STEPPING inside the new Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church you are at once struck by the majesty of the high-ceiling church.
Create a free account to read this article
or signup to continue reading
The dome-shaped roof of the Kellyville church is covered with gold-leaf stars highlighted in the interior with a painting of Jesus.
The stars form the southern sky constellation in March 2015, parish priest Father Warren Edwards said.
He hopes to have a depiction of St Francis of Assisi, by a local artist he met 15 years ago, receiving the stigmata via lasers in a side enclave.
Already, there are about 50 windows, depicting saints, the 20 mysteries reflected upon in the Rosary, as well as guardian and archangels.
Eight windows around the dome depict the eight days of creation.
‘‘A parishioner [Christine De Stoop] painted all the windows, first on canvas, then they were digitally scanned and put between two plates of glass,’’ Father Warren said.
‘‘As much as possible, everything has been made by either parishioners — who project-managed, excavated and surveyed the site — or local businesses.’’
Even the windows are sponsored.
Church-goers will tomorrow morning celebrate Mass for the first time in the new two-storey church and marvel at the details, from the statue of the church’s namesake Our Lady of the Angels in the Rosary Chapel, to the marble baptistery, lectern, altar and tabernacle.
Three bells have been installed in the tower, while parishioners can choose between the anonymity of confessing through a screen or they can face the priest, overlooked by a painting of the Prodigal Son.
Father Warren will lead two Masses tomorrow, on The Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
A morning Mass will be attended by pupils of Our Lady of the Angels Primary (a school that shares the same grounds with the church on the corner of Withers Road and Wellgate Avenue) and there will be an evening public Mass from 7.30pm.
Worship began at the church in February 2009 but the parish itself started in 2007, with a weekly mass at St Gregory’s Armenian School at Rouse Hill.
The first piers of the new church went into the ground in October 2013.
The church seats 500 downstairs and about 100 upstairs, where there is also an area for the choir.
Doors can be opened if masses spill outside.
The building was designed with the help of a church building committee who asked for an iconic, traditional-looking church.
