cathedral Parish, Palmerston North to celebrate Fr Peter Fahy’s 70th birthday. The biggest surprise of the afternoon was when his sister Mary, who lives in the UK, walked in. She had not told him she was coming […]

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Struck down but still loved

Palmerston North Fr Kevin Neal3 December 2011 It’s six years since I had the stroke. I remember it clearly – the growing numbness in my leg and my explaining that I’d need to lie down. I was with a team of lay parish workers on retreat in Whanganui. Fortunately they caught on straight away because […]

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They came together to pray

Palmerston North Mary Eastham3 December 2011 That the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit had become a place of refuge for everyone from every spiritual faith tradition, was the essence of Maru Karatea-Goddard’s karanga, as she welcomed people to Palmerston North’s Assisi Prayer for World Peace on October 27. Maru referred to sacred spiritual traditions from […]

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Reflections on the Gospel – Second Sunday of Advent Year B

Reflect Veronica Lawson rsm1 December 2011 The opening verse of Mark’s gospel evokes the opening words of Genesis, the first book of the bible. The whole of Mark’s story of Jesus is presented as the beginning of a faith journey into which the listener/reader is invited. In some manuscripts of the Greek text, there are […]

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Fresh from WYD committed to parish work

Palmerston North 11 November 2011 Six young people from the Stratford-Eltham-Kaponga area have returned from World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain, fired up and fully committed to the internship programme they undertook 18 months ago. As the parish members prayed for them and journeyed with them, the six entered an internship in which they agreed […]

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Madrid through adult eyes

Cheryl Sugden11 November 2011 Cheryl Sugden of Napier accompanied her daughter and granddaughter to Spain for World Youth Day in August and offered this reflection at the HB Pastoral Area forum on October 1. With a group of Australians at World Youth Day I was squashed in to a concrete square in Madrid to watch […]

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Hastings churches group for praise with flowers

Palmerston North Kate Epplett11 November 2011 Hastings churches celebrated the highly popular Blossom Week in September with Flowers in Praise which has become an annual way for the churches to get together. Started around 10 years ago by Elim Church in Hastings, this year’s opportunity to praise God through flowers was hosted by St Matthew’s […]

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New parish priest for Hastings West

Palmerston North Gwen Mardle11 November 2011 When Bishop Peter Cullinane installed Fr Vince Onesi as the new parish priest of St Peter Chanel on Sunday October 2, he told the congregation, ‘I do not need to tell you that Fr Vince will do a good job; he is already doing a good job.’ Parishioners in […]

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