Monday, September 25, the Republic Day holiday, will long be remembered in the parish of St Charles Boromeo, Tunapuna. It was the day our very first Parish Assembly as well as the 46th anniversary of priestly ordination of our beloved parish priest Fr Reginald Hezekiah, popularly known as Fr Reggie.

Three weeks prior to the event, parishioners received leaflets briefly explaining the Parish Assembly, and they were asked to pre-register. Two days to go and pre-registration was almost non-existent. On the morning of the Assembly, however, we were prepared for the numbers that turned out at 9.00 a.m.

An uplifting session of praise and worship, setting the tone for the morning, followed the singing of our National Anthem. Following Fr Reggie’s welcome address, Lucy Regis, chairperson of our parish council, gave a briefing on Synod and its implications for us as part of this reawakening of our Church.

Individual presentations were made on the areas highlighted for attention this year by the Archdiocesan Synod Implementation Team – Catechetics, Catholic Education in both Catholic schools and Government schools and also Family Life.

These were well received, particularly the Family Life’s hilarious skit portraying how the FLU (Family Life Unit) can assist when a youthful member of the family is inclined to drift away from the Church.

The highlight of the day however, was the power point presentation “St Charles on the move”, a joint effort of the Stewardship and Communications teams. This presentation covered all areas of parish life, using an abundance of pictures, each speaking their thousand words.

Parishioners were given an idea of what has been happening in the parish since 1903, when the parish first came into being, right up to the time of Synod 2003, and then what has been happening since.

After a short break for refreshments, participants went to the workshop indicated by the colour given to them at registration, to discuss one of the presentations. Discussions centred on “What do you like about what is happening?”, “What would you change?” and “Suggestions for the future”.

The wealth of information presented in the reports from these workshops was astounding. Thank God it is all written, even if only in point form.

After all this we celebrated with Fr Reggie, toasting and presenting him with a lovely cake.
Well done St Charles and special kudos to the more than 70 people who took time on a public holiday to work towards improvement in their parish.