On Wednesday 17th May all 88 Year 2 students from St Joseph’s School boarded a bus for an excursion to visit St. Joseph’s Church. Our Religious Education unit is all about ‘Participation’ so we attended the weekday Mass along with many parishioners, parents and grandparents. 

After Mass we went on a discovery tour to learn all about our church. Fr. John talked to us and showed us special things in our church including his vestments, the Lectern and the Easter/Paschal candle. We had a closer look at the baptismal font and the holy oils that we have been learning are used for the sacraments. We went up on the sanctuary and learnt about the altar. Fr. John opened the reredos and we recognised the pictures from stories we know about Jesus.

We got to go up in the choir loft where Mrs. Hyland showed us the big organ. We had never walked up such a big staircase or seen such a big organ and were amazed by the size of the pipes! Some of us were lucky enough to have a turn on the organ. 

It was very interesting learning all about the soup kitchen with Mary. We found out the hall was the first St. Joseph’s Church and was even the first school. Now it is a place where people from the community can meet with others to enjoy company and a three-course meal. There are many volunteers who make this happen by giving of their time and community groups and businesses have donated the things needed to prepare the food. We found out that the Young Vinnies group from our school even donated the microwave for the kitchen. 

We really enjoyed having a tour around the Church grounds with Pat. We went for a big walk around the gardens and we found out where Fr. John lives and we saw the workshop where Pat fixes things. We even saw the ashes burnt from the palm leaves.

Our excursion helped us to learn about all the wonderful things at St. Joseph’s Church.