In the last few weeks, thanks to the help of our designers at Osprey Services, the bulletin archive section on this website has been added with new features and rendered more accessible in style and easier to handle.A regular service offered by St George’s official website is that of uploading on a weekly basis the parish bulletin in PDF format.And it is there on time, usually before the “hard copies” are printed at the parish office and distributed to the households!
Some 54 volunteers, now also called “street-leaders”, are responsible for collecting their street’s batch from the parish office on Saturday and then deliver the copies to the respective parish households within their responsibility.Many times they are more than just “distributors”; actually their mission is the most regular link of the parish with its community members.
The bulletin itself contains useful information which keeps families up to date with the latest news from the parish, including a brief liturgy schedule and a list of the week’s pastoral meetings taking place at the parish premises itself.A spiritual message by the Archpriest, usually built on the Sunday readings, features on every edition, together with the kronaka and Mass intentions of that week.
While the A5 bulletin from inside is printed in two-colour at the parish office itself, the other side, in full-colour, is common to all parishes in the diocese and is in fact prepared by the Gozo Curia.The initiative in our diocese to publish a weekly bulletin for all parishes had started in 1969.In small parishes copies are handed out at Sunday Mass, wheras in large ones like ours they are organised in batches according to different town areas and distributed personally at the door by volunteers.Their circulation in our parish amounts to circa 1500 copies.
Before a heavy-duty copy-printer was bought for the parish by archpriest Mgr Joseph Farrugia, the parish bulletin used to be printed using an old gestetner which still exists at the parish archives.For obvious reasons the parish never took the decision to take the print to a local press, however the quality and presentation have been enhanced over the last few years.While the design is prepared by the parish office team, the printed copies are then usually counted and organised in batches by parish vicar Mgr Felix Tabone and his young aides.It would be interesting to know who will replace the man when the time comes!
Although computer and internet nowadays are available to all, many still prefer the traditional way: reading the printed version.However, for confident PC users, a soft version – now in PDF format – of each weekly edition is uploaded on the parish website and also made available for download.For those families who live outside the parish and, especially, for our emigrants, it is the only way of reading the bulletin!The online service has been provided since March 2006.
As from last month those who enter the Weekly Bulletin section, available on the top bar of the homepage or otherwise from the left-hand side menu, come across an easier and even quicker way of searching for past editions of the bulletin stored in our online archives (2006-2010).You may also browse from one edition to the other by just clicking Next.Give it a try!
