St Paul’s Bridgewater turns 40 years old
By Josh Low
The Bridgewater-Brighton Parish celebrated the 40th anniversary of St Paul’s Church last month.
Mass was celebrated by former Parish Priest Fr Peter O’Loughlin, who built the church in 1984 at the request of Archbishop Guilford Young. He was joined by current Parish Priest Fr Leo Zenarosa MLCC.
Michael Robottom has been a Bridgewater parishioner since birth, and served on the Building Committee for St Paul’s Church in the 1980’s.
“My grandmother was very involved in the parish right from the start, and probably came to live in the parish over 100 years ago.
“We had no church in Bridgewater apart from the old hall, which was the bookmakers club on a Saturday morning.
“My grandmother and her sister ran the post office at Bridgewater at the time, and they used to go over at 12 noon once the bookmaker left for the races on a Saturday and clean the hall up, sweep up all the tickets and set the altar up for mass the next morning,” he said.
“There was only a main street in Bridgewater back in the day. There was no housing – it was just all farmland.
“When Bridgewater began developing into a housing estate, with a lot of houses being built, I think Archbishop [Guilford] Young at the time saw a need for a church in that area,” he explained.
“The biggest majority of parishioners when I was growing up were farmers or people that were on the land. They’d come from Broadmarsh, Bagdad, all around. It was all farming.
“And even where Bridgewater’s built now, all the houses sit on what were two sheep farms.”
Being present for the 40th anniversary celebration of the building of St Paul’s Church was a beautiful moment for Michael.
“I’ve got great memories – I can think of all the good parishioners that have come and are no longer with us. It was our parish. I grew up in it, was part of it and I’ve always been very involved with it,” he said.
Parish Priest Fr Leo Zenarosa MLCC expressed his gratitude for the many blessings the Lord has bestowed on the community in Bridgewater thanks to the existence of St Paul’s Church.
“We want to thank God for the many graces being given to the church, to the parish of Bridgewater-Brighton, through this humble church of St Paul’s.
“We treasure what was built up by Fr Peter – We are benefitting from his effort, talent and especially his prayers and his humble disposition in building the church.
“I believe God really used him to become the instrument in building the church… in the heart of the Bridgewater area.
“Since Fr Peter is still strong and alive and kicking, we wanted to express our appreciation to him for his work.
Fr Leo added that he hoped the church would continue to be a sign of hope and of the presence of God.
“God is using this church, using me, using all the community of Bridgewater-Brighton to welcome people, to gather people, especially from the Bridgewater area, and be a sign of God’s presence in the world.
“Our congregation is little by little doing small things every day, every year, in the hope that we bring the face of Christ to all.”