I promise that we will get past the introductory stuff and onto the main players soon but it would not be proper to start without saying grace!
Father Leonard:
Good afternoon everybody. Just before I say grace, the sons have been kind enough to suggest to me if I wanted to say something, this might be the opportunity, because there's quite a number of speeches later this afternoon. And I would simply like to say that I am, oddly enough, only the second parish priest of St Thomas Moore's, my predecessor having been Father Bill Hall, and Bill Durack and Durack and Brammer, have been responsible for the planning of most of the buildings in the parish of which it is my current privilege to be the pastor.
And not only has Bill Durack been a very good architect, but he's always been a perfect gentleman. Oddly enough, the way the presbytery is designed, until the present church was built, the official front door was hardly ever used. And just offhand, the only people (because people came to the side and rang the doorbell there, because the old church, now the hall, was in another place). But the only people that I can recall who consistently used the official front door, were Mr Bill Durack, whenever he came, and the Aboriginal people that came looking for a handout. Everybody else seemed to come to the side.
But however it has been for me personally a very great pleasure to have this association over so many years with Bill and with Noni. I have always considered them not only business associates, but very, very close personal friends, and it's also been a pleasure for me to be associated with quite a number of the members of their family. So I thank them for that; I thank them for the kind of people they have been, for the witness that they have given in the parish and the support they have always given to myself and to the priests. And I think on that note, I will begin the meal with saying grace:
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, we thank you for Bill and Noni Durack and the kind of people they have been, for their family. We thank you for all of those who are present to honour them here today, and we ask you to bless this meal which we are about to share. And we make this prayer through Christ our Lord, Amen.
(SOUNDS OF MERRY CONVERSATION, CLINKING OF CUTLERY)
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