A Message from Fr Brian
You are Welcome!
Welcome to Our Lady of the Rosary parish, The Entrance. Our parish has its' origins back in the 1860's when Mass was first celebrated at Long Jetty. The area was a popular tourist and camping holiday spot on the southern shores of Tuggerah Lake where the lake and the Pacific Ocean meet.
Today The Entrance and its surroundings is one of the premium holiday spots on the Central Coast and is the home of some 10,000 Catholic families.
Since its inception in 1947 the parish has grown and today boasts one of the most beautiful and prayerful Churches in our Diocese. Substantially designed by Fr Reg Reynolds, the parish church caters for the permanent Catholic population as well as the many visitors who holiday here.
The Parish Centre is a more recent addition which houses a multi purpose function centre and offices to deal with parish business and the administration of the parish properties. A feature of the parish centre is the unique formed and stained glass shrine of Our Lady of The Entrance, a beautiful image of Our Lady of the Rosary casting her mantle over the dominant geography of our area - the Pacific Ocean and Tuggerah Lake.
The rise in population has seen the need to relocate the Primary School, which was originally behind the Church. Today, a modern K-6 Catholic Primary School is on a new site on Shelly Beach Road. The old school buildings have been redeveloped as a cultural/education centre to serve the parish.
For Visitors
A holiday should bring refreshment to body and soul. The Catholic people of The Entrance feel that you should be offered a tranquil atmosphere for Sunday Mass and for your quiet conversation with God as you visit his church; for “this is the house of God and the gate of heaven”.
A direction has been given that “The church edifice today is intended for the people of our times. Hence it must be fashioned in such a way that the people of our times may recognise and feel that it is addressed to them”.
“The most significant and most worthy needs of modern mankind here find their fulfilment; the urge toward community life, the desire for what is true and genuine, the wish to advance from what is peripheral to what is central and essential, the demand for clarity, lucidity, intelligibility, the longing for quiet and peace, for a sense of warmth and security”.
We hope that you find all these things and God’s abiding Presence as you enter to offer your prayer to him, whatever religion you may be.