The Peninsula invited to mass

A local Filipino-Australian Catholic group has invited the Peninsula community to help celebrate its sixth anniversary with a eucharistic mass at St John the Baptist, Woy Woy, on Saturday, March 4.

The El Shaddai Catholic Charismatic Fellowship Group Dwxi-Prayer Partners Foundation will celebrate its sixth anniversary with Fr Anthony McCarthy performing a mass from 1.30 to 2.30pm.

Br Dennis Frias, a preacher from the Philippines, will deliver a healing message during the mass.

Fr McCarthy is the assistant priest at St John the Baptist.

He was a Columban missionary and spent 30 years in the Southern Philippines before returning to Australia in the mid-1990s.

Fr McCarthy was also a fellow Columban missionary to Fr Brian Gore, the priest who was incarcerated in the Philippines during the time of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Another Peninsula resident with links to the Philippines is Ms Lee Pendleton who organises publicity for the El-Shaddai group.

Ms Pendleton, who works at the Peninsula Village, is Philippines-born.

She married her husband, David, 16 years ago after they met in the Philippines.

She was journalist in the Philippines at the time, working during the turbulent Marcos years.

The couple now have two daughters, aged 15 and 13, who attend St Joseph's Catholic College.

Ms Pendleton, for whom English is a second language continues to pursue her journalistic career.

She writes for Sydney's The Philippine Community Herald, is the SBS Filipino correspondent for the Filipino Australia Community on the Central Coast, is an active member for the El-Shaddai Fellowship group on the Central Coast and also provides contributions for the Peninsula News.

For further information, phone 4342 7489.

Press release, February 16