PARISH COUNCIL NEWS AND MESSAGES 

The Parish Council met on Thursday 27.10.2022 and after an opening prayer, reviewed the draft 2023 Calendar for our Parish, as well as discussed various other issues, including the Parish Council’s plan for the year ahead briefly, the children’s catechesis and weekly family mass and the possibility of an Advent retreat and the monthly Movie Nights reviving soon at the Holy Cross as before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 2023 Holy Cross Parish Calendar (which is dedicated to the “800 Years of the Franciscan Rule 1223 – 2023” and features various pilgrimage sites from the Holy Land catered for by the Franciscans) was presented in its draft form. Various comments were made on the draft so that they can be taken into account and the calendar can be completed and printed, as soon as the liturgical calendar is also finalised, for the copies to be available as soon as possible before Christmas, for all parishioners to secure copies for themselves and for others.

The Parish Council plan for the year ahead was also discussed briefly and the revival of the Movie Nights (mainly featuring movies on the lives of the saints), the Advent retreat as well as other popular events organised before the pandemic (like the Lenten Pilgrimage, the Parish Lunch after Easter, the Good Friday Way of the Cross drama etc), involving and uniting the whole parish, were positively considered, to be specifically discussed and decided in due course, following the success of the Holy Cross Parish Feast organised again in September 2022.

Finally, the children’s catechesis and weekly family masses were discussed and it was decided for the family masses to be celebrated every week at 6.30pm starting from the month of November 2022. Regarding the children’s catehesis classes, the need for the decision on the appropriate books at every level to be followed and provided for the children was raised, as our Patriarch advised at the last meeting the Parish Council had with him.

The Parish Council meeting closed with prayers and the blessing and will be meeting again in November 2022.
We ask you to pray for us, our parish, our priests, religious and all the faithful of our parish, young and old. May the Lord through the intercession of the Virgin Mary too, shower upon us His graces abundantly every day, to serve and witness Him in our lives without fear, trusting Him unconditionally and always!

Akis Hjiiossif (Chairman of the Parish Council – email: holcrossparishcouncil@yahoo.com)