Red November at St Paul’s

No.  We didn’t become Communists! 

In November 2025, St Paul’s joined with many other churches in Australia and New Zealand to take part in Red November, an initiative of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that calls attention to Christians around the world who are persecuted because of their faith.  The idea was simple: celebrate a Mass for persecute Christians, light the church in red and give our parish community a visible reminder to pray for those who cannot practise their faith freely.

Making the church glow red, however, was not as straightforward as anticipated.

Fr Mariusz and a few determined parishioners spent some time working on how to light the church, without the effect being interpreted in a way that was never intended.  After all, it was red – people might even wonder whether we were encouraging some revolutionary political position!  The project took a bit longer than anticipated, and a few tries with red cellophane paper and lights before the result was deemed appropriate.

On the Wednesday evening, St Paul’s then celebrated Red November Mass, with a particularly good turnout.  We’re not sure of what the neighbours thought, but for the rest of November the church continued to glow red after dark – a visible reminder of the suffering of Christians in many parts of the world.

It served to remind us that our Catholic family extends far beyond our own church – and that, for many Christians, the freedom to gather for Mass is something that cannot be taken for granted. It was not so long ago that our church was closed and we were unable to attend Mass because of Government restrictions during Covid.  While this was very different from the persecution experienced by Christians elsewhere, it gave us a reminder that our religious freedom can be more fragile than we sometimes imagine.

May we always treasure  and safeguard the freedom we have to worship together in Australia.