St Anthony’s Parish came into life on its own in 1960. Prior to this, along with the faith community centred in Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Newtown, it was part of the larger parish of West Toowoomba.
Sunday 15th July, 1951 marked the opening and blessing of the Church-School building known as St Anthony’s. This wooden building, brought in from Cabarlah Military Camp, served as the school until 1955 and the Church until 1965. When new buildings for school and Church were completed, the original Church was moved to Stephen Street for use as a Parish Hall. St Anthony’s became a Parish in its own right on 1st May, 1960.
St Anthony’s now covers a relatively large area, the south-west corner of the City of Toowoomba, embracing Harristown, Glenvale, Darling Heights, Westbrook and Drayton. At the moment, parish resources (Church, School and Hall) are located in the Harristown area. However, our community is wide and varied and growing! We welcome and value all who come to be with us and we look to developing new faith communities in the future.
Members of our parish community are encouraged to be involved in the ministries and pastoral activities currently part of parish life. These include -
- Liturgical Ministry: Welcomers, Readers, Ministers of the Eucharist, Musicians and Singers, Thursday Adoration, Flowers, Children’s Liturgy, money counters, Altar Servers, Collectors and AV Operators;
- Faith Education ministry: Catechetics (special school), Scripture Study group, Lenten Discussion groups;
- Family Support ministry: Playgroup, Home-based Sacramental programs;
- Pastoral Care ministry: St Vincent de Paul, Home Communions, Ecumenical Pastoral Care Westhaven Home;
- Justice ministry: Social Justice Group;
- Leadership ministry: Pastoral Council, Finance Council, Liturgy Team, Sacramental Team.
For many years, generous efforts have produced a flourishing Parish Primary School, originally a Presentation Sisters’ school, now fully staffed by lay teachers. The Presentation Sisters, from 1954 until their departure in 1997, made a singular and outstanding contribution both within the school and in the wider parish community.
2012 was a big year within the parish of St Anthony’s. Our Priest in Residence retired which left St Anthony’s without a full-time priest, which unfortunately is a growing trend within many Parish’s in our Diocese. Since then we have relied on Supply Priest’s to fill the gaps. The long-awaited Community Centre was completed! This purpose-built centre houses new offices and meeting rooms in the front and a community hall at the rear, which will replace the existing hall in Stephen Street. This centre is the culmination of many years of planning and will be a wonderful hub for parish community events. It will also serve to advance St Anthony’s Parish position in the community for many years to come.
On Sept 1,2020 Fr Jamie Collins was transferred in from Roma to become our first Parish Priest in over 10 years.
Currently we have a parish staff of two. Fr Jamie Collins is our Parish Priest and Noela Nolan is our Parish Secretary. Our Parish House is located at 3 Memory Street; ph 4636 1737.
