Dear Brothers and Sisters, The early Christians gathered in each other’s homes to celebrate Eucharist. Later they modified what had been pagan temples as their places of worship. In many mission areas Mass was celebrated under a tree or in a school building. Very often the Church building was multipurpose. There was a Sunday and weekday Mass and then there was school and parish and social meetings. This was done because there was not the means of providing both a church and school buildings. Many times the priest’s” house” was the church sacristy which also doubled as an “office”. The building which houses St Francis Xavier Church was intended as a multi-purpose building. I do not believe that that its planners ever saw it as serving as a long term Church. There were supposed to be many more houses in the area and it would be temporary until the “New Church” would be built. Often we plan our lives and God often has other plans and the building has and will continue to serve us well. We do not have the means to buy expensive dividers and partitions but we do have a many hard working volunteers who are working to help us use the upper space for many other kinds of functions without devaluing it as sacred space. They are working on creating screens and partitions which will help us use the space as a multi-purposed building. Our first venture will be the St Patrick’s Day event. Then in May our parish Choirs hope to present an evening of music to help display their great giftedness. Early Churches were in people’s homes. During persecutions often a rock in the cattle fields became the altar. We thankfully have a building and all our life should be a prayer so let’s use it respectfully to both worship God and to build community as we celebrate His goodness and generosity. Let our journey continue, Fr Karl