St Mary’s Parish Concord was founded in 1870 although a church was first established on the site in 1845. As part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, in the State of New South Wales, Australia, the parish includes parts of the suburbs of Concord, Burwood, Strathfield, North Strathfield and Canada Bay. Concord parish has common boundaries with the parishes of Five Dock, Mortlake, Concord West, Homebush, Strathfield, Enfield and Croydon.
St Mary’s Primary School is located on the parish site and is an important part of the community. A primary school has been part of the parish since the late 1840s and for over one hundred years the school was conducted by the Sisters of Charity. Southern Cross Catholic College at Burwood is also part of St Mary’s parish.
The parish operates St Mary’s Villa, a residential aged care facility, that opened in 1985 and was relocated to it present position on the parish site in 2010. The parish also provides pastoral care for other private nursing homes in the local area and for Strathfield Private Hospital. Parish special ministers of Communion take Communion each week to the Catholic residents in the various residential aged care facilities and to parishioners in their homes who are too frail to join us on Sundays.
Parish catechists go each week to Concord State Primary school to teach the Catholic children and a team of volunteers lead a Children’s Liturgy of the Word on Sunday mornings. There is an active team assisting with the various preparation programmes for parents presenting children for the sacraments and others are working with adult candidates for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). Other parish groups include the St Vincent de Paul Society and an Italian prayer group. The Passionist Family Group Movement has four active groups in the parish.
St Mary’s Parish Concord acknowledges the Wangal clan of the Eora nation, the traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect to elders, past, present and future. We extend this respect to all Aboriginal people living in or visiting this parish.
