Not that we didn’t have one already.  As Christians know, the Church is the term we use for the people, and not just the building.  Catholics have worshipped in Yanchep-Two Rocks since the seventies – first at the marina, then in the YDHS library, then in the old sheep-shearing shed converted by the Anglican Church into St James’s Church, and when that was removed (I heard a rumour it was taken to the wheatbelt town of Southern Cross, but that may be apocryphal), at the Yanchep Community Centre, where we currently celebrate Mass.

But it’s wonderful news that the Archdiocese has committed to investing in land in the Yanchep-Two Rocks area.  This week, Nick Perrignon, Principal of Acumen Development Solutions, announced that a Catholic Church would be built on the hill overlooking Beachside Parade in Capricorn Estate.

Even more wonderful is the fact that we will have a Church building before a school, because that puts our priorities in the right order.  Everything we have is from God, and to him we should first and foremost give right praise.  If we get that first commandment right – to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength (Mk 12:30), the rest will follow (or it will if we’re loving God correctly – note to the community: “We’re not all paedophiles”)!  What I mean by ‘the rest’, is loving our neighbour, which includes building schools and reaching out to the sick, the lonely, and those in need.

But having a Church building enables us to do and be so much more.  It means we can have a permanent place to honour God in the Holy Eucharist.  It means we can have a much more visible presence in the Community and (we hope) serve the Community better.  Already we are involved in visiting the frail and aged at Bethanie Beachside (which is run by our friends, the Church of Christ), and we have also had a bread distribution programme going for many years (courtesy of Bakers Delight). But it would be nice to hear from members of the Yanchep Two Rocks Community about other areas of need, especially your prayer requests.

If the life of our Church is like a recapitulation of Scripture, having our own church building will be like the difference between the Israelites wandering around in the desert for years on end and finally building the Temple under Solomon.  Or that’s how it feels, because we’ve been praying for this for so very long.

I will endeavour to keep you posted about the actual timeline of the building.  So far, all discussions have been in commercial confidence and therefore we have to wait until an official announcement from the Archdiocese.  Or as we could say …

On the idea of ‘Church’, here are some snippets from the Catechism …

751 The word “Church” (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to “call out of”) means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. 139 Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. By calling itself “Church,” the first community of Christian believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is “calling together” his people from all the ends of the earth. the equivalent Greek term Kyriake, from which the English word Church and the German Kirche are derived, means “what belongs to the Lord.”

752 In Christian usage, the word “church” designates the liturgical assembly, but also the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three meanings are inseparable. “The Church” is the People that God gathers in the whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical, above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body of Christ and so herself becomes Christ’s Body.

The Catholic Church. The Catechism Of The Catholic Church (Kindle Locations 3771-3776). . Kindle Edition.

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