Children and Families Ministry Update

As we enter 2026, the Children and Families Team is overjoyed to jump back into the swing of things and create opportunities for both children and families to build relationships with one another and with Jesus.

A snapshot of 2025 and some victories:

• We held an awesome Family Fun Day in June at Kings Beach Amphitheatre!
• We held our first-ever Junior Altar Servers Day in March, with 10 Junior Altar Servers now actively serving across our parish Mass Centres.
• We launched a parish Mums & Bubs Group for mums with children aged 0–4.
• We introduced an Infant Space/Kids Corner at OLR, Notre Dame and Unity College Mass centres.
• We held an epic Encounter Day for primary-aged children in April, alongside the Encounter Kids Team from the Archdiocese.
• We have a successful weekly Children’s Liturgy at OLR Church, along with fortnightly at Sacred Heart Maleny and monthly at our Notre Dame Mass Centre.

A major highlight was the success of our Sacramental Program—both Confirmation and First Holy Communion. We revamped the program to make the evenings more engaging and inviting for participants and received great feedback.

We also launched our first-ever Kingdom Kids Youth Group—a group for children in Years 3–6 that met once a month on Tuesday afternoons to explore their faith and encounter Jesus in their own lives. We welcomed between 6–14 participants each month, which is incredible!

A massive shout-out to the leadership team—Amelia, Fr Gerard, Nadine, Julie and Mark—for all their hard work in making these events possible.

Our goal for 2026 is to focus strongly on creating events and initiatives that invite and engage both parents and children, as well as building on our parish–school relationships with OLR, Unity College and Notre Dame College.

Upcoming events – save the dates for 2026:

• Junior Altar Servers Day (Years 3–7): Saturday 7 March
• Encounter Kids Day (Prep–Year 6): Friday 17 April
• Family Fun Day (all are welcome!): Saturday 13 June
• Kingdom Kids Youth Group (Years 3–6): Relaunching March 2026
• Sacramental Program – Confirmation: Beginning Tuesday 21 April
• Sacramental Program – First Holy Communion: Beginning Tuesday 14 July

More information about all these events will be available shortly. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, or would like to join the team and help with these initiatives, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Amelia at willmera@bne.catholic.net.au.

Stay up to date with all our upcoming events by visiting our Linktree HERE. You can also access upcoming events and dates on our parish website page HERE

God bless,

The Children and Families Team

Amelia, Fr Gerard, Nadine, Julie and Mark