The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
11 January 2004
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Timor ‘sister’ parish plan for St Canice’s
By Chris Lindsay
Parishioners from St Canice’s Church in Kings Cross are visiting East Timor this month in the hope of setting up a sister relationship with the Ermera parish outside Dili.
One of the delegation leaders, Sue Crabbe, says they have been encouraged
to go by their parish priest, Jesuit Fr Stephen Sinn.
Sue said before the 10-day visit that the parishioners “are flying to
Darwin and then to Dili, and will then drive up into Ermera parish in the hills”.
“ We have very little information on the place so we are going to see what is happening,” she said. “We want to see if we can help in the East Timorese people’s move towards a sustainable lifestyle. We are just going to listen. It is a fact-finding mission.
“ We hope to develop a sister relationship with that area through a stronger relationship with the people we meet.
“ We just want to go and see what the situation is and then offer whatever support we can.”
Sue said there are several churches in the Ermera area and the delegation will work out what it can do to assist them.
“ We have no planned itinerary,” she said.
“ We will be flexible. We want to visit schools and health services and see what the situation is.
“ Fr Sinn is very much behind the trip. He is concerned that parishes in Australia can become very inward looking, particularly one like St Canice’s at Kings Cross, which has its own problems with street people and drugs.
“ If you are not careful you can get totally involved in your own backyard; Fr Sinn believes we should look more to the wider world. We are paying our own way, but Fr Sinn wants the whole thing to be a parish initiative.
“ We hope some projects develop out of it in the health and education areas, but we will listen to the people over there and see what kind of assistance they want.
“ However, we are not a welfare group and we do not see that as our role. We are not an aid group, we are a support group. These people are living on our doorstep in a difficult situation; it is up to us to do what we can.”