Union of Navelim - Sydney - 2005 Feast

From Mona Dias
The Feast of Our Lady of Rosary was celebrated by the Union of Navelim and their guests at the St. Margaret Mary Church hall in Sydney on 20 Nov 05. After the beautiful prayer service which included the recitation of the Rosary, the guests of about 250 were entertained by the Band, Night Shift. As expected the crowd enjoyed the foot tapping music provided by them and the children were kept amused with games and special gifts. Thanks to our Donors and contributions from Committee members, there were over 50 prizes in the Raffle, and the buffet style lunch included mouth-watering dishes. As, was the case last year, the sale of Christmas sweets, prepared by the lady members of the Committee, went down a treat. In his address, the President, Agnelo Vaz reminded the guests that the twin reasons for the function, were namely honouring Our Lady of Rosary, the patron Saint of Navelim and assisting the various charities in Goa. These charities, which featured on the walls of the hall, rely on contributions like ours to carry on their work. He also expressed his good wishes to our counterparts in Toronto (30 years), Middle East and London (25 years). A special mention was made of current members Joe Gomes, Alex Mendonca and Cass Dias who were not only founding members of our Union in Sydney, but also in London. The success of this occasion is the combined effort of our Union of Navelim members, who meet several times during the year, and is acknowledged by most of our attendees or patrons.